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If you own an older smart TV, particularly a budget model, there is a chance your TV interface feels laggy and sluggish. This is because many smart TV models come with not-so-powerful processors, which can start to show their age when encountering modern apps that need more resources. That’s also one reason why some streaming services even stop supporting older smart TVs. However, as everything else on your TV is in perfectly good shape, an upgrade to a newer smart TV doesn’t seem like a wise decision. Fortunately, there is a pretty affordable solution to this problem: a streaming stick.
Rather than upgrading to a completely new TV, you can simply pick up a streaming stick and plug it into your TV’s HDMI port to give the television a new lease on life. As the streaming device has its own processor and other electronics, it doesn’t rely on your TV’s internals for anything other than passing the audio and video signals. So, as long as you are buying a relatively recent streaming stick model, you will get a responsive and snappy experience as well as support for all the apps you need. And if a few years down the line, the streaming stick also starts to show its age, you can simply upgrade to a newer model and keep using the same TV until you are really ready to get a new one.
Which streaming stick to buy?
There is a pretty decent selection of affordable streaming devices on the market. Amazon, Onn, and Roku each sells multiple media streamers that deliver a good experience despite being inexpensive. Amazon offers three Fire TV streaming sticks under $50: The Fire TV Stick HD and the Fire TV Stick 4K Select are excellent for essential HD and 4K streaming, respectively, whereas you can go with the Fire TV Stick 4K Plus for Dolby Vision, Wi-Fi 6, and Dolby Atmos support. Roku has a similar lineup to Amazon and sells three streaming devices under $50: the Roku Streaming Stick for HD streaming, the Streaming Stick Plus for basic 4K streaming, and the Streaming Stick 4K for 4K streaming with Dolby Vision support.
Finally, Onn’s entire lineup is available for under $50, and includes devices like the Onn Full HD Streaming Device for 1080p streaming and the Onn 4K Streaming Device, Onn 4K Plus, and Onn 4K Pro for 4K streaming. All four models run on the Google TV operating system and have feature sets that justify their price tags. You can pick the streaming stick based on your budget, your TV’s resolution, support for different HDR formats, and your smart TV operating system of choice, as each manufacturer uses a different operating system. Amazon has Fire OS, Roku has Roku OS, and as mentioned, Onn relies on Google TV.
