After years of offering the same OS that although does a lot of things, still hasn’t caught up to its competition, Google has finally entered the streaming wars with its Google TV Interface – A media player that gives you instant access to all the major streaming services. This includes Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney Plus, YouTube, Netflix, and many more.
In this post, we’ve reviewed the top features of the new Chromecast including some of the downsides and issues we faced during our testing.
Out of the Box Changes
The Chromecast with Google TV is still the same. You’ve got your HDMI hub, a fancy remote, a variety of different streaming features. The only major difference in this year’s model is how the casting has shifted to a more feature-oriented approach.
Google already offered tons of streaming experience in the form of their Android TV interface, but that was all limited to only one platform. You have to manually open each platform and select your content based on their recommendation. To solve this problem, Google has fundamentally changed their OS and replaced their Android TV with a new UX called, Google TV.
Google TV gives you access to all your favorite streaming platforms in one place. Making it easier for you to access everything on one UI interface.
Price
The Chromecast with Google TV is available in 3 exciting new colors; Snow White, Sky Blue, and Sunrise Peach. The starting price is marked at $49 in the US, which makes it $20 more than the Gen 3 Chromecast and $20 less than the Chromecast Ultra.
However, it does fit in neatly as a middle child that can stream 4K HDR content with Dolby Vision. But as of now, it’s not capable of streaming games on Google Stadia.
Features
As the main highlight of this product is the ‘Google TV’, we will stick mostly to it. The area where Google TV crushes the competition is the ‘Recommendation’ section. Google TV does content recommendation extremely well. It uses only one UI and combines the best collection of each platform on the home screen.
Google TV recommendation for us has been spot on with so many exciting new collections of movies and TV shows available on your screen every time you launch it. In fact, it is safe to say that some of the recommendations have been better than Netflix and Disney+ own UX interface.
The interface of the app is fairly simple, with individual apps and widgets available on the home screen. From here, you can navigate to each tile by using the direction pad from the remote. We found out that Apple TV and Google Stadia are not available in the list, but as with the previous generation, we’re optimistic that Google will add these in the next update.
Design
The latest Chromecast design is similar to its predecessors. It’s something that stays at the back of your TV all the time, so we can make an exception here. The basic port integration is the same, it connects via the attached HDMI cable and draws power from either a USB port or a wall outlet.
Unlike the Chromecast ultra, there’s no Ethernet port and the only source of network connection is the Wi-Fi. But on the Google official page, you can buy USB-C to Ethernet converter if you want a clear 4K experience.
On the plus side, the new Chromecast comes with an improved version of the IR remote. And surprisingly enough, if your TV supports HDMI-CEC, you can use your Chromecast remote to control the TV volume and channel selection as well. The rest of the button integration, like Google Assistance, Netflix, and YouTube is the same.
Performance
Chromecast with Google TV performs well compared to the rival competitors. Although Google never really told us what’s going on inside the hood, but regardless of the hardware selection, we haven’t experienced any delay or distortion during our testing.
It takes a little time during the startup, but once it actually loads the full interface, everything is smooth from then onwards. What’s impressed us a lot is the hardware seems to be working fine both within and outside the router Wi-Fi signal range.
Now in terms of streaming, Chromecast is capable of streaming in 1080p or 4K HDR with Dolby Vision. But to fully enjoy the audio format, you need to have a compatible TV and a sound system. Watching Dolby Vision content on a regular TV seems fine as well, but you’re missing some jump scares and post-processing upscaling.
The only limitation, we can think of is the Google Stadia support. Now, for a lot of people, this isn’t a deal-breaker, but it can still caveat a minor community that wants to enjoy their latest games on the big screen.
The Remote and Google Assistance
Alongside the new hardware, you will now get a remote to enjoy the full Chromecast experience. The remote is simple, yet convenient enough to control the entire TV. There’s a power button, volume rocker, input button, mute button, home button, Google Assistant button, and dedicated buttons for Netflix and YouTube.
The Final Verdict
The Chromecast with Google TV gets a lot of things right, from a modern interface, to remote and a dedicated Assistant feature – it surely is a new and revamped version of the Chromecast lineup.
Away from the feature-packed world, the device is great at $50. The only downside of this is the ability to stream 4K content which is a bit tricky if you’re rocking a standard Wi-Fi connection. And for Ethernet support, you have to spend extra on a dongle that just adds up to your cart.