The leaves are changing color, and sweater weather is upon us, which can mean only one thing: It’s the season of getting cozy on the couch to binge-watch your favorite movies and shows. If you’re still looking for the perfect holiday gift for your friends and loved ones, we highly suggest taking a look at one of the many cool streaming device on the market. While many smart TVs do come with a number of popular streaming services pre-installed, using a standalone streaming device like the Fire TV Stick or Roku can exponentially improve your viewing experience.
We put nearly every streaming device and smart TV system to the test to figure out the best options — including Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV and Google Chromecast. What makes these add-on streaming devices worth your time is the variety of apps available, better search functionality, easy-to-use remotes and more frequent software updates available than what you usually get with a smart TV.
In our round up of the best streaming device gifts for the 2023 holiday season, the Roku Streaming Stick 4K and the Roku Express 4K Plus are pretty much tied in the race for our top overall pick. The Roku Express 4K Plus is usually cheaper than the Streaming Stick 4K, so it’s normally our top Roku pick. But sales prices have fluctuated on both models, so we generally recommend the cheaper of the two.
That said, Roku faces stiff competition from Amazon, Apple and Google, which also have plenty of streaming stick and streaming box devices to offer.