If you're not a fan of talking into a remote, though, it's nowhere near as snappy as the new Chromecast. It still has a voice search button that makes navigation much easier if you don't feel like doing it the old way. The remote, by the way, is also totally unchanged. It's nice that everything is in the same spot every time you boot it up (unlike algorithmic interfaces on other devices), but navigating around the menu is mildly slow. Maybe this is an overreaction to the excellent UI on the recent Chromecast with Google TV, but Roku's menus just feel a tad bit sluggish these days. Unfortunately, it's showing its age a little bit. It's a perfectly reasonable UI that millions of people are already intimately familiar with, so why change it? Once I linked my Roku account, it even arranged my apps to how I had them on the Soundbar. The Roku Streambar has the exact same user interface as the Soundbar and other Roku devices. The Bad: Outdated UI, minor bugs, no Ethernet port The same can't exactly be said for user experience. If there are any measurable differences in streaming quality between the Streambar and Soundbar, I didn't see them. Unfortunately, we're still waiting on some big-name streaming apps to support it.
ROKU SOUNDBAR TV
HDR also does a nice job of enhancing black and white areas of the screen, if you have a TV that can utilize it. I watched a Major League Baseball playoff game on the Streambar that looked as sharp and ran as smoothly as it would have on the older Soundbar. The Streambar, much like its older brother, is a 4K- and HDR-compatible streamer that can display video at up to 60 frames per second in compatible apps. Roku didn't reinvent the wheel when it came to streaming capabilities here. I just don't think most people who are in the market for a cheap audio supplement will notice.
ROKU SOUNDBAR DRIVERS
The Soundbar contains more drivers because it's larger, so it's not hard to imagine it having a fuller overall sound.
ROKU SOUNDBAR BLUETOOTH
Just like the Soundbar, it doubles as a solid Bluetooth speaker for music and podcasts, too.Īgain, I say all this with the caveat that the Streambar's sound output might very well suffer in situations other than my own. Roku brought back features like the "Night" volume setting, which lessens the impact of big noises in case you don't want to wake your neighbors while playing Call of Duty. Bass still kicks in pretty hard for something that small, while more subtle aspects of audio (like quiet dialogue) come through more clearly than they would through crappy TV speakers. I don't live in a big enough apartment to accurately judge if there's a noticeable drop-off from the Soundbar to the Streambar in more spacious environments, but I couldn't really tell the difference in my testing. Thankfully, the reduction in size hasn't obliterated the nice sound quality that made last year's Smart Soundbar a worthy investment. The Roku Streambar seems tailor-made for those physical conditions where an average-sized soundbar wouldn't fit. Maybe, for example, you're the kind of person who keeps a TV on a dresser instead of a traditional entertainment center. Soundbars can be a godsend since modern TVs are too thin to have good speakers, but they can also be just a little too big for bedrooms or smaller living rooms. But the main difference here is one of size: The Streambar is about 14 inches wide as compared to the Soundbar's 32 inches. Both devices connect to a TV via an HDMI ARC port or a combination of regular HDMI and optical ports. This is not a bad thing, as the Smart Soundbar is largely very good at killing two birds (i.e., 4K/HDR streaming and enhanced audio) with one stone. The Good: Impressive sound, fits anywhereĪs someone who has used a Roku Smart Soundbar on a daily basis for most of the past year, I feel uniquely qualified to say that the Streambar is almost exactly the same thing in a smaller form factor.
So did this serious level of shrinkage ruin Roku's year-old Soundbar triumph, or is it further proof that size doesn't matter? Let's find out. Nearly identical to its predecessor as a hybrid speaker/streamer, the new Streambar is significantly smaller, making it more friendly to a wider variety of home entertainment centers. The $129.99 Roku Streambar is as easy to sum up as any device can be: Imagine the Roku Smart Soundbar, but in less than half the size. And it might have just got shown up by its smaller, cheaper Streambar sibling.
ROKU SOUNDBAR SOFTWARE
The Roku Smart Soundbar was one of our favorite new devices of 2019, thanks to a novel combination of the company's reliable streaming software and quality sound output.
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