Why you should always buy the 4K Roku or streaming stick — even without a 4K TV

Your streaming stick feels slow because you picked the wrong model — even if you don't have a 4K TV Credit: Brandon Miniman / MakeUseOf By  Brandon Miniman Published May 30, 2026, 7:00 PM EDT Brandon has been involved in tech journalism since the year 2000 and was part of the OG team of XDA and Pocketnow. He's currently a staff writer for MakeUseOf, covering mobile and consumer tech. Brandon likes to help people take full advantage of their technology. He lives outside of Philadelphia, PA, with his wife and three kids. When he's not writing, Brandon plays drums and enjoys listening to music. He's a graduate of the Villanova School of Business where he got a bachelors degree in finance. Sign in to your MakeUseOf account Add Us On follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap When deciding on a streaming device, you have a lot of options. Most people don't need the insanely powerful Nvidia Shield TV which has a 256 core CPU. By far the most economical options are streaming sticks; these sticks usually cost under $50 and simply plug into an empty HDMI port on the back of your television and are powered by one of the TV's USB ports. They connect over Wi-Fi, and give you full access to all the streaming options you could ever want. The vast majority of people will pick a Roku or Amazon Fire TV streaming stick, and while both are great choices and offer a wide variety of streaming apps and are paired with a great remote with voice input, you should be careful picking between streaming stick models — in both cases, you can pick the HD or 4K model. While the 4K models are slightly more expensive (on average they're only about $10 more), they're not made for 4K TVs only. Even if you don't have a 4K TV, getting the 4K model of streaming stick ensures you have the best streaming experience possible because these h