The best streaming devices for 2024

Learn our full Google TV streamer review

Google replaced 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 worth is $100, which is double the value 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 bother. The Apple TV 4K continues to be the quickest of the streamers I’ve tried, however I don’t suppose 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 embody Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos together with spatial audio for those who’re carrying the Pixel Buds Professional.

The distant is compact and streamlined; the D-pad handles navigation, play, pause and rewind. In fact there’s additionally a again button (as you’d discover on any good Android gadget). And for those who ever lose the pill-shaped distant, you may 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 employ it to arrange your gadget, however you can even use the streamer to view a slideout residence panel in your TV display screen (that appears lots just like the Favorites tab within the app). The panel helps you to management your appropriate good residence gadgets so you may set temperatures, flip off lights, view feeds and so forth. You possibly can even accomplish that when you’re watching one thing for those who program the star button on the distant to tug up the Residence panel.

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

In fact, no huge 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 evaluation summaries for titles. It’ll additionally generate screensaver pictures based mostly in your prompts. These are fantastic and all, although in all probability not worth it. The actual motive 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 for those who’re somebody who makes use of Google Residence in your good residence management, you’ll get much more out of this gadget.

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

Imagine it or not, the streaming world has sufficient free content material to maintain even probably the most voracious watchers entertained — and the Roku Streaming Stick 4K might be one of the simplest ways to entry it. Roku’s interface is uncluttered, with a easy record on the left and an app grid on the best. Two of these record objects, Reside TV and Featured Free, are full of free content material, each on linear channels and video-on-demand (VOD) companies. The Roku Channel app provides 1000’s extra collection, movies, Roku Originals and reside channels to observe with out subscribing to a dang factor.

Roku makes seven totally 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 worth and options. It hides behind your TV, helps 4K, HDR10+ and Dolby Imaginative and prescient and has an extended vary Wi-Fi. In case you don’t want the longer vary or Dolby Imaginative and prescient, and don’t thoughts a barely bulkier gadget, it can save you $10 and get the Roku Express 4K+. Each gamers help Apple AirPlay 2 and may management your set’s energy and quantity.

I discovered the common search operate to be correct when searching 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 options for extra basic searches, like “police procedural exhibits” 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 instances between apps. The distant has a pleasant structure with a big again button and the amount rocker on the facet. The useful 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 worth is of the utmost significance and also you don’t want 4K, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick Lite is an honest various. At $30, it’s one of many least expensive streaming sticks in the marketplace and it’s additionally continuously discounted, too. It helps FHD streaming with HDR and, similar 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 huge a deal, particularly if it helps prevent a couple of dollars. Compared, the usual Fire TV Stick sometimes retails for $40, whereas the Fire TV Stick 4K prices $50.

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

Regardless of its low worth, the Fireplace TV Stick Lite is an honest streaming dongle. It comes with the up to date Fireplace TV interface that provides options resembling person profiles, a brand new predominant menu navigation bar with present suggestions, plus a scrolling record of your favourite streaming apps. The structure isn’t as unified as Google TV’s and is extra sophisticated than Roku’s, but it surely’s nonetheless straightforward sufficient to determine. That mentioned, the interface prioritizes Amazon Prime Video content material, and there are much more advertisements than on different streaming platforms. — Nicole Lee, Senior Editor

In case you do need the flexibility to regulate your TV with the distant and are additionally searching for one thing that helps improved image high quality, you could wish to improve to one of many extra superior Fireplace TV Sticks. At $60 (and sometimes on sale for $45) the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max not solely handles Dolby Imaginative and prescient, Dolby Atmos, 4K and HDR10+, but it surely additionally helps Wi-Fi 6E. Meaning when you’ve got a router that additionally carries the protocol, you can see higher and sooner connectivity. The 4K Max has the quickest processor of any Fireplace TV Stick, and we discovered it a lot 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 need) in your TV, giving any display screen the look of one thing like Samsung’s The Frame. — A.S.

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

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

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

The Roku Ultra has the identical options of the Streaming Stick after which some. There’s a wide array of content material, a easy person interface and help for 4K HDR streaming, AirPlay2 and voice instructions. On prime of that, the Extremely provides Dolby Imaginative and prescient help 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 includes a distant finder in case you lose it in between your sofa cushions. The Extremely is unquestionably probably the most succesful Roku gadget in the marketplace, however you’ll must 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 referred to as it “the best streaming box by a long shot.” By way of image high quality, velocity, longevity and Apple-engineered extras, that continues to be 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, wonderful.

The A15 Bionic chip inside permits near-instantaneous loading of and switching between apps. Zooming from the start of an episode to the top or wherever in between just isn’t solely fast, but in addition fairly straightforward to do when you get the cling 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 must be an Apple devotee to understand the streaming field, however having an iPhone makes setup simpler, letting you maintain your cellphone close to the gadget to switch credentials. In case you use the Health+ app with an Apple Watch, not solely are you able to watch exercises on an enormous display screen, you’ll see reside coronary heart price stats splashed within the nook as effectively. The app library is intensive, overlaying all the hottest streaming companies, plus numerous Apple Arcade and different video games. The distant’s Siri button helps you to simply seek for stuff to observe with voice instructions, and sometimes will get you to the best app instantly. I discovered it almost nearly as good as different gadgets in suggesting content material for extra basic queries like “sci-fi house films.”

In case you had been ready for the “however,” right here it’s: the Apple TV 4K is pricey. 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 residence hub, a requirement for sure good residence gadgets. Additionally, for those who’re searching for a lot of free channels and reside programming with an all-in-one residence web page to unify your disparate streaming subscriptions, this isn’t fairly it.

The Apple TV app incorporates not too long ago 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 flicks. And don’t anticipate to see a lot in the best way of Netflix content material within the app both. Probably attributable to a continuing grudge match between the 2 corporations, Siri even has bother discovering Netflix exhibits in any respect — looking for Lupin solely got here again with outcomes from the anime franchise and after I requested for All of the Gentle We Can not See, the AI turned off my good lights. Lastly, this premium streaming gadget 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, but it surely did trigger me to fling grownup phrases in Cupertino’s basic route. — 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 gadget that permits you to stream films, run a PLEX media server and play video games, think about NVIDIA’s Shield TV Pro. It at present runs Android TV, which is slightly outdated at this level, however there’s a risk that it could possibly be upgraded to Google TV sooner or later.

Due to its succesful Tegra X1+ processor, the NVIDIA Protect TV Professional can stream in native 4K and it could 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 utilize it to play most video games from the Google Play Retailer.

The principle motive 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 may have a comparatively speedy web connection, you may 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

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

Thankfully, that’s not the case with the Xbox Collection X. On prime of that, the Xbox Collection X (and S) additionally help Dolby Imaginative and prescient for streaming video, which is particularly nice for folks with newer TVs. In fact, the Xbox can also be a fairly nice gaming machine, and it affords entry to Recreation Move, Microsoft’s subscription service that has a big library of titles. —N.L.

Our funds decide from Amazon doesn’t will let you management your TV with the distant, nor does it help 4K picture high quality or Dolby Atmos. Amazon’s higher-end not solely handles Dolby Imaginative and prescient, Dolby Atmos, 4K and HDR10+, but it surely 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 screen is idle, like on . It additionally lets Xbox Recreation Move 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 an honest quantity of utility from a $60 gadget (that’s typically on sale for round $45).

That mentioned, 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.