Anika Begay
When my husband and I swapped out our Vizio OLED for Roku’s Pro Series QLED and turned it on, we were both blown away. My two kids (7 and 9) were also mesmerized when they turned it on Steven Universe. “Why does it seem so much Better now?” asked my daughter.
The difference between OLED and QLED is palpable (as you can also read in our How to Buy a TV guide). OLED is beautiful, but it lends itself to truly black blacks; it’s best if you’re watching movies or playing games in an optimized, dark, home theater-like environment. A QLED is simply… brighter. That makes a huge difference when you’re a 7- and 9-year-old, watching cartoons while you jump on the couch and wait for dinner, or when you’re a mom trying to watch some Copa America on the couch with her dog while she works.
This is the first of Roku’s in-house built TVs (Roku TVs before last year were made by other companies, just with a Roku brain). My colleague Parker Hall tested the entry-level Roku TV, the Plus Series, and was very impressed. For the past month, my family and I have been testing the updated Roku Pro Series, and we’ve been thrilled.
Easy to use
Aside from specs and performance, one of the main reasons why you buy a Roku Nothing It’s because it’s easy to use. I really liked my Vizio OLED and accepted that every time I turned it on, I’d have to spend five minutes adjusting the Vizio Smart interface and fiddling with cables if I wanted to play on my gaming PC.
Photography: Adrienne So
I breathed a deep sigh of relief when I connected my Sonos soundbar, PS5, and gaming PC to the Roku TV and saw everything… pop up in the Roku interface. (It has two HDMI 2.1 ports, HDMI eARC, USB-A, USB-C, and cable inputs.)
Although you Candies set it up, I just placed it on our console table with the two included feet and it fits easily. Adding all your apps (Netflix, Disney+, Fubo) takes about the same amount of time as clicking the Add Channels button and logging into your computer, which is basically zero time unless you forgot your login information.
Having an easy to use interface also makes it much easier to figure out other things to watch. Vizio’s interface was so cluttered that my kids often went straight to Steven Universe. On Roku, the CuriosityStream and PBS Kids cards are so easy to find that I ended up watching more educational content just for, well, curiosity. It was an unexpected gift in the summer, when all the neighborhood kids end up watching TV in our air-conditioned house.
