Chromecast With Google TV Review: A Worthy Rival to Roku and Amazon Fire TV
Tags: Norton, Setup, Chromecast, Amazon, Google Tv Review

Chromecast With Google TV Review: A Worthy Rival to Roku and Amazon Fire TV Clydedonahue Aug 6·3 min read

The TV ambition of Google is brewing for a long time. Starting in 2013 in the era of streaming television, the company launched its first Chromecast. It relied then on your phone, tablet, etc., to supply the videos. Android TV, which came in 2014, added an interface and TV-specific apps but failed to match the popularity level of some of its rival streamers like Amazon, Roku, and Apple. The all-new 50$ Chromecast with Google TV is the search giant’s best effort that you can purchase.

What is new in this

From the earlier 35$ Chromecast, the latest 50$ gives you remote control, high-end streaming services like 4K resolution, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atoms. It has a single unified home page that allows you to choose from different apps and integrates Google Assistant better than ever. These upgrades have been done to compete with Roku’s Streaming Stick Plus and Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K, which it does extremely well. It is not as simple or rock-solid as Roku, but it is certainly more capable for voice.

The Chromecast comes in 3 colors like snow white, sunrise pink, and sky blue. The dongle plugs into your TV via HDMI, and it tucks away behind your TV, so its color does not matter.

The remote is good. It is the as same thickness as the Roku remote and feels comfortable in hand. There is a Google clicker feature at the top, which is a four-way directional pad. It also has a dedicated button for Google Assistant differentiable from other buttons. Netflix gets a dedicated button. Apart from that, other regular keys are like a normal remote should have.

A helpful assistant

By holding down the button on the remote, the assistant can be summoned, and it is much more responsive than its other competitors like Alexa, Siri, and the Roku’s unnamed assistant. You can also go to the station even without saying the station’s name and just the object name, which provides a much simpler and easy viewing experience.

Dolby Vision and Atoms

Like the Fire Stick 4K, the Chromecast also supports the Dolby Vision and Atoms, but it is very difficult to find the apps that support both features. It does not come with a list that provides the app name.

The picture quality is sharp and crisp, and so is the audio.

Google TV: Cross-app browse, great voice search

A major improvement is that it now does not rely on your phone, tablet, or computer. By incorporating Google TV, Google is finally embracing Chromecast as a stand-alone streamer. Setting up the Chromecast is easy and fast as it does have an on-screen keyboard to enter user names and passwords. Google Tv has over 6000 apps and nearly all major streaming services.

In addition to these, there is a For You section which shows you what’s on now from the channel that you watch, resumes show that you were watching on different streaming services, and also displays movies and shows that you may like.

The software is not as snappy as Amazon’s platform as the interface could hiccup during switching apps and returning to the main menu.

Is it worth it?

It depends on which ecosystem you live in. for example, if your home is more Amazon-based, then it will be good to use the Alexa integration of the Fire TV stick. Similarly, you should use Roku’s support for your Apple Airplay and Home Kit. If you have subscribed to YouTube TV or are a fan of Google assistant, you should go with Chromecast with Google TV. It also integrates well with other Google services like Photos and supports nearly all major streaming apps. It also allows you to cast apps to form your phone, which can be considered a nice bonus.

Source: https://lifelocknofficesetup.com/chromecast-with-google-tv-review-a-worthy-rival-to-roku-and-amazon-fire-tv/