Roku Plus Series Review: Roku's First TV Is Good, But Not Great

Speaker 1: 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 [00:00:30] as bright as some of the other TVs in its price range. I've compared it against a VIO mqx, an Amazon Fire TV Omni Q lead, and a TCL six series to see how it stacks up against the competition. Let's go Speaker 1: The plus series Sports Q LED screen with local dimming and Dolby vision. But like most inexpensive TVs has a 60 hertz refresh rate. Meanwhile, the TCL six series [00:01:00] Roku TV comes with both brighter mini L E D technology and a faster 120 hertz display, but it costs more. The Visio Mqx also has 120 hertz refresh rate even without the mini LEDs, so it says 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. [00:01:30] The 55 inch model didn't look quite as good as the 65 inch or 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 TCL six series, was obvious in my side by side comparison of watching nature videos. Speaker 1: The image looked dimmer [00:02:00] on the Roku plus compared to the six series, and even the VIO Mqx the green, the grass appeared dull on the Roku. Well, it looked more vibrant and colorful on the Vizio objects against a black background, far better on the 65 inch plus series TV than it did on the 55 inch. The cactus blooms in our 4K H D R test pattern were nice and bright on the 65 inch plus tv. While the background maintained its [00:02:30] inky shade of black on the 55 inch or 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 [00:03:00] robe. Speaker 1: 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 background. On the 65 inch model, the Roku plus looked much closer to the mqx and the Fire TV Omni Q led in terms of black levels, and while the 65 inch plus series looked redder than either the Mqx or the Omni, the overall quality between the three TVs was almost [00:03:30] 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 managed 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. Speaker 1: Of course, it would've been even nicer if Roku sprung for a few more extras on the TV itself. [00:04:00] It's great that they finally included a way to connect Bluetooth devices directly through the tv, but it's a feature that 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 VIO mqx. There are very few mid-priced TVs that can take full advantage of the capabilities of the latest consoles, [00:04:30] 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 60 hertz display like the one found on the Fire TV on mEq led. 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 [00:05:00] be an option for you. Otherwise, your best bet is to go with the VIO Mqx and it's brighter 120 hertz display.