Roku Ultra Review Canada: Best Value Streamer (2026)

Overview

A basic streaming stick handles Netflix and Disney+ without complaint, but Roku’s flagship box is aimed at a different buyer entirely — someone who wants the fastest menu navigation Roku has ever shipped, a hands-free voice remote, and every major HDR format on one device. The Roku Ultra (2024, model 4850R) is that box, and it’s sold through Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Best Buy, and Roku.com directly.

Roku says this generation is 30% faster than any streaming player the company has built before, thanks to a quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 chip replacing the older silicon. That speed bump matters more than it sounds: previous Ultra models could feel sluggish scrolling through a crowded home screen once a dozen apps were installed, and Roku positions this refresh as the fix — a welcome one for Canadian households juggling Crave, CBC Gem, and Prime Video alongside the usual streaming lineup.

Key Specifications

Roku Ultra Picture Quality & Format Support

CNN Underscored’s review of the 2024 Ultra found its picture and sound quality genuinely competitive with the Google TV Streamer 4K and Apple TV 4K, calling the experience reliable rather than flashy. That’s a meaningful distinction from cheaper Roku sticks, which typically cap out at HDR10 and skip Dolby Vision entirely.

The Ultra supports all four major HDR formats — Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG — at up to 4K/60fps, so it won’t be the bottleneck regardless of what a TV or a streaming app throws at it. Sound & Vision’s review noted the Dolby Atmos passthrough held up well paired with a modern soundbar or AVR, with no dropouts during extended testing.

Voice Remote Pro & Hands-Free Control

The bundled Voice Remote Pro (2nd edition) uses a mid-field microphone array, meaning it listens for a wake command without the remote needing to be picked up or pointed at anything — a genuine step up from the button-and-point remotes that ship with budget streaming sticks. It’s also rechargeable over USB-C rather than running on disposable batteries, and includes a lost-remote finder that pages the remote from the Roku app.

Backlit buttons make it usable in a dark room without fumbling, and the remote doubles as a private-listening headphone jack in some Roku models — a detail that reviewers at Best Buy’s own customer Q&A section flagged as a nice-to-have for late-night viewing without waking a household.

Speed & App Performance

Roku’s quad-core Cortex-A55 chip is the headline upgrade this generation, and independent coverage from FlatpanelsHD confirms the jump brings HDMI 2.1 features like Quick Media Switching alongside the raw speed gain. In practice that means fewer black-screen pauses when an app changes resolution or frame rate mid-playback.

Wi-Fi 6 support is the other half of the speed story — dual-band MIMO keeps a stable connection even in a household running several other devices on the same network, which matters more for 4K HDR content than most buyers expect until they’ve dealt with buffering on an older router.

Smart Home & Connectivity

The Ultra pairs with Roku’s own smart home ecosystem — video doorbells, plugs, lighting — through the Roku app, and also answers to Alexa and Google Assistant for voice control from a separate smart speaker if a household already has one. An Ethernet port is included for anyone who prefers a wired connection over Wi-Fi for the most consistent 4K streaming.

Bluetooth support covers headphone pairing for private listening beyond what the remote’s own jack offers, rounding out a connectivity list that’s noticeably more complete than what ships with Roku’s cheaper Streambar and Express models.

How Does It Stack Up Against the Competition?

Here’s how the Ultra’s price and feature set compare against the streaming boxes it’s most often cross-shopped with.

Is the Roku Ultra Worth It?

The Ultra is the right pick for anyone who wants Roku’s simple, ad-supported interface paired with genuinely premium hardware — full HDR format support, a hands-free voice remote, and Wi-Fi 6 — without paying flagship prices for capabilities like cloud gaming most households never touch. CNN Underscored’s assessment that it’s “boring” is really a compliment here: it just works, consistently, without the learning curve of a more feature-dense box.

Buyers who want to run a Plex server or stream cloud games should look at the NVIDIA Shield TV Pro instead, and anyone fully invested in Alexa smart home control may prefer the Fire TV Cube’s hands-free voice integration.

Still comparing streaming device options? See our Best Streaming Devices 2026 guide →Still comparing streaming device options? See our Best Streaming Devices 2026 guide →

GuideBest Streaming Devices 2026: 3 Top Picks ComparedRead the Guide →

Marcus WebbSenior Editor 𝕏

Marcus has been hunting for the best tech and gear for over 40 years — as a coder, gamer, and lifelong outdoors enthusiast, he knows the gap between a good spec sheet and something that actually holds up. He brings that same critical eye to everything we cover.

Content produced with AI-assisted research — editorial policy →