Roku 2 (2015)

Roku is refreshing its line of media hubs with new versions of the Roku 2 and Roku 3. The latest Roku 2 is a $69.99 puck-shaped media hub that looks indistinguishable from the previous, Editors' Choice Roku 2 at first glance. It boasts faster performance, but it also takes away the most unique and compelling feature the previous version offered: a headphone jack-equipped remote that can stream music to your ears without bothering the people around you. Unless you're on a strict budget, it isn't all that compelling when compared with the more full-featured $99.99 Roku 3 or our Editors' Choice media hubs, the much less expensive $49.99 Roku Streaming Stick and the Amazon Fire TV Stick.

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Design
The Roku 2 is a small, glossy black 3.5-inch-square puck with rounded corners and a purple fabric Roku tag sticking out of the left side. The back of the hub holds HDMI, Ethernet, and power ports, plus a microSD card slot and a pinhole Reset button. A USB port sticks out of the right side of the player. It's a significant change from the previous Roku 2, adding Ethernet for a wired network connection but removing the composite video output. Unless you have a very old television, it's a good trade.

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While the Roku 2 box is effectively the same as the current Roku 3 box, its remote is a considerable step back both from the Roku 3 and its predecessor. The infrared remote is the same sort of pill-shaped wand Roku devices have used for years, and it has all of the necessary controls like a navigation pad, playback controls, and dedicated buttons for Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Sling TV (replacing the Blockbuster button), and Rdio (replacing the M-GO button). It's about two-thirds as thick as the previous remote, and its completely matte black finish makes it a bit easier to grip. It lacks the incredibly handy headphone jack of the previous Roku 2, though, which let you listen to whatever you were watching with your headphones, streaming audio through the radio-based remote's wireless connection.

Since this remote is infrared, it can't stream audio, and requires direct line-of-sight with the box, while a radio remote can work through cabinet doors. The new Roku 3 keeps the radio connection and headphone jack of the previous Roku 2 and Roku 3, making it a far better controller. You can also control the Roku 2 with your smartphone or tablet with the free Roku app for iOS and Android. The app also supports text input, voice search, and streaming media from your mobile device to your HDTV over the Roku.

Roku Channel Store
Roku's interface and Channel Store have remained structurally unchanged for several product generations, but they've been creeping forward with steady additions of new channels and new features. The Roku Channel Store offers a comprehensive selection of streaming media services, with all of the major players on board including Amazon Instant Video, HBO Go, Hulu Plus, Netflix, Sling TV, Vudu, and YouTube.

The most recent addition to the  interface itself is the Roku Feed. It can track recently released movies and provide you with updates on when they become available on Roku through the various on-demand video services. It's a useful idea, but right now, you can only choose from a handful of titles, so it feels more like a taste of a future feature than a fully realized one. Hopefully, Roku will expand the feed to include TV shows and more movies, because for now it doesn't offer enough.

Performance
The new Roku 2 is significantly faster than the previous generation box, and it shows when switching between channels. I jumped between the Sling TV and Hulu Plus apps quickly, loading each service's main screen in seconds. The Roku 2 won't reliably save your state in each app so you can't truly jump rapidly between them (as opposed to leaving one and opening another quickly, to focus on the new app), but it's still a significant improvement in performance. Both the Roku 2 and Roku 3 can output video at up to 1080p.

Roku's updated $70 media hub is a functional device with loads of online services and features, but the removal of the headphone jack from the remote is too high a price to pay for the speed boost over the previous Roku 2. It was one of the more unique and compelling aspects of the older device, and without it the Roku 2's  price tag doesn't seem particularly compelling next to less expensive options like Roku's own Streaming Stick and the Amazon Fire TV Stick. If you really want loads of features and fast performance with your media hub, consider the Roku 3 or Amazon Fire TV instead. The Roku 3 has a much more functional remote, and the Amazon Fire TV offers a wealth of well-organized content in addition to plenty of apps, thanks to its Android core and Amazon Prime integration.

If you go with a Roku device, check out our list of Roku tricks to get the most out of it.