ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The Roku Voice Remote Pro 2 is accessible for $30 as a standalone machine appropriate with most Roku TVs and gadgets available on the market. It is also included with Roku Pro Series 4K TVs.
- This new Roku distant is light-weight and options backlit buttons, a long-lasting rechargeable battery, a quick-launch shortcut, and a voice-activated misplaced distant finder.
- Whereas it has many new options, it would not have a headphone jack, which can be a dealbreaker for some customers.
Streaming gadgets have turn out to be so widespread that many TV viewers are extra accustomed to their streaming machine remotes than their tv remotes, although generally these are one and the identical. As an early cord-cutter, I embraced streaming with open arms. Over the previous 12 years, I’ve used Google Chromecast, Roku, Fire TV, and Apple TV 4K gadgets. To this point, the most effective streaming machine distant I’ve examined is the Roku Voice Remote Pro 2.
Distant controls for streaming gadgets may be downright irritating. Roku promised that the Roku Voice Distant Professional 2 would quell these frustrations, and I have to admit the corporate has delivered.
The Roku Voice Distant Professional 2 is accessible as a standalone machine or with the Roku Professional Sequence 4K TVs. It contains a rechargeable battery, a motion-activated backlight, misplaced distant finder options, and a customizable quick-launch button.
Though it is light-weight, as you may count on for a streaming machine distant, it packs numerous options that cord-cutters need and different distant producers do not supply.
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The Roku Voice Distant Professional 2 is just like the Alexa Voice Distant Professional, out there for $35, and appropriate with most Fireplace TV gadgets. The Alexa Voice Distant Professional additionally has a backlight and a voice-activated misplaced distant finder, but it surely requires AAA batteries, whereas the newer Roku distant contains a rechargeable battery.
The Roku Voice Distant Professional 2 has a USB-C port on one finish to plug it in with the included charging cable. The battery can last as long as three months on a single cost.
The distant management expertise significantly impacts the general streaming expertise. As somebody with Fireplace TVs, Roku TVs, and an Apple TV 4K in my house, I can guarantee you that, whereas the distant management is not the principle purpose I would purchase a TV, it may be the deciding issue between two choices.
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I examined the brand new Roku Voice Distant Professional 2 on my house workplace TV, a 32-inch TCL Roku TV that I exploit to look at the information, stream dwell occasions, and sometimes for leisure. The newer Voice Distant Professional 2 is thicker, textured, and barely heavier than the TCL’s Roku distant.
The brand new Roku Voice Distant Professional 2 has hands-free and button-activated voice management, full with a swap on the aspect to disable it. When enabled, simply saying “Hey Roku” wakes the distant. You’ll be able to say, “Hey Roku, play Bluey” or “Hey Roku, open Netflix” to regulate your TV with out lifting a finger.
In the event you misplace the distant management, you may say “Hey Roku, discover my distant” to set off a beeping sound for one minute, which you’ll disable by urgent any button on the distant as soon as you discover it. Roku Pro Series 4K TVs, which embrace the Roku Voice Distant Professional 2, even have a button to search out your misplaced distant.
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One in every of my favourite Roku Voice Distant Professional 2 options is the motion-activated backlight. Simply lifting the distant management illuminates the button panel so as to press the proper button at midnight. It is a easy however essential function that’s missing in lots of streaming machine distant controls.
The Roku Voice Distant Professional 2 (center) with a Siri Distant (left) and Fireplace TV distant (proper).
Maria Diaz/ZDNET
Whereas the most recent Alexa Voice Distant Professional additionally has a movement backlight, the Siri Distant, included with the Apple TV 4K, would not.
I’ve at all times most popular the Roku distant’s thicker housing to the Fireplace TV’s distant and Apple’s Siri Distant. The thicker Roku distant is much less more likely to get misplaced between the sofa cushions and is extra snug to carry.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
The Roku Voice Remote Pro 2 is essentially the most full streaming machine distant management I’ve examined. What different opponents, just like the Alexa Voice Distant Professional and Siri Distant, lack, the Roku Voice Distant Professional 2 has.
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Contemplating you already get a distant management with every Roku streaming machine you buy, why would you purchase a Roku Voice Distant Professional 2? This distant management is ideal for anybody with an older Roku TV, particularly if they have a tendency to lose their distant. It is broadly appropriate, supporting most Roku TV gamers and any Roku TV mannequin.
It is such an efficient machine at $30 that I would buy one for every Roku TV in my house — it’s simple to make use of, the backlight, voice management, and discover my distant options are handy, and never having to alter the batteries is a giant win.
