Battle of the premium streaming remotes

The remote control can make or break your streaming experience, which might explain why device makers are offering increasingly better ones, sometimes at an additional cost.

The best streaming remotes do more than just control playback. Many also include remote-finder functions, programmable buttons, and shortcuts to popular features. Some even offer backlit keys or premium materials in their build.

Having reviewed pretty much every streaming player on the market, I’ve become something of a remote control connoisseur. With so many companies now charging extra for their premium remotes—or restricting them to their higher-priced streaming players—I thought it’d be fun to pit them against one another.

This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best media streamers.

Alexa Voice Remote Pro

• Standalone Price: $35
• Compatible with: Fire TV streaming players and smart TVs
• Included with: Standalone purchase only
• Notable features: Two programmable buttons, smart backlighting, Bluetooth headphone shortcut

Amazon’s premium Fire TV remote is comfier to hold than its standard pack-in remotes, with flat sides that don’t dig into your palms as much. It’s also the only Fire TV remote with programmable buttons, which you can set to launch a favorite app, jump to specific menu sections, or execute any Alexa voice command. (That last option becomes especially powerful when you combine it with Alexa Routines.)

The remote’s backlit keys have a clever touch as well: They turn on automatically when you pick up the remote in a dark room, but stay off to save power in well-lit environments.

Quick links to the Fire TV’s handy live channel guide and Bluetooth audio pairing help put this one over the top, though it’s too bad there are no Fire TV models that can directly trigger the remote finder function. (Instead, you have to ask an Alexa device or use the Fire TV mobile app.)

Grade: A-

Roku Voice Remote Pro

• Standalone Price: $30
• Compatible with: Roku streaming players and smart TVs
• Included with: Roku Ultra, Roku Pro Series TVs
• Notable features: Quick-launch button, hands-free control, rechargeable battery

Roku has the best approach to programmable buttons on a streaming remote: Instead of making you memorize what that button does, it brings up a quick-launch menu to which you can assign two separate shortcuts (a favorite app, a home screen section, or any voice command) and access the search function.

This is also the rare streaming remote with an internal battery—rechargeable via USB-C—and it’s well-rounded with other features such as a remote-finder function and backlit buttons. The remote even responds to hands-free “Hey Roku” voice commands, albeit with some reliability issues.

But there’s also one big limitation, which also applies to every other Roku remote: It can’t control external soundbars or A/V systems over infrared; so, if your system doesn’t support HDMI-CEC, you’ll need another remote to adjust the volume. Longtime Roku users may also bemoan the lack of a headphone jack on this model, marring what is otherwise a solid remote overall.

Grade: B+

Nvidia Shield Remote

• Standalone price: $30
• Included with: Nvidia Shield TV and Shield TV Pro (2019 models)
• Compatible with: Android TV and Google TV devices
• Notable features: Actual rewind and fast forward buttons.

Why are Google TV device makers averse to putting direct playback control buttons on their remotes? On both the Google TV Streamer and Walmart’s Onn devices, you’re limited to clicking the directional pad for fast forward and rewind, and every app has different ways of changing the speed.

All of which is to say that if you have a Google TV device and crave the consistency of actual fast forward and rewind buttons, the Nvidia Shield Remote is an interesting dark-horse pick. It has some other virtues as well, including backlit buttons and a satisfyingly weighty triangular design.

While it’s ostensibly designed for the Shield TV, it worked just fine with the Google TV Streamer, with caveats: The menu button is non-programmable and the Netflix button doesn’t do anything—though you can customize both using a third-party app—and the remote-finder function only works with the Shield .

Grade: B-

Siri remote for Apple TV 4K

• Standalone price: $60
• Included with: Apple TV 4K (second-gen and up), Apple TV HDs sold from late 2021 onward
• Compatible with: All Apple TV boxes from 2015 onward
• Notable features: Aluminum housing, touch-sensitive directional pad

Apple’s streaming remote could bolster any argument that the company favors form over function. While its aluminum chassis is admittedly quite luxurious, it’s light on the features you’ll find on most other premium streaming remotes. There’s no backlighting, no dedicated fast forward or rewind buttons, and no programmable functions. (On the flip side, the lack of sponsored buttons for streaming services is quite refreshing.)

The remote-finder function is the biggest letdown. If your Apple TV remote slips between the couch cushions, the only way to locate it is by opening the virtual remote app on an iPhone or iPad, and then staring at a Bluetooth-based proximity indicator as you wander aimlessly around the living room. Apple, please: Just put a button on the box and a speaker in the remote like everyone else.

The saving grace is Apple’s touch-sensitive directional pad, which lets you glide through menus and skip through videos with swipe gestures. It takes getting used to, but it’s hard going back to anything else once you do.

Grade: C

Google TV Streamer remote

• Standalone price: $20
• Included with: Google TV Streamer
• Compatible with: Google TV Streamer and Chromecast with Google TV dongles
• Notable features: Input switcher, customizable YouTube shortcuts, Hazel color option

Google’s premium streaming box doesn’t have a vastly different remote from its earlier Chromecast with Google TV dongles, but it does add a programmable button that you can set to launch a favorite app, pop open a Google Home control panel, or switch inputs. It feels a bit limited, though, as you can’t map it to specific menu sections or voice commands.

Oddly enough, the Google TV Streamer remote’s most unique traits are also available on the company’s earlier Chromecast with TV dongles: The YouTube shortcut button can be programmed to launch YouTube TV or the YouTube app’s Music section, and you can use the remote to switch TV inputs (albeit at the cost of using the programmable button for anything else).

Otherwise, the remote-finder function is a nice addition, and the optional Hazel colorway is a welcome change from the black-and-white world of so many other streaming remotes. The absence of backlighting, however, is a bit of a letdown—much like the Google TV Streamer itself.

Grade: C-

Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV advice.