Roku and Amazon have long dominated the streaming stick market, and for good reason. Both offer a lineup of streaming sticks that are easy to use, feature-rich, and, until recently, relatively affordable.

Affordability is the one thing that’s changed over the past year, as both companies have raised prices on their streaming sticks in response to the ongoing global memory shortage driven by AI, which has sent the cost of components like storage and RAM soaring.

For instance, Amazon’s top-tier Fire TV Stick 4K Max has jumped $25, from $60 to $85, while Roku’s top-tier offering, the Roku Streaming Stick 4K, has increased by $30, from $50 to $80.

While I still think the Fire TV Stick 4K Max offers good value for its features, especially on sale, I can’t say the same for the Roku Streaming Stick 4K, even at a discount.

Roku released the Streaming Stick 4K in October 2021, and it hasn’t been refreshed in the five years since. That makes the $30 price hike sting even more, especially since it lacks features the 4K Max has, and the 4K Max costs only $5 more. It’s truly mind-boggling to me that Roku hasn’t refreshed its best streaming stick in so long, especially since it released its new HD Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus models last year.

It’s high time Roku released a new Streaming Stick 4K, and the bar isn’t particularly high for what it needs to do.

Operating System

Roku OS

Resolution

4K

Ports

HDMI 2.0b, USB for Power & Long-range Wi-Fi receiver

Connectivity

Wi-Fi

The Roku Streaming Stick 4K only needs a few tweaks

The price tag needs to be actually worth it

The Roku Streaming Stick 4K is still a capable streaming stick, but it’s starting to show its age. For one, while it supports Dolby Vision, it doesn’t officially support Dolby Atmos, unlike the Fire TV Stick 4K Max. Dolby Atmos is arguably a must-have for any high-end streaming stick in 2026.

Another area where the Roku Streaming Stick 4K falls behind is Wi-Fi. It has a long-range receiver built into its USB power cable, which is handy, but it only supports Wi-Fi 5. The 4K Max, on the other hand, supports Wi-Fi 6E, which offers faster speeds and lower latency. A new Roku Streaming Stick 4K should make the same leap.

Looking more closely under the hood, the Roku Streaming Stick 4K has just 1GB of RAM. Bumping that up to 2GB, like the 4K Max, along with a newer chipset, would go a long way toward delivering smoother performance.

Roku should also revisit the design, since the Streaming Stick 4K still relies on Micro USB for power. Micro USB is outdated now, and Roku should switch to USB-C on a new model, as it has with its regular HD Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus.

For an $80 streaming stick, I don’t think any of this is asking too much. If anything, it makes Roku’s decision to raise the price of its aging Streaming Stick 4K to $80 even more perplexing, especially since it lacks some of these features while only being $5 cheaper than the Fire TV Stick 4K Max.

Roku’s already got the advantage when it comes to free streaming, thanks to The Roku Channel being deeply integrated with its devices, and a more powerful 4K streaming stick that supports both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos officially, has faster hardware, and Wi-Fi 6E would make its top-tier streaming stick actually feel worth it again. Really, Roku just needs to take a page from Amazon’s playbook, bring its Streaming Stick 4K up to par with the 4K Max, and it’ll have a winner on its hands.

Roku hasn’t said whether it plans to refresh its Streaming Stick 4K soon, but let’s hope it does so sooner rather than later.