For years, Roku has been one of the top competitors to Amazon’s Fire TV Sticks. However, the streaming landscape is changing.
Walmart has been steadily growing its presence in the streaming world through its Onn brand, introducing devices such as the Onn Full HD streaming stick, Onn 4K Plus, and Onn 4K Pro. I think it’s fair to say these devices have earned a loyal following for two main reasons: they are affordable and run Google TV, which gives you more control over your streaming experience through custom launchers and apps.
That said, one major gap in Onn’s lineup has always been a 4K streaming stick that more closely competes with the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus and 4K Max, since the Onn HD stick is limited to 1080p and the Onn 4K Plus and Onn 4K Pro are both set-top boxes. Fortunately, it appears Onn might be about to solve this issue.
- Brand
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Amazon
- Resolution
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4K
- Audio codecs
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Dolby Atmos
Onn’s first-ever 4K streaming stick has leaked
It has similarities to the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus
Images of what could be Onn’s first-ever 4K streaming stick have recently leaked, and if you’ve been waiting for a new 4K streaming device that could replace your Fire Stick, this could be the one.
Android TV Guide shared images of Onn’s upcoming 4K streaming stick on Reddit (as you can see above), along with some possible specs. And so far, it looks very promising.
Starting with the leaked images, Onn’s 4K streaming stick looks a lot like the Onn Full HD stick — and not too different from Amazon’s Fire TV Sticks — so there’s nothing too surprising there. What does stand out, though, is the USB port at the end, which could be USB-C. The current Onn HD stick uses Micro-USB, so switching to USB-C for the 4K stick would make it much easier to connect accessories like an Ethernet adapter.
As for the hardware it could feature, Android TV Guide reports it’s a Realtek RTD1325 with a quad-core 1.7 GHz CPU and an ARM Mali-G57 GPU, which, according to leaked benchmarks, could put it on par with a Fire TV Stick 4K Plus.
…Walmart has previously released new Onn devices in the spring, so an announcement and launch could happen sometime this April or May.
Additionally, this new Onn 4K streaming stick could have 2GB of RAM and 8GB of storage, which Android TV Guide says is because “it needs to stay cheap.” If it does have 2GB of RAM and 8GB of storage, that would once again make it comparable to the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus, but it would fall short of the 16GB of storage on the Fire TV Stick 4K Max.
Of course, there are many unknowns about this new Onn 4K streaming stick as well. Mainly its price, release date, which features it may or may not support (like Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos), and the Wi-Fi standard it uses. In terms of a release date and when we will get answers to these questions, Walmart has previously released new Onn devices in the spring, so an announcement and launch could happen sometime this April or May. As for the price, given that the Onn 4K Plus set-top box costs $40, it’s possible that its 4K streaming stick might cost less, but that’s just speculation on my part.
The new Onn 4K streaming stick isn’t the only Onn device that has leaked recently, either. A new version of the Onn 4K Pro is expected to launch soon as well, and it could feature a design that closely resembles the Google TV Streamer.
Overall, if you’ve been considering replacing your Fire TV Stick or even your Roku with something new, and possibly cheaper, it may be worth waiting to see what this new Onn 4K streaming stick and Onn 4K Pro have in store.
