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Comment by hijp | Hacker News Reader

I 'upgraded' my parents Roku 3 with the Apple TV 4K, but they ended up going back to the Roku exclusively.

The remote on the Roku is much more intuitive and the d-pad allows them to select what they want with confidence. The apple tv's remote with its touchpad is unwieldy by comparison.

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The Roku remote is an unsung example of great design. You can tell the parts are cheap, but it feels great, and is very easy to use. My partner is a luddite... It took roughly 30 seconds to teach her how to use it. She barely knows how the TV itself works!

Great design but poor implementation? My remote randomly stops working, there is often a long delay when I press a button, and it uses up batteries very more quickly than anything else.

It’s easily the worst remote I have ever used, although there are no problems with its design.

I've owned 6 roku premiers and have never had any of those issues with any remote. Maybe you got a dud?

Different models of Roku use different technology for the remote. Since some of them use WiFi, they can suffer from connectivity problems like WiFi does in general. This will depend on the location and RF environment.

Maybe you got IR remotes? Maybe you live in a location with low levels of interference? Maybe your model doesn’t suffer from the design flaws that mine does?

Except for the hard coded buttons to services you don’t want (CBS News) or are discontinued (aka Radio).

The apple tv remote is a complete abomination.

I'm not sure it's much of a surprise to most people in the industry though. Apple always focuses on prioritizing design first - and then seemingly tries to find a way to bake in functionality that doesn't interfere with the prior. I do appreciate much of the minimalism Apple has brought to the forefront, but I think some are over the aesthetics to an extent when they impede the usefulness and/or productivity of the device. Lack of physical buttons on a remote, keyboard keys that are more focused on height and looks than feedback and quality, number of industry standard ports on devices, only using hard industrial designs vs using alternative materials that may go against the brand look and feel, and finally - likely the worst is that Apple has very little interest in designs that prioritize end user replacement or repair. I'm keenly interested in Apple v3.0. I think they'll need to reinvent themselves in the next decade. They lost me as a customer years ago - although now I'm forced to use their laptop hardware on a day to day basis which reinforces some of these design vs usability misgivings. Then again maybe it's all about quantity for Apple moving forward.

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