Page 26 - Computeractive - January 2, 2018 UK

R e v i e w s

TV STREAMING S TICK ❘ £30 from A mazon www.snipca.com/26319

RokuExpr e ss

The s mallest s et-top box

In Issue 5 16 we tested R oku’s £ 79
Streaming Stick P lus, which c onnects
your HDTV set t o a r ange of online
video a nd music s ervices including
Amazon Prime, G oogle, Netflix, N ow
TV and B BC iPlayer. The Express d oes
basically t he same thing, but comes w ith
a d ifferent r emote c ontrol and o mits the
4K HDR capabilities of the p ricier
version, s ticking with regular Full HD. remote c ontrol has v olume buttons, b ut of course, f or any i nternet video p roduct.
Instead of plugging straight i nto a n HDMI the E xpress doesn’t, so you’ll have to This a side, t he Express h as similar
socket, i t c omes as a t iny s tandalone b ox juggle two r emotes. Y ou can also use features to the S treaming Stick P lus.
that connects to the T V a nd the m ains Roku’s app o n y our s martphone to In short, Roku’s software is good and
with cables. control t he Express. This a pp provides the c hoice o f s ervices is excellent, but
a k eyboard ( making it easier to enter Amazon Fire’s Alexa voice s earch a nd
Decent s oftware the n ames of programmes and fi lms) Android app s upport a re missing, and
l ets you cast your own
this isn’t a d o-it-all TV-streaming and
and
p hotos and
and a g rea t choice videos to the T V s creen. P lus, the games b ox like t he Apple T V .
Unlike t he Streaming Stick
of channels and Express o nly s upports the o ld 2.4GHz VERDICT: With access to Amazon T V a s
Video a nd Google Play Movies &
Wi-Fi b and, so reception may n ot be as
services good. Th at’s not ideal, g iven the d emands well as all t he usual s ervices, this i s a
of Full HD video s treaming, b ut it should comprehensive TV box a t a g reat price
still work fine i f y ou don’t usually h ave ★★★★☆
It’s so small, in fact, R oku s uggests Wi-Fi r eception problems.
you s tick i t t o t he edge of your TV with Y o u’ll need reasonably fast broadband, ALTERNATIVE: Amazon F ire T V S tick
double-sided t ape, where y ou’ll b arely (2017) £40 A r oughly s imilar choiceghly
inus G oogle, p lusG oogle, p lus
notice i t. The catch i s t hat t he remote SPECIFICATIONS of services – m minus
control u ses traditional infra-red, n ot 802.11n Wi-Fi ••Mains a dapter ••720p Alexa – a nd support f orpppport f or
Bluetooth, which m eans it has t o b e i n HD/1080p F ull H D • • Infra-red remote games a nd appsps
sight o f t he box, so you c an’t tuck it away control •• 18x84x36mm ( HxWxD) ••One-year including K odi
round t he back. The Streaming Stick P lus’ warranty www.snipca.com/26336

WHAT S HOULD I B UY? We solve your buying dilemmas

Wha t ’s the b est m odel for p rin t ing to D V Ds?

Q My 10-year-old C anon Pixma A Canon’s c heapest i nkjets at the your IP4500 w hen i t w as new t hey
p rinter has fi nally d ied
include a s canner/copier t oo.
IP4500
moment, t he Pixma T S5150 and
on me. I t w as mainly u sed f or TS6150, l ack t he disc-printing At the t ime o f w riting, t he recently
the u sual A4 documents, but from feature, although it’s available on the replaced T S8050 ( see o ur review , Issue
time to time it was w heeled o ut to pricier T S8150 (£119 from Amazon www. 504) was s till available from many
print directly o n t o D VDs, which i t d id snipca.com/26347, p ictured). Epson’s shops f or about £100. W ithout having
very well. I ’m looking a round f or a older E xpression Photo m odels c an also tested i t y et, w e c an’t say w hether t he
printer to replace it that has d isc pr ith t he XP-760 TS8150 has a ny significant a dvantages.
print discs, s tarting w
eplace it that has d isc
printing, but they (£115 from Amazon www.snipca. But w e l iked the T S8050 a nd it could
(£
theyey
seem thin on com/26350). Neither o f t hese printers i s be your cheapest option.
co
the g round. especially fast or cheap t o r un, b ut they
es
do give high-quality r esults, i ncluding
se?
Can y ou advise? do Do you n eed advice on what you s hould buy?
mon
photos, a nd for a bout the s ame p rice a s
John Salmon ph Email us at letters@computeractive.co.uk
26 20 December 2017 – 2 J anuary 2 018