Turns out, all those rumors about a rechargeable Roku remote were right on the money: today, Roku announced the Roku Voice Remote Pro that will save a ton on batteries.
Besides the rechargeable battery, Roku says the remote can now listen to you while you’re standing a few feet away thanks to a new far-field array, though, you can always flip a switch on the side of the remote to disable the microphone.
The Roku Voice Remote Pro is fairly inexpensive at $30 (around £22, AU$39), and should work with most newer Roku TVs and Roku players made after 2017 including the Roku Express, Roku Streaming Stick+ and Roku Ultra but not the numbered Roku products like the Roku 2, Roku 3 and Roku 4.
The remote is available starting today on Roku’s website and will be coming to store shelves in May in the US with global availability to be announced at a later date.
Switching up the Roku lineup
Alongside the Roku Voice Remote Pro, Roku has announced that it will be making two tweaks to the lineup – eliminating the Roku Premiere and changing the name of Roku Smart Soundbar to the Roku Streambar Pro – and will add one new player to the lineup.
The newest player is called the Roku Express 4K+ and it serves as an in-between model for the Roku Express and Roku Streaming Stick+.
The big difference between the Express and Express 4K+ is that the latter will stream in 4K/HDR and will support HDR10+ content. It has a slightly shorter wireless range than the Roku Streaming Stick+, but the Express 4K+ still uses dual-band Wi-Fi.
The Express 4K+ comes in at the super reasonable price of $40 (around £29, AU$50) and will be available alongside the Roku Voice Remote Pro in May in the US with global availability to be determined.
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