The Verge:
On the surface (and even under the hood), these top living room contenders share a lot of the same features, with the exception of 4K video support. Which means the best experience really comes down to the interface, the app ecosystem, and available content.
It was a tough call this year, but one new streaming-video device nudged its way past the others.
The answer will likely not surprise you but, what was interesting to me was how close the three runner-ups came in the scoring.
Eh. I think a lot of the differences in the top 3 will come down to a) 4k support and how important it is to a given buyer and b) how important exclusive content is, i.e. iTunes, Amazon Prime, etc. especially in comparison to the software features like universal voice search. Even universal search could be a meh for some people. If you stream almost everything from Netflix (or Amazon Prime) then the ability to search for a movie and have all of the sources shown isn’t compelling – you’re going to use your preferred solution.
It might be that I’ve never owned or used any other set top box, but I’m perfectly happy with my $50 Roku streaming stick. I still have cable, so I only use it for certain things.