If one factor is clear from the announcement of the brand new Google TV Streamer — whose title is true down there with the Onn 4K Streaming System — it’s this: I’m not going to be eliminating my previous Chromecast with Google TV anytime quickly. Particularly now that Google has introduced it’s not going to make anymore.
And that’s although Google says its new streamer is healthier in so some ways and that it’s the most effective Google TV machine. And, yeah, it’d properly be, with a quicker processor and 4 instances extra storage. And with assist 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 in the event you’re utilizing Pixel Buds.
That’s all good. Actually good, even, given the $100 value, which is available in below Apple TV 4K, which we’ve lengthy thought-about to be the most effective streaming machine you should buy.
Chromecast with Google TV is older and cheaper — and likewise a lot simpler to stash in a gear bag. Phil Nickinson / Digital Traits
However one factor this new Google TV Streamer lacks over its predecessor is a smaller stature. It’s bit larger than the previous Chromecast with Google TV and will certainly take up extra room in a bag. That’s by design, after all. And that Google TV Streamer shouldn’t be 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 lodges, which is the place I have a tendency to make use of my Chromecast with Google TV.
Then there’s the matter of that value, too. Whereas I feel $100 is simply fantastic for one thing you’re going to make use of at residence, that’s twice as a lot because the machine that I would properly by chance depart in a lodge room once 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 wish to me) is one thing else totally.
Plus, I don’t want assist for Thread and Matter once I’m on the street — these are sensible residence issues. Identical goes for Ethernet, which just about definitely 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.
