Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Roku Plus Series Review: Roku’s First TV Is Good, But Not Great”.
Roku makes its own television. Now I mean it’s been offering Roku branded TVs for years with Partners like TCL and sharp, but now there’s a Roku TV that is made completely by Roku. It has the same Smart TV system that you’d expect from a Roku plus an upgraded remote which I’ll get to in a bit. But let me start with the features and picture quality. The plus series offers mid-range features and performance with fairly good color accuracy, but it’s not as bright as some of the other TVs in its price range.
I’Ve compared it against a Vizio mqx, an Amazon Fire TV, Omni qled and a TCL 6 series to see how it Stacks up against the competition. Let’S go the plus series Sports, a qled screen with local dimming and Dolby Vision, but, like most inexpensive TVs, has a 60 hertz refresh rate. Meanwhile, the tcl6 series Roku TV comes with both brighter mini, LED technology and a faster 120 hertz display, but it costs more. The Vizio mqx also has a 120 hertz refresh rate, even without the mini LEDs, so it sits sort of in the middle.
In terms of features, I actually had the chance to perform a Hands-On evaluation of two sizes of Roku plus Series TVs and spoiler. Their image quality wasn’t exactly the same. The 55-inch model didn’t look quite as good as the 65 incher, both Roku plus series sizes handled color fairly accurately, but lacked a little brightness and contrast, especially in the 55-inch version, compared to the others. For example, the difference in brightness levels between the Roku plus and the other TVs, especially the tcl6 series, was obvious in my side by side comparison of watching nature videos, the image looked dimmer on the Roku plus compared to the 6 series and even the Vizio mqx. The green of the grass appeared duller on the Roku while it looked more vibrant and colorful on the Vizio objects against a black background, fare better on the 65-inch plus series TV than it did on the 55-inch. The cactus blooms in our 4K HDR test pattern. Were nice and bright on the 65-inch plus TV, while the background maintained its Inky shade of black on the 55 incher, however, black areas appeared uniformly, lighter losing contrast around the edges. This was particularly apparent when watching theatrical content. The 55-inch plus series appeared somewhat washed out during the many dimly lit scenes in the 4K HDR version of Shadow and bone on Netflix. It was more difficult to make out details in a dark tent or to see the full intricacies of the stitching on a black robe.
This changed dramatically when I switched to the 65-inch version. I can more readily make out the texture of the walls in a dimly lit passageway, as well as the spines of books sitting on a shelf in the back round on the 65-inch model, the Roku plus looked much closer to the mqx and the Fire TV Omni. Qled in terms of black levels and while the 65-inch flux series looked redder than either the mqx or the Omni, the overall quality between the three TVs was almost interchangeable. All plus series Roku TVs come with the excellent voice remote Pro. This rechargeable remote features an always-on Midfield mic that listens for your commands. This comes in particularly handy. If you ever manage to lose your clicker just say: hey Roku find my remote and the device will start beeping. It’S nice to see Roku included in the package. Of course, it would have been even nicer if Roku sprung for a few more extras on the TV itself, it’s great that they finally included a way to connect Bluetooth devices directly through the TV, but it’s a feature that it was long overdue. At this point, almost all TVs come with Bluetooth connectivity and it’s frankly, ridiculous how long Roku made its users connect to private listening through their phone app.
I wish that Roku had included 120 hertz display, like the one found on the Vizio mqx. There are very few mid-price TVs that can take full advantage of the capabilities of the latest consoles and the mqx is one of them. Roku had the opportunity to position the plus series as an affordable gaming television, but instead stuck with the 60hz display, like the one found on the Fire TV on me culet. This Omission makes the plus series a tough sell to those looking to get the most out of their gaming, especially since its price is similar to the mqx. Ultimately, if you’re looking for a quality TV on a budget and don’t care about gaming, the Roku plus series could be an option for you. Otherwise, your best bet is to go with the Vizio mqx and its brighter 120 hertz display. Let me know what you think in the comments and be sure to check out other videos from CNET. Thank you.
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