Roku has released the Voice Remote Pro, and it feels like the most significant upgrade to its controllers in years. The look of the Voice Remote Pro of Roku isn’t that different from other company’s remote it keeps the same look, but this $30 remote has bigger things under its hood. The things are like a mid-field mic for voice control and a rechargeable battery. These features are great additions on the paper. The new in-built mic has a remarkable ability. If you have misplaced the remote, you can say, “Hey Roku, find my remote” it will make the clicker beep from wherever it is to make you find it with ease. The only downside is that the Roku remotes chew down the batteries very quickly, but they have fixed that by providing a rechargeable battery. You don’t have to always keep a stash of AAs with you all the time.
But it still not perfect there are issues with executing the voice commands. So, if you have a Roku, you would prefer using voice instead of tapping buttons one after another, especially if you are using Google Assistant or Amazon’s Alexa. Sometimes Roku assistant can be dumbfounded. The Roku remote is undoubtedly an upgrade, but we don’t recommend it as a must-have. We have tested the remote, and here are the good and evil we have found about the Roku remote.
The good: Convenience is key
They are a very simple-to-use device and a straightforward user interface. You don’t have to think very hard or give it a whole lot of time to set up. You have to go to the “Remote and Devices” in settings on your Roku and then follow the instructions as it says on the screen to set up a new device.
The device is pretty simple looking. The front layout consists of the usual array of power, home, and back buttons, and a microphone on the top for the voice assistant with a directional pad and a regular jump back, mic, star, and play/rewind/fast-forward below.
Under that, there are two customizable shortcut keys which are labeled 1 and 2. Which you can configure them to do different tasks like jumping to a specific show, open apps, and switch inputs, whichever you need. In setting it up, you have to give a voice command by pressing in of these keys. Roku is famous for its streaming platform shortcuts which it provides at the bottom of the remote the streaming service are mainly Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, and Sling Tv.
The bad: It’s not intelligent enough
Roku has included some excellent features in their Voice Remote Pro. It has some faults. One of the most apparent minor errors that you can get is micro-USB charging. It has the older default charging slot. In 2021 everything is run on USB-C cables. It’s a bit of a miss, even if they include the cable in the box.
We understand Roku using the micro-USB for its smaller devices because those devices are set to be left alone most of the time; they have plugged in the Tv and are not tempered with. But with remotes a prolonged and regular use for years, a micro-USB doesn’t sound right, especially when its successor is readily available and ready to use and not that expensive. It’s just to convince the people that they should switch. Instead of asking people for an extra piece of cable for years, let them use the cable they have plugged in their switchboards.
But this is not the place where the device let us down. It’s the voice assistant. While the company plays nicely with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri for controlling its OS with this remote, the company relies on its voice assistant. While functional for playing shows, movies, or videos, we found it less reliable and limited than Alexa and Google Assistant.
It also can’t tune to a specific live channel or a service like YouTube or sling tv, and you will find hard to control devices like lights hard to control.
Some Other Observations that we did
- Suppose you ask Roku Tv to play a show or movie like Winter Soldier on Disney Plus. It won’t just open the show right away, even if you have profile setups. You have to say “Hey Roku, ok” to choose the highlighted option or get the streaming going.
- As you can get headphones in the Ultra, there are no headphones included here. It’s not a big issue, but a gift offering would make people happy, just saying.
- This time, the Tv switched on when nothing was said and searched for the Matrix on its own. We didn’t know what happened there.
- There Were some issues with the MLB app by voice. It can often happen that the assistant won’t recognize the commands or will search for unrelated things.
Conclusion:
If you are looking to buy Roku Tv remote, these were the things you need to know. We have given a review after using the remote for few days. Hope you find this helpful information. Thank you for the read.
Visit: roku.com/link
Source:https://selenanormandfreeblogs.wordpress.com/2021/05/25/roku-voice-remote-pro-review/
