If one factor is clear from the announcement of the brand new Google TV Streamer — whose identify is true down there with the Onn 4K Streaming Device — it’s this: I’m not going to be eliminating my outdated Chromecast with Google TV anytime quickly. Particularly now that Google has introduced it’s not going to make anymore.
And that’s even though Google says its new streamer is healthier in so some ways and that it’s the very best Google TV system. And, yeah, it would properly be, with a sooner processor and 4 instances extra storage. And with help for the Thread and Matter smartphone requirements. And with Ethernet. And an improved distant. And Dolby Imaginative and prescient and Dolby Atmos, with spatial audio when you’re utilizing Pixel Buds.
That’s all good. Actually good, even, given the $100 worth, which is available in underneath Apple TV 4K, which we’ve lengthy thought of to be the best streaming device you can buy.
However one factor this new Google TV Streamer lacks over its predecessor is a smaller stature. It’s an excellent bit larger than the outdated Chromecast with Google TV and will certainly take up extra room in a bag. That’s by design, in fact. And that Google TV Streamer isn’t a dongle additionally signifies that you’re actually going to want some place to place it, and never simply let it dangle off the aspect (or again) of a TV. That might be an actual downside in accommodations, which is the place I have a tendency to make use of my Chromecast with Google TV.
Then there’s the matter of that worth, too. Whereas I feel $100 is simply effective for one thing you’re going to make use of at residence, that’s twice as a lot because the system that I would properly unintentionally go away in a lodge room after I’m packing in a panic as a result of I completely overslept. A $50 dongle is one factor to overlook in Fargo. A $100 streaming surfboard (that’s nonetheless what it appears to be like prefer to me) is one thing else totally.
Plus, I don’t want help for Thread and Matter after I’m on the street — these are good residence issues. Identical goes for Ethernet, which nearly actually gained’t attain a wall-mounted TV in a lodge room.
So for the foreseeable future, the OG Chromecast with Google TV nonetheless has a spot in my gear bag.
