Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The 2019 Roku Ultra was a huge step up from our six year old Roku 3. Set-up is super easy simply by following the clear Quick Start Guide and then the on-screen prompts. If you have had Rokus in the past, all of your existing apps will download as part of setup. Unfortunately, you will also get a bunch of other apps in the process too. You will have to delete these one by one. You will also have to re-sign in to each of your subscription services. This is tedious, but I suppose it's necessary for security reasons. In operation, boot-up, navigation and app loading were all faster than on our old Roku. Voice search and the ability to control basic TV functions from the remote are nice conveniences. A new feature that I particularly like is the presence of two programmable buttons on the remote. These can be set up to perform any function that can be done with voice search. I programmed ours to launch the two apps we use the most. I have one major complaint about the remote, though. The mute button is placed on the side of the remote at a point where my hand naturally wraps around. [See photo] I found it almost impossible to pick up or hold the remote without inadvertently muting my TV sound. At first I thought this was due to having small hands, but my husband, whose hands are considerably bigger than mine, experienced the same problem. I ended up retrofitting the remote by fitting a square of thick interfacing leftover from a craft project around the button and securing it with duct tape. [See other photo] Not pretty, but it has prevented accidental muting while still giving access to the button with the press of a pinkie finger. I dinged my rating by one star because of the mute issues. Otherwise, this device is a full-on winner, and highly recommended, especially to streaming viewers who, like me, want an Ethernet connected device for optimal performance.