The15Roku LE is Walmart Exclusive for Black Friday

The15Roku LE is Walmart Exclusive for Black Friday

With the super cheap $15 Roku LE, exclusive to Walmart, Roku got a big Black Friday deal. Yes, that's right. It's a limited edition streaming device.

The Roku LE is not yet listed on the Black Friday Roku Deals page, but it will soon have a seat at the table. Why? This $15 streaming device looks a lot like the Roku Express, but at half the price.

The Roku LE is $15 at Walmart, with a sale price starting at $29.88 (Roku Express price).

Walmart Plus members can access it starting Monday, November 22, and all other members on November 26 (Black Friday). Click here to be the first to know about Walmart Black Friday deals.

What does the LE in Roku LE stand for? Apparently it stands for "Limited Edition," and Roku states that the device will be available "exclusively at Walmart on Black Friday while supplies last."

A strict reading of this press release suggests that it will appear on Black Friday (November 26) and then be gone.

The Roku LE will include a $5 Redbox code that will be included with every Roku sold at Walmart. It also comes with a free 30-day trial of HBO Max.

Roku is apparently silent on whether Roku LE can do more than stream HD video (Express was able to reach full HD 1080p with upscaling from 720p). Since the press release and Walmart's product page do not clearly explain the streaming resolution, we asked Roku for confirmation.

The Roku LE has a small curved shell with a white plastic casing (as opposed to the black casing of the Express). If it is another version of Express, we would expect a very basic Roku streamer.

And if the Roku LE remote control is the same as the Express one, we would expect it to be a bit more complicated. In our testing, we found that a direct line of sight from the remote to the Roku Express and some pretty good aiming is required.

It is the same Roku remote that comes with most entry-level Roku, including branded app buttons, menu navigation and buttons for rewinding programs.

Roku's LE is for when you need to get the Roku app on your TV and you're not particularly concerned about video resolution or any perks.Roku has tons of apps, practically all of them (YouTube on December 9 though Roku channels could disappear from the store), and this looks like the cheapest way to turn a dumb TV into a sort of smart TV. It's also $3 cheaper than the Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite. It's currently marked down to $18 (from $29).

While the Roku LE is the cheapest Roku option currently available, we'd like to introduce our favorite streaming deal, the $29 Roku Streaming Stick 4K from Amazon. Yes, that's $20 off $50 for a brand new Roku Streaming Stick 4K, and the Roku Streaming Stick 4K is our top pick for our Best Streaming Devices list.

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