Fire TV Cube vs Roku Ultra

Streaming device has been a trend in the last several years along with so many streaming services appearing in the market. You can pick starting from an affordable with entry-level speed and capabilities to those that offer additional useful features priced at higher-end point. Two currently popular streaming devices are Fire TV Cube vs Roku Ultra. These two are packed with similar capabilities yet also have some differences. If you are confused about which to choose, go check our article below.

In this article, we are going to give you information about:
– What are Fire TV Cube and Roku Ultra
– What Fire TV Cube and Roku Ultra Look Like
– What Fire TV Cube and Roku Ultra can offer to you
– Fire TV Cube vs Roku Ultra

About Fire TV Cube
Among those many options in the streaming device market, each companies keep releasing a better version of their older model to catch up with the customer’s demands and along with the improvement in technology, things got even better. This is probably the best way to describe the Amazon’s Fire TV Cube because this one is simply that enchanting and seen as the blueprint of the future. What makes it special is now you don’t have to press any remote to control your TV.

Fire TV Cube Design
The device is still very fresh since it is released only a few months ago. Just like the name, this streaming device is coming in a cube physical form and indeed looks very modern. Taken from CNET, the unit is having a few buttons on top of its glossy black body and it is consisting of volume control, mute, and activate button. It is small enough to sit comfortably in your TV desk measuring at 3.9 inches wide and 3 inches tall. Despite being command over voice command, Fire TV Cube also has a remote.

Fire TV Cube Features
As it has been mentioned earlier, the voice command is the greatest selling point of this device and together with the remote, you will still find a way when feeling frustrated with Alexa. It is equipped with an eight far-field microphones, so the Fire TV Cube should be able to catch your voice even from a bit far range. To let you know whether Alexa is listening to you or not, there is blue LED on top of the device near the aforementioned controls.

In term of performance, Fire TV Cube is successfully becoming a hard to defeat and a tough competitor in the market with its capability to play that 4K Ultra HD content at 60fps together with HDR support and Dolby Atmos which is surely loved by many audiophiles who look to immerse themselves in a movie or TV show’s soundtrack. All of those plus parts are supported by the Quad Core ARM Cortex-A53 1.5GHz CPU, Mali-450 MP3 GPU, and Amlogic S905Z SoC to offer that clear stunning images and faster load.

On the content side, after you are done setting up now is the time to see what it can offer. Fortunately, there is a fairly deep aquifer here since you can find almost all popular services like Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Starz, Crackle, and PlayStation Vue together with CW, NFL Network, AMC, and other smaller services. What’s missing here are YouTube and iTunes but it may be not a great deal since they are not an absolute essential here if you are already a Prime subscriber.

About Roku Ultra
Fire TV Cube is indeed a great device but it doesn’t mean you can’t get another similar device with also similar capabilities because if you want, you can get another powerful streamer with a more affordable price from Roku with their Roku Ultra. This unit is last upgraded in 2017 to fix some issues from the last model as well as removing one important audio output. It is undeniably one of the company’s top-line streamer with the capability of playing 4K and support HDR. Read also: Roku 4 vs Roku Express here.

Roku Ultra Design
If you ever used the older model, Roku Ultra 2017 version is still coming in the same form factor measuring in 5-inch covered in that familiar black box with the name on top. What makes the unit different from its former model is the small black button which is used to find your remote because when pressed, your remote will emit a sound, so you can locate them easier. What’s removed here is the optical audio port, so it may not that interesting anymore for audiophiles.

Roku Ultra Features
What’s great from any Roku streamer devices is because it has Roku platform which is known to be lightweight, simple, so it can give a faster operation than fully loaded other interfaces. After setting up the device, you can see the offering in your TV covering almost all of the big names in movies, music, and TV shows. Here you can access Amazon, Netflix, Crunchyroll, DirecTV, Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, YouTube, Google Play & music, and Vudu. The only miss is iTunes which is kept only for those Apple TV users.

Roku Ultra is a great companion for those with 4K TV and it is sharing so much similarity as well as capabilities with Roku Stick+. This device is supporting high dynamic range content with its HDR10 standard. This technology increase the range of brightness and color in each pixel, so the result will be a stunning. However, the HDR10 is not the only one that needed to stream in HDR standard since the Dolby Vision is still not supported by the device.

Beside the media playback, Roku Ultra is also very quick and responsive of course depend on your connectivity. When tested, it can go through the menu and navigates between apps in within a few seconds.

Comparison
Now, let’s compare Fire TV Cube with Roku Ultra. As you may already know, Fire TV Cube is operated mostly with voice command while you may also use Ultra with voice command but only through the remote or via smartphone with their free app. Another prominent difference is you can access YouTube from Ultra while the other is not offering the service. For better experience, Cube already offers Dolby Atmos audio which is currently not present in Ultra.

Fire TV Cube vs Roku Ultra

- Using the built-in speaker in Fire TV Cube, ask Alexa to check the weather, control compatible smart home devices, and more—even with the TV off. Fire TV Cube is always getting smarter with new Alexa skills.
- Experience true-to-life picture quality and sound with access to vivid 4K Ultra HD, HDR, and Dolby Atmos.
- Access 500,000+ movies and TV episodes from popular channels and apps including Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, HBO, SHOWTIME, NBC, and more.
- Navigate websites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit with Silk and Firefox browsers.
- Amazon Prime members get unlimited access to thousands of movies and TV episodes, plus ad-free listening to millions of songs with Prime Music.
- The next-generation Roku Ultra is our most powerful player, with a quad-core processor and our best wireless performance
- A great choice for avid streamers and users of cable replacement services such as DirecTV NOW, Sling TV, and more
- Whether your TV is 4K or HD, Roku Ultra will optimize your content for the best picture resolution possible
- Experience the visual rush of crisp details and rich HDR color
- Plus, enjoy 500,000 Plus movies and TV episodes, including blockbusters, award-winning original series, kids’ shows, live network TV, and more-across thousands of free or paid channels like Netflix, Amazon Video, HBO NOW, and PBS KIDS

Conclusion
All in all, the decision is all yours to make. In our opinion, both of them are good streamer depend on your preference. However, if you don’t mind about the lacking of YouTube and are willing to spend more, we will highly recommend you Amazon’s Fire TV Cubes because it has more modern features as well as better voice command.

Leave a Comment