Roku announces its smallest streaming sticks yet

Roku today introduced refreshed versions of its Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus, with the company describing the devices as “the most compact sticks on the market” and “over 35 percent smaller than other brands.” That’s a curious point to focus on for a product that’s often tucked away behind a TV and forgotten about once plugged in. But if you’ve got multiple HDMI devices hooked up to your TV, I suppose the smaller design could make things easier to manage back there.

The Streaming Stick Plus, which supports 4K playback, costs $39.99, while the regular Streaming Stick is $29.99. Roku says both devices are now efficient enough to be powered by the USB port on most TVs rather than requiring an outlet. Preorders start today, and they’ll be available on May 6th. These new products replace the Roku Express and Roku Express 4K Plus.

During a press event in Manhattan on Wednesday morning, Roku also announced new features for its easy-to-use software including a “Coming Soon to Theaters” row, personalized sports highlights, and more. The company has recently faced blowback from some customers over its advertising practices, which have evolved into full-screen video ads; Roku has even tested ads that begin playing as soon as its devices are switched on. Many people are aware that these inexpensive products are subsidized by those ads, but Roku is teetering on the line of going too far.

Over the last several years, Roku has expanded its hardware ambitions beyond streaming players to include a range of self-branded TVs, smart home gadgets, and more. In news for the latter category, Roku is adding the new Roku Battery Camera and Roku Battery Camera Plus to its portfolio of smart cameras.

The company also still operates its Roku TV program that lets third-party manufacturers build TVs running Roku’s software, and today Roku shared that for the first time, it’s bringing projectors into the fold with “an all-new Roku TV Smart Projector reference design, available to all Roku TV partners.“

At this point, Roku’s main competitor left in the “stick” category is Amazon. The company sells three models — the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, Fire TV Stick 4K, and Fire TV Stick HD — ranging in price from $34.99 to $59.99. (Google switched to a set-top box form factor with last year’s Google TV Streamer.) Aside from its sticks, Roku offers the flagship Roku Ultra player that was last updated back in September.