The best streaming devices for 2024

Learn our full Google TV streamer evaluate

Google changed the Chromecast product line with the discharge of the Google TV Streamer in September of 2024. There’s no HD mannequin, solely 4K this time round and the going value is $100, which is double the worth of the newest 4K Chromecast. As an alternative of a dongle that hides behind your TV, it’s now a set-top wedge.

Inside, there’s a sooner processor, which saved up with my scattered testing strategies — opening and shutting apps then reloading them instantly — with no hassle. The Apple TV 4K continues to be the quickest of the streamers I’ve tried, however I don’t assume the velocity right here will disappoint most individuals. The storage has jumped as much as 32GB from a skimpy 8GB on the Chromecast and the reminiscence is doubled at 4GB. It helps as much as 4K/60fps video with HDR, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Imaginative and prescient. Audio codecs embrace Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos together with spatial audio in case you’re carrying the Pixel Buds Professional.

The distant is compact and streamlined; the D-pad handles navigation, play, pause and rewind. After all there’s additionally a again button (as you’d discover on any good Android machine). And in case you ever lose the pill-shaped distant, you possibly can push a button on the again of the set-top wedge to make it ring.

Google has made its Residence app an integral a part of the streamer. Not solely will you utilize it to arrange your machine, however you too can use the streamer to view a slideout dwelling panel in your TV display (that appears loads just like the Favorites tab within the app). The panel enables you to management your appropriate good dwelling gadgets so you possibly can set temperatures, flip off lights, view feeds and so forth. You may even accomplish that when you’re watching one thing in case you program the star button on the distant to drag up the Residence panel.

What actually makes the Google TV Streamer the very best for all-in-one steaming is the interface. It’s principally the identical as what you may discover on any TV set or display that comes with Google TV in-built. I discover Google’s presentation to be the very best at pulling collectively content material from completely different streaming apps into one helpful and intuitive menu. It’ll observe what you’ve been watching throughout completely different platforms so you possibly can simply dive again in, and the suggestions are pulled pretty equitably from throughout your subscribed companies.

After all, no massive tech firm can launch a product in 2024 with out some AI contrivance and it comes right here within the type of computer-generated plot and viewers evaluate summaries for titles. It’ll additionally generate screensaver photos primarily based in your prompts. These are tremendous and all, although in all probability not value it. The true purpose to go for the Google TV Streamer is the useful interface mixed with efficiency that’s sooner than a lot of the sticks in the marketplace. And in case you’re somebody who makes use of Google Residence on your good dwelling management, you’ll get much more out of this machine.

Working system: Roku OS | Distant: Sure | Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Show: No | Voice management: Sure

Consider it or not, the streaming world has sufficient free content material to maintain even essentially the most voracious watchers entertained — and the Roku Streaming Stick 4K might be the easiest way to entry it. Roku’s interface is uncluttered, with a easy record on the left and an app grid on the suitable. Two of these record objects, Stay TV and Featured Free, are filled with free content material, each on linear channels and video-on-demand (VOD) companies. The Roku Channel app provides hundreds extra collection, movies, Roku Originals and dwell channels to observe with out subscribing to a dang factor.

Roku makes seven completely different streaming gadgets, together with sticks, set-top bins and some Streambars — all will get you that free content material. The $50 Streaming Stick 4K is the very best mixture of value and options. It hides behind your TV, helps 4K, HDR10+ and Dolby Imaginative and prescient and has an extended vary Wi-Fi. When you don’t want the longer vary or Dolby Imaginative and prescient, and don’t thoughts a barely bulkier machine, it can save you $10 and get the Roku Specific 4K+. Each gamers assist Apple AirPlay 2 and may management your set’s energy and quantity.

I discovered the common search operate to be correct when on the lookout for particular titles; pushing the Voice button and saying “Poker Face” brings up outcomes for the Peacock present, the Russell Crowe film and a poker documentary from a free channel. Saying “Succession” will get you the present from Max in addition to listings for different collection and movies with “success” within the title. It was fairly good at discovering solutions for extra basic searches, like “police procedural reveals” and “Idris Elba,” although it had points with suggestions for teenagers films (not sufficient Disney+ outcomes, for my part).

Navigation is speedy with minimal load occasions between apps. The distant has a pleasant format with a big again button and the quantity rocker on the facet. The helpful Immediate Replay button jumps again 10 to twenty seconds and may even present subtitles for the replayed portion, if the app helps it. The one factor I didn’t love was the What to Watch menu, which was overwhelmingly populated with free content material and had a minimal quantity of titles sprinkled in from my paid apps. However since free content material is the place Roku actually shines, I can’t be too miffed. — A.S. 

Working system: Fireplace TV OS | Distant: Sure | Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Show: No | Voice management: Sure

If value is of the utmost significance and also you don’t want 4K, Amazon’s Fireplace TV Stick Lite is a good various. At $30, it’s one of many least expensive streaming sticks in the marketplace and it’s additionally ceaselessly discounted, too. It helps FHD streaming with HDR and, identical to its higher-end siblings, comes with an Alexa voice distant.

One of many causes that is thought of “Lite” is that this explicit Fireplace TV Stick can’t management your TV; you continue to have to make use of your tv distant to energy it on and off or to regulate its quantity. That’s not that massive a deal, particularly if it helps prevent a couple of bucks. As compared, the usual Fireplace TV Stick sometimes retails for $40, whereas the Fireplace TV Stick 4K prices $50.

Amazon’s Fireplace TV helps practically all the main streaming companies, together with Netflix, Hulu, Max, YouTube, YouTube TV and Hulu, amongst others. The Stay web page options Twitch out of the field as effectively. Whilst you can’t use Alexa to manage the TV, the Fireplace TV Stick Lite does allow you to use Alexa to seek for reveals and ask basic questions just like the climate forecast or the most recent scores on your favourite sports activities workforce.

Regardless of its low value, the Fireplace TV Stick Lite is a good streaming dongle. It comes with the up to date Fireplace TV interface that provides options akin to consumer profiles, a brand new principal menu navigation bar with present suggestions, plus a scrolling record of your favourite streaming apps. The format isn’t as unified as Google TV’s and is extra difficult than Roku’s, however it’s nonetheless straightforward sufficient to determine. That stated, the interface prioritizes Amazon Prime Video content material, and there are much more adverts than on different streaming platforms. — Nicole Lee, Senior Editor

When you do need the flexibility to manage your TV with the distant and are additionally on the lookout for one thing that helps improved image high quality, chances are you’ll wish to improve to one of many extra superior Fireplace TV Sticks. At $60 (and infrequently on sale for $45) the Amazon Fireplace TV Stick 4K Max not solely handles Dolby Imaginative and prescient, Dolby Atmos, 4K and HDR10+, however it additionally helps Wi-Fi 6E. Which means in case you have a router that additionally carries the protocol, you may see higher and sooner connectivity. The 4K Max has the quickest processor of any Fireplace TV Stick, and we discovered it lots zippy. It’s additionally the one Fireplace TV Stick that helps the brand new Ambient Expertise: when enabled, or after the pause timeout kicks in, the dongle will show artwork (and widgets, if you’d like) in your TV, giving any display the look of one thing like Samsung’s The Body. — A.S.

Working system: Roku OS | Distant: Sure | Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | Show: No | Voice management: No

The Roku Specific has the identical consumer interface because the Streaming Stick+, however it’s housed in a compact set-top field as a substitute. It doesn’t assist 4K or HDR and the distant management lacks a voice command button. But when all you need is a succesful HD streaming machine, the Specific suits the invoice. When you insist on having 4K, nevertheless, think about the Roku Specific 4K+, which retails for $40. It’s similar to the Specific, besides it carries assist for 4K, HDR and AirPlay, and it comes with a voice distant as effectively. That would effectively make it value the additional cash. —N.L.

Working system: Roku OS | Distant: Sure | Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet | Show: No | Voice management: Sure

The Roku Extremely has the identical options of the Streaming Stick after which some. There’s a big selection of content material, a easy consumer interface and assist for 4K HDR streaming, AirPlay2 and voice instructions. On prime of that, the Extremely provides Dolby Imaginative and prescient assist together with HDR 10+, USB connections, a microSD slot for exterior media, and Ethernet connectivity.

The Extremely comes with Roku’s Voice Distant Professional with headphone jack for personal listening and a few programmable shortcut keys that you would be able to map to particular instructions, like “Launch YouTube” or “Play classical music.” Better of all, the Extremely contains a distant finder in case you lose it in between your sofa cushions. The Extremely is certainly essentially the most succesful Roku machine in the marketplace, however you’ll need to pay fairly a bit extra for it. —N.L.

Working system: tvOS | Distant: Sure | Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet (elective) | Show: No | Voice management: Sure

When my colleague Devindra Hardawar reviewed the most recent gen of the Apple TV 4K upon its debut in 2022, he known as it “the very best streaming field by a protracted shot.” By way of image high quality, velocity, longevity and Apple-engineered extras, that is still correct. The set-top field helps 4K Dolby Imaginative and prescient and HDR10+, which makes appropriate content material look, to borrow Devindra’s time period, superb.

The A15 Bionic chip inside allows near-instantaneous loading of and switching between apps. Zooming from the start of an episode to the tip or wherever in between will not be solely fast, but additionally fairly straightforward to do when you get the grasp of the touch-sensitive directional pad on the Siri distant. Apple improved the field {hardware} over the earlier era, too, with a smaller, fan-less design.

You don’t need to be an Apple devotee to understand the streaming field, however having an iPhone makes setup simpler, letting you maintain your telephone close to the machine to switch credentials. When you use the Health+ app with an Apple Watch, not solely are you able to watch exercises on a giant display, you’ll see dwell coronary heart fee stats splashed within the nook as effectively. The app library is in depth, overlaying all the hottest streaming companies, plus numerous Apple Arcade and different video games. The distant’s Siri button enables you to simply seek for stuff to observe with voice instructions, and sometimes will get you to the suitable app instantly. I discovered it practically nearly as good as different gadgets in suggesting content material for extra basic queries like “sci-fi area films.”

When you have been ready for the “however,” right here it’s: the Apple TV 4K is dear. The bottom mannequin is $129, which comes with 32GB of storage. The 128GB mannequin goes for $149 and provides an Ethernet port and acts as a Thread-enabled dwelling hub, a requirement for sure good dwelling gadgets. Additionally, in case you’re on the lookout for numerous free channels and dwell programming with an all-in-one dwelling web page to unify your disparate streaming subscriptions, this isn’t fairly it.

The Apple TV app incorporates just lately watched collection into the Up Subsequent part and your most-used apps seem within the Channels and Apps row. However the homepage is generally a showcase for Apple TV+ collection and films. And don’t anticipate to see a lot in the way in which of Netflix content material within the app both. Presumably as a consequence of a unbroken grudge match between the 2 firms, Siri even has hassle discovering Netflix reveals in any respect — trying to find Lupin solely got here again with outcomes from the anime franchise and once I requested for All of the Gentle We Can not See, the AI turned off my good lights. Lastly, this premium streaming machine doesn’t include the HDMI cable required to hook it as much as your TV. That’s a minor element within the grand scheme of issues, however it did trigger me to fling grownup phrases in Cupertino’s basic course. — A.S.

Working system: Android TV | Distant: Sure | Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, microSD card slot | Show: No | Voice management: Sure

For many who need an all-in-one machine that allows you to stream films, run a PLEX media server and play video games, think about NVIDIA’s Protect TV Professional. It at present runs Android TV, which is somewhat outdated at this level, however there’s a risk that it could possibly be upgraded to Google TV sooner or later.

Because of its succesful Tegra X1+ processor, the NVIDIA Protect TV Professional can stream in native 4K and it could actually additionally upscale 720p and 1080p video to 4K with the corporate’s AI neural community. It additionally helps Dolby Imaginative and prescient and HDR10, has 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and two USB-C ports. Moreover, there’s a gigabit Ethernet port, an HDMI socket and a microSD card slot. Because it runs on Android, you should use it to play most video games from the Google Play Retailer.

The primary purpose you’d select the NVIDIA Protect TV Professional over different machines is that it offers you entry to NVIDIA’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service. So long as you have got a comparatively speedy web connection, you possibly can play top-tier PC video games which might be streamed on-line to your Protect TV Professional. —N.L.

Working system: Xbox OS | Distant: Sure | Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet | Show: No | Voice management: Sure

Though each Sony’s PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Collection X can stream video, it’s the Xbox that we expect is the very best gaming console for the job. It may well play 4K Blu-Rays and helps all the traditional streaming video apps together with Apple TV+ and Disney+. Nonetheless, the PS5 can’t stream Disney+ in 4K or Dolby Atmos, which is disappointing in case you ever wish to watch The Mandalorian in all its cinematic glory.

Happily, that’s not the case with the Xbox Collection X. On prime of that, the Xbox Collection X (and S) additionally assist Dolby Imaginative and prescient for streaming video, which is very nice for individuals with newer TVs. After all, the Xbox can be a fairly nice gaming machine, and it presents entry to Sport Go, Microsoft’s subscription service that has a big library of titles. —N.L.

Our funds decide from Amazon doesn’t assist you to management your TV with the distant, nor does it assist 4K picture high quality or Dolby Atmos. Amazon’s higher-end not solely handles Dolby Imaginative and prescient, Dolby Atmos, 4K and HDR10+, however it additionally helps Wi-Fi 6E. The processor is fairly zippy and it even helps a reasonably nice Ambient Expertise, displaying artwork (and widgets) when the display is idle, like on . It additionally lets Xbox Sport Go Final subscribers by way of the app with out an Xbox Collection X or S console. And Engadget’s Jeff Dunn has gotten quite a lot of use from the stick as a . That’s a good quantity of utility from a $60 machine (that’s usually on sale for round $45).

That stated, Amazon’s Fireplace TV interface is much less elegant (and fewer democratic) than different UIs, extremely prioritizing Prime Video content material. It’s additionally notably ad-stuffed — selling not simply Amazon’s content material, however merchandise as effectively. — A.S.