Roku Express vs Roku Streaming Stick – what’s the difference?

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Roku Express vs Roku Streaming Stick - which one should you buy?
Roku Express vs Roku Streaming Stick – which one should you buy?

Are you looking to buy a Roku? Wondering which Roku is the best Roku for you? In this post, I’ll go over the Roku Express vs the Roku Streaming stick.

If you’re in a hurry (or just curious!) –

Compare the Roku Express vs Roku Streaming Stick on Amazon

I love the Roku, it’s my favorite of all of the ‘streaming sticks’ that are available. Recently, I had to buy another Roku. When I did this, I compared the Roku Express vs Roku Streaming stick to determine which Roku suited my needs best. I’ve written up what I found here so that you can use it for buying your Roku.

What is a Roku?

Let’s start with some basics – what is a Roku? A Roku is a piece of hardware that you can plug into your TV (provided your TV has a HDMI outlet) and use to stream videos to it. There are many streaming sticks available today, the Amazon Fire stick, Google cast are other prominent streaming sticks. The Roku is my favorite of the streaming sticks because it easily allows me to control media from multiple play sources. I can hook it up to Netflix, Amazon video, Hulu, Disney + and more. It’s not restricted to just one streaming media provider. Having multiple different providers available as a media source is amazing.

Roku Express

What is a Roku Express?

The Roku Express is Roku’s entry level streaming media player. This device plugs into your TV and allows you to stream all your favorite media from one location – Hulu, Disney + , Amazon, and more. This device comes with a physical remote that you can use to control media playback. It can also be controlled with a phone app. It can play videos at 1080P HD with Dolby Audio or DTS Digital surround. It does not have voice controlled play back and it cannot control the audio or power of your television. The Roku Express has a single band wireless connection, and it does require an internet connection to work.

Check out my full Roku Express review here.

Roku Streaming Stick

What is a Roku Streaming Stick?

The Roku Streaming Stick is Roku’s mid range streaming media player. This device also plugs into your TV and allows you to stream all your favorite media from one location. This device comes with a physical remote, and can also use the phone app to control media playback. This device can also use voice control through the app or remote to control playback and searching for media. The Roku Streaming Stick remote can also be used to control the power and volume of your TV (provided it has line of sight). This device can play media back in multiple formats – 1080p HD, 4k UHD HRD 10 and more. It has the same audio support as the Roku Express, Dolby Audio, DTS audio, digital stereo over HDMI. The Roku Streaming Stick has a dual band wireless connection – so it’ll have faster internet speeds ( and so faster video star t times ) than the Roku Express.

Check out my full Roku Streaming Stick Review here.

Which is better, Roku Express or Streaming Stick?

So, should you buy a Roku Express, or should you buy a Roku Streaming Stick? The answer is going to depend on what you need. Are you just looking for a media player that can get the job done and don’t need the fancy bells and whistles like volume control, 4k UHD and voice search? Then you should buy a Roku Express.

If you are looking for a single remote to control everything – playback, volume and power then you should get a Roku Streaming Stick. Likewise, if you are looking for 4k UHD support or voice search capability then you should buy a Roku Streaming Stick.

So which one did I end up buying?

I bought another Roku Streaming Stick because I LOVE the volume control on the single remote.