Roku makes the best remotes, but this one lacks backlighting, a rechargeable battery and hands-free voice support. There's not much "Plus" to it. (Rick Broida/Yahoo)
Here's a fair question: Why buy a Roku-branded TV when you can buy a Hisense, Sharp, TCL or other TV that has the same great Roku software baked in? When I reviewed (and gushed over) the Roku Pro Series last year, I thought I had a clear answer: The company had crafted an unrivaled user experience, from the cleverly designed wall-mount template to the useful quick-start guide to the Smart Picture setting that actually worked. Even the tool-free feet seemed special.
It was on the pricey side, though, especially compared with some of the models from those aforementioned partner brands, so I was eager to check out the 2025 refresh of the more affordable Roku Plus Series. This year's model gained several features previously limited to the Pro Series — including mini-LED backlighting, a lost-remote finder and Smart Picture Max — while keeping a lower price point. However, while it's a very good TV overall, I'm a bit less enthusiastic about it. Here's my Roku Plus Series TV (2025) review.
Related:
Roku Pro Series TV review: My favorite TV of 2024, and not for the reasons you think
VERDICT: Roku still makes some of the most user-friendly TVs on the market, but the refreshed 2025 Plus Series lacks some of the usability "wow" found in the Pro models. There's not much here to differentiate it from partner brands' Roku TVs.
Available in 55-, 65- and 75-inch sizes, the Plus Series is priced competitively with other mini-LED TVs — and will likely start seeing sale pricing as the holiday season draws nearer. Currently they're listed for $500, $650 and $900, respectively, making the 65-inch model the sweet spot in terms of bang for the buck.
Like all Roku-powered TVs, this one is extremely easy to set up, with a helpful illustrated quick-start guide and friendly onscreen instructions for pairing the remote, connecting to Wi-Fi and activating the TV (by way of a Roku account, which you'll need to set up if you don't already have one). All told, the entire process took less than 10 minutes, including adding the streaming services I use regularly. That said, it still bugs me that Roku doesn't sync my app layout between devices; I always have to manually reorder icons to my liking.
Also, there's one user-experience shortcoming Roku could easily remedy: The onscreen keyboard lacks shortcuts for things like ".com" or "@yahoo.com," which would save time when you have to manually input account information. The HBO Max app, for example, stubbornly forces you to enter your email address and password; there's no QR code to scan or web sign-in shortcut. Same with Disney+ and some others. (I don't know if Roku or the services themselves are to blame, only that most sign-ons are a lot faster on Google TV.)
Thankfully, the Roku mobile app lets you use your phone or tablet keyboard to enter onscreen text if needed, and that tends to go much more quickly. (Side note: That app also affords Private Listening, allowing you to hear TV audio through your favorite pair of Bluetooth headphones or earbuds. This has long been a favorite feature of mine — but Roku TVs now support direct headphone pairing as well, no app required.)
There's nothing particularly noteworthy about the physical design of the TV, though it does have a razor-thin bezel around the top and sides and is only slightly thicker along the bottom. That's where the two feet screw in (yep, tools required, alas). Although the Plus can be wall-mounted, of course, it lacks the more frame-like outer edge of the Pro Series.
I continue to love the design of Roku's remote, with its convenient side-mounted volume and mute buttons, logically placed Home and Back buttons and attractive purple navigation pad. Unfortunately, the 2025 Plus Series comes with only the "enhanced" version, not the Voice Remote Pro that was included with the 2023 Plus Series (which I also reviewed). It's a slight downgrade in that it doesn't support hands-free voice commands and lacks a rechargeable battery, instead relying on a pair of double-A disposables. (For what it's worth, you can buy the Roku Voice Remote Pro (2nd Ed.) separately for just $30, a pretty good upgrade.)
Roku did add a lost-remote finder, which can definitely help you overcome hungry couch cushions, but the activation button is located on the back of the TV — not the most convenient spot.
Picture quality in a TV can be as subjective as sound quality in headphones. I think even some of the most entry-level models produce pretty glorious color and razor-sharp 4K images. The original Roku Plus was already a solid contender in the picture department; the big upgrade in this 2025 model is mini-LED, which is supposed to improve contrast, brightness and overall detail, especially in HDR content. However, it didn't always succeed here.
One of my favorite litmus-test movies for any TV is Solo: A Star Wars Story, which streams on Disney+. The first 10 minutes in particular tend to wreak havoc on TVs with lower peak brightness, and unfortunately the Roku Plus struggled here a bit — at least compared with the Roku Pro Series, which I set up right alongside it. The latter was noticeably brighter during these scenes, with better contrast as well.
The same was true of Pixar's Ratatouille; the movie looked decidedly darker on the Plus than on the Pro, and I noticed I couldn't see the same level of detail in Remy's fur. Curiously, however, the Plus seemed to produce warmer, richer colors; the Pro looked slightly washed-out in comparison. Whether or not that color was more "accurate" or not I can't say, merely that my eye was drawn more to the Plus — darker though it was.
Switching to another animated movie, the vibrantly colored Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the brightness of the two TVs seemed to level out, but once again the Pro rendered sharper, more detailed images. You can see it below, not just in Gwen Stacy's hair, but also in the stage off to the left.
Here's the thing, though: Watching these TVs individually, rather than comparing them side by side, my initial reaction was they both looked great. And I think that explains why customer reviews for TVs tend to be on the high side, even when professional reviewers find fault in things like color accuracy or black levels. I suspect few people focus on such nuances; they just want to see if the rat can impress the food critic.
I'm no expert when it comes to the minutiae of TV technology, but I can say that here, as with most TVs, sometimes you have to fiddle with various settings to get things the way you want. Ironically, Roku's Smart Picture Max — which I first encountered on the Pro Series — is supposed to eliminate that need, to automatically refine things like color and sharpness so you don't have to monkey with all those settings. The "Max" part means there's a special processor devoted to this; lower-end Roku TVs and streaming devices rely solely on software-powered optimization, known simply as Smart Picture.
Just one problem: Any content that's encoded with Dolby Vision — and there's more and more of it these days — overrides Smart Picture Max; the option effectively disappears from the Picture Settings menu. Consequently, much of what I streamed on the Roku Plus suffered from the dreaded soap-opera effect, aka the bane of my existence. (One of them, anyway; I have several other banes.) You can easily eliminate it by disabling motion-smoothing in the "expert" section of Picture Settings, but to my thinking the whole point of Smart Picture Max is to handle that for me. I want motion smoothing when watching sports or playing games, not with movies or TV shows.
Speaking of sports and games, the TV's 60Hz refresh rate isn't ideal for either of those things — 120Hz is widely accepted to be better — but it does support VRR (variable refresh rate), in which the rate is dynamically adjusted to match the fluctuations in those sources. I didn't do any game-console testing, but I did watch basketball, NASCAR and other fast-moving sports; they all looked silky-smooth.
The Plus Series ranks a bit above average when it comes to sound, thanks to a built-in subwoofer, which provides some actual bass and rounds out the overall audio quality; I'd rank it as decent. That said, the main speakers get pretty shrill at higher volumes, which is why I always recommend adding a soundbar to whatever TV you buy. When it comes to your ears, there's no point settling for decent.
Viewed in a vacuum, the Roku Plus 2025 is a splendid TV. I can't overstate my appreciation for the simple, intuitive interface; for the most part Roku has resisted the trend of changing things just for the sake of change (and making them more complicated in the process). If you've ever struggled to navigate an Amazon Fire TV or Google TV interface, you'll find Roku much easier to learn and use.
As for picture quality, that's where the vacuum gets a little shaky. There's no question the Pro Series offers better brightness and contrast, with superior details as well. But when I watch Across the Spider-Verse (or just about anything else) on the Plus, I'm immediately sucked into it; it looks gorgeous and therefore I don't give the picture a second thought.
The real question, as posited at the start, is whether the Plus stands out against Roku partner TVs. I haven't tested any recent ones (save for the Philips 974 Series, but that's an OLED model and therefore harder to compare directly), so I can't say specifically. There are definitely a couple minuses here that make me yearn for a bit more "Plus". But all else being equal, I'd rather get Roku straight from the source.