Welcome to the review of the Roku Premiere media streamer. This exact model number is 3920, which was released in 2019 but is still sold by Roku and even in stores today. It’s currently priced at $40 (CAD) or $40 USD, which is weird because the Canadian dollar is weaker than the USA dollar.
Remote
The remote is your typical Roku remote design which means it’s small and easy to use with one hand thanks to most of the buttons being close to one another.
I wish there weren’t app shortcut buttons on the bottom since I don’t use half those apps. It can be annoying if they’re pressed by accident. It would have been better to have some customizable buttons instead.
The remote is powered by two AAA batteries that are included in the box and uses IR technology to connect to the media streamer.
There’s also a remote app available for smartphones, which works incredibly fast and is well designed. Not only can you control the media streamer with it, but you can also pair headphones to your mobile device for private listening.
Hardware
The body of the media streamer is incredibly small. Measuring in at 3.3 x 1.4 x 0.7 in.
The front has a small LED power indicator, and the top has a large Roku logo. On the back are ports for HDMI 2.0a output (an HDMI cable is included in the box), micro-USB power port (and unfortunately not USB-C) and a factory reset port.
The power wire is 5ft long and this device consumes a low 3 watts of power while in use.
For connectivity, it primarily relies on WiFi 4 which still works okay for 4K content playback, which I’ll get back to shortly.
Unfortunately, there is no Bluetooth support for private audio listening directly from the media player, as mentioned earlier it can only be done through the app.
According to the Roku developers support page the Premiere has an ARM Cortex A53 processor and 1GB of RAM. None of that matters too much, as actual performance is what we care about, and I’ll demo that shortly.
Internal storage space is unknown. I can’t find it on the developer’s page or in the media streamer settings. This isn’t a big deal as each app (Roku refers to them as “channels”) is rather small but it’s just odd that it can’t be found.
The Premiere and controller only come in a black colour.
In the box is an adhesive tape so you can mount this behind your TV on the wall or on the back of your actual TV.
Smart Assistant
The media player is also compatible with Apple Homekit, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant. For example, you can tell Google Assistant to open Netflix with voice command.
Home Section
For audio this player supports DTS Digital Surround Sound, Dolby Audio and Dolby Atmos.
The software interface (powered by Roku OS) is rather limited and a bit dull. The UI is incredibly dated but one strong trait is how easy it us to use this media player thanks to how basic it is.
The “Home” section is the main collection of apps and has some of the most popular ones such as Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Hulu, Plex, etc. Any apps (channels) that you install will be added here for your easy access. One annoying thing of note is that there are ads on the right side (you read that correctly). Some of the advertised content is free to watch content and sometimes it’s paid content.
App Performance
When opening heavy apps like Netflix it can be rather quick. Even navigating through the content, it operates rather smooth. Another heavy app is Disney+, it takes longer to open than Netflix and content thumbnails load a little slower but nothing to ruin your experience. Prime Video is rather quick to open too and performs slightly behind Netflix but certainly better than Disney+. YouTube has the standard interface you would find in most YouTube apps and has all essential commands you would need.
In terms of picture quality, since this media player supports 4K HDR content, the picture quality from sources like Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, etc. will look stunning. This media player can deliver great clear video.
Diving into Plex, things will get a little technical here. Content that is compressed in H.265 in mkv and mp4 file format is a miss for most of the time. Often, the media player can’t handle files in this compression format. Files in H.264 is a mixed bag whether the file is an mkv or mp4 file type. From my testing, files in this compression with a bitrate playback of 1Mbps to 10Mbps work blazingly fast during playback and forwarding. Content around 15Mbps takes a while on the initial load up but once it starts to play, it operates fine. Anything 20Mbps or higher, the app will simply give up after a while and state the file can’t be played. Even though this media player has a WiFi 4 adapter, I don’t think that’s the issue as it should be able to handle network speeds for even 20Mbps. I believe the bottleneck is the processor which isn’t that powerful. Some people might see this is a major issue (mainly Plex enthusiasts) but don’t forget the low-price tag of this media player.
There are screen mirroring apps, but they perform rather terrible (not even close to Chromecast performance). This is nothing against the media player since this isn’t a heavily advertised feature, but just something worth mentioning.
From the Home section there is an “Add Channels” option which allows you to install more apps. The list of apps is rather lengthy and provides the top media playing apps in North America such as Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Plex, YouTube, Hulu, Apple TV, etc. Just keep in mind that app availability will vary depending on where you live.
My Feed
“My Feed” has a section for movies and TV shows, except the name of this section is misleading. None of the sub-sections for movies and TV shows interest me. In fact, almost all of it is paid content that Roku simply will want you to buy or rent.
Search
The “Search” section and functionality is one of the most powerful things about this media player. It’ll search for your desired content across all apps possible and present you with results on which app you can watch your search content through. For instance, Hell’s Kitchen is free to watch on the Roku channel in HD (although the quality is more like DVD quality, even for the more recent seasons).
Free Content
On the topic of free, this leads into another odd point. Roku advertises that this media player can play a lot of free content (which is true), such as the Hell’s Kitchen. However, I only knew that show was free after reviewing the Roku Express because on the main page on the left navigation there was a dedicated section for free content. On this Premiere media player, that Free section and others (like Live content) is missing for some odd reason. Ironically, going into the Roku channel, it’s very hard to find free content. In their own app there isn’t a free section, content requires payment, or any free shown content is usually terrible media you might want to skip.
There is a workaround to look for more free content but it’s still not that simple. If you go to the Home section on the main page and add a new channel, there is a free content section with a list of recommended channels (apps). Except a lot of these apps are a mix of free and paid content, which still requires the user to manually look for free content.
Settings
Jumping into the “Settings” menu, there is a lot here. Items include but are not limited to adjusting display settings, audio settings, Home screen layout, payment method for buying content, etc.
Perhaps the most interesting thing in the Settings is Guest Mode which allows you to put the media player in a ready state for guests to use (if you host an Airbnb for example). It allows guests to use your Roku but without fiddling with too many settings.
Streaming Channels
Back in the main section, “Streaming Channels” is the exact same thing as adding a channel from the Home section. Not sure why Roku placed the exact same thing twice, but they did.
Conclusion
Overall, it’s an okay media player, not the best available even with its great price. The Roku OS interface has always been boring and dull, but I must admit it’s very easy to use.
Thanks to the cheap price of $40 (CAD or USD), it’s hard to complain too much about this media player. It even has the top streaming apps, again depending on where you live.
This might be a media player worth considering a purchase thanks to its low-price tag.
Score:
8/10
Pros:
-Price
-Compact remote
-Roku remote app
-App private listening
-Compact design
-Most popular streaming apps available
–“Channel” store
–Decent speed performance
-Easy to use interface
-Guest mode
-Great quality 4K playback
-Mount media streamer
-DTS Digital Surround Sound, Dolby Audio and Dolby Atmos
-Control with smart home services
Cons:
-Power port isn’t USB-C
-Boring OS
-Ads in Home section
–Hard to find free content
–“Free” section missing from other Roku devices
–Can’t sideload apps
-Plex performance underwhelming
