For years there have been a number of excellent televisions touted as Roku TVs made my companies like TCL, Hisense, RCA, and many others. But for the first time there will actually be at television made my Roku Roku operating system.
Best Buy is the exclusive home for a number of sets from 28 inches to 65 inches ranging from lasted $200 to around $600.
What makes the new Roku TVs different than others?
The new TVs from Roku will really not be any different in normal operation than Walmart’s brand or TCL and others. At least not at the beginning. From Roku‘s highest-end TVs to its intro models they all have good specs. Having seen one CES I can tell you it had a great picture, it was fast but you would expect that from a $500-$600 television. The company said the reason it wants to have its own television is because as other concepts roll out they want to be able to integrate them and show proof of concept on the road TVs as opposed to getting fired from a third-party company. Whil some analysts believe that it’s just a power story we will have to see how that all plays out.
Starting off though a few cosmetic differences are that the remotes will be better than what you find on a standard issue third-party Roku TV. for instance the remotes will have voice search included while that is not guaranteed from other manufacturers. Another noticeable difference is that the TV will actually say Roku on it versus the name brand of some other company and that will differentiate things a bit especially in the stores.
In the end though most of the selling points will be its Roku. They will be marketed for their easy-to-use operating system with thousands of channels. Most companies don’t even really market the things that make them different. Apple doesn’t push the TV app, Amazon doesn’t advertise it’s live TV tab. Roku’s top feature to me has always been that it has the best search in the industry. and of course the fact that it doesn’t have any exclusive products that take over the whole infrastructure of the product. But the universal save list and the sports tab that shows where to catch games across multiple apps are never mentioned in advertising or in packaging. It’s like companies Re fraud to stand out.
Best Buy is a good launch partner either way. Check out prices here.
Of course Roku isn’t actually manufacturing the TVs. They have made an agreement with some hardware company to make them. As far as I know, that company has not been revealed.