If you don’t need the voice search feature on the remote control, the first generation Roku 3 streaming box is now down to $80 at amazon.com. This is plenty fast for video streaming purposes, flying over the menus compared to some of the older Roku streaming boxes. The voice search feature is accessible through the Roku mobile apps anyway if you want to see that. But if you prefer the latest model, the second generation Roku 3 is also on sale, going for $90, down from the starting price of $100.

As of 3/17/15, the price is $90. However, the price has been jumping around recently, so it may drop again. With the good old Apple TV dropping under $70, and the Roku 3 being two years old (see Wikipedia for timeline and feature comparison), there’s bound to be price volatility.

Regardless, if you can’t wait for the new condition price to go on sale again, you can get it certified refurbished for $73.

NOTE: with the HBO Now announcement with a three month Apple exclusive in terms of streaming boxes, and no published plans yet (see FAQs) for other boxes, it may be a tricky decision to figure out what to do. On the other hand, from a cord cutter perspective, buying a streaming box costs less than one month of a cable TV subscription, perhaps even half if you got hogtied into a “Triple Play” in order to get a decent price initially when you signed up. But that’s a story for another day…

Want to be a cord cutter and at the same time support smaller independent companies instead of big cable and big corporate? The current Roku flagship, the Roku 3, is on sale for $77 (was $85.50) with free shipping at Amazon.com by Amazon actual.

Among other features, it has wired Ethernet connection (in addition to Wifi), microSD slot for extra storage, and USB input for personal content. Its remote control has a headphone input, another nice feature.

Price updated on 3/17/15.

As of Dec-29-2014, these sales ended but with a competitive market for streaming boxes, they will undoubtedly return at a later point in time…
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