Dealmaster: Get an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K for $35 if you have Prime

Enlarge / Today's deals roundup includes Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K, 9.7-inch iPads, cable modems, desktop hard drives, and much more. (credit: Ars Technica)

Greetings, Arsians! The Dealmaster is back with another round of deals to share. Today's list is headlined by a pair of deals on streaming sticks, as Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K is down to $35 for members of its Prime service, while Roku's Streaming Stick+ is down to $49. Those are $15 and $11 discounts, respectively-not the absolute lowest we've seen for each media streamer but close enough to be good value.

We've written about both of these devices in the past, but the comparison between the two remains fairly straightforward: both support 4K and HDR10 playback, include just about all of the major streaming apps, and are fast enough to stream those apps without any significant hitch. Both come with 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

Presuming you can't settle for the apps built into your game console or smart TV, which one you prefer will likely come down to its interface. Roku's is probably uglier, but it's cleaner, with a focus on apps laid out in simple rows. Amazon's puts more emphasis on content but still has a tendency to promote its own Prime Video app and partner services. Amazon's Alexa-aided voice controls are generally more robust than those on Roku (which now works with the Google Assistant), though, and the company says it will finally patch the YouTube-shaped hole in its app library in the next few months.

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