If one factor is clear from the announcement of the brand new Google TV Streamer — whose title is correct down there with the Onn 4K Streaming Device — it’s this: I’m not going to be eliminating my outdated Chromecast with Google TV anytime quickly. Especially now that Google has introduced it’s not going to make anymore.
And that’s even though Google says its new streamer is best in so some ways and that it’s the perfect Google TV machine. And, yeah, it’d properly be, with a sooner 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 Vision and Dolby Atmos, with spatial audio if you happen to’re utilizing Pixel Buds.
That’s all good. Really good, even, given the $100 worth, which is available in beneath Apple TV 4K, which we’ve lengthy thought-about to be the best streaming device you can buy.
But one factor this new Google TV Streamer lacks over its predecessor is a smaller stature. It’s a very good bit larger than the outdated Chromecast with Google TV and will certainly take up extra room in a bag.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 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 may very well 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 worth, too. While I believe $100 is simply tremendous 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 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 prefer to me) is one thing else solely.
Plus, I don’t want assist for Thread and Matter after I’m on the street — these are good residence issues. Same 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.