Google TV Streamer evaluation: larger, higher, finest

It took Google a number of years, a few pivots, and a number of identify modifications, however the firm has lastly constructed a wonderful working system for watching TV. The Google TV interface — operating on high of the Android TV OS (Google’s branding chaos stays undefeated) — has already been doing a very nice job of constructing it straightforward to search out what you’re on the lookout for and continually recommending new stuff to look at. But the Chromecast streaming dongle it ran on hasn’t been capable of sustain.

Now, Google TV is getting the {hardware} to match. 

The Google TV Streamer 4K, which matches on sale tomorrow for $99.99, is an improve in each approach over the Chromecast with Google TV. There’s a brand new processor, a built-in ethernet port, plus double the RAM and 4 instances the storage of the Chromecast. It helps Matter on your good house, and a Thread radio makes it a Thread border router, which Jen will let you know extra about in a bit.

All of this implies Google lastly has an up-to-date set-top field that shares streaming and good house duties. Google hasn’t offered particulars of the brand new processor (there are experiences it’s the identical MediaTek chip the Fire TV Stick 4K makes use of), however it’s clearly not as overpowered because the costlier Apple TV with the literal chip of an iPhone inside. Still, it’s good to see Google getting severe on this house.

With this new {hardware}, the dongle is gone. This is a grown-up set-top field, designed to sit down out in your media console. As slabs of plastic go, it’s wonderful; my solely actual observe right here is that you should purchase the darkish “hazel” shade. I opted for the lighter “porcelain” for my evaluation unit, and it’s fairly noticeable sitting beneath my TV.

I don’t thoughts that Google switched from dongle to field — I’m completely happy to have made that commerce for the Streamer’s ethernet port and good house controls, plus the actually useful button that pings your distant when it’s misplaced within the sofa — however there’s a purpose just about all TV devices are black. And in the event you’re coming from a Chromecast and seeking to preserve that visible simplicity, it’ll be straightforward to tape or Velcro the Streamer to the again of your TV.

While barely bigger, the distant is just about an identical to the one which shipped with the Chromecast with Google TV 4 years in the past. It does HDMI-CEC and IR controls, has voice management, runs on AAA batteries, and now has a mappable shortcut button.

I’m rather less enthusiastic in regards to the distant than my colleague Chris Welch was again in 2020: I want the D-pad and the choose button have been slightly higher differentiated, and the facility button is just too far-off from every thing else. But by and huge, it’s a wonderful distant, and its easy, spherical edges really feel good to fiddle with.

Getting the Streamer prepared to look at exhibits and flicks is straightforward sufficient and roughly the identical course of as another set-top field. You do a lot of the setup within the Google Home app in your telephone, which is the way you log it in to your Google account and join the Streamer to your good house units. (You also can do issues straight on the display screen by clicking round with the distant, however it’ll take ceaselessly. Your telephone is your pal.)

One significantly good function: as a part of the setup course of, the Home app asks which streaming companies you utilize after which mechanically downloads them to the field. 

The Streamer can deal with 4K video with Dolby Vision and does Dolby Atmos audio as nicely. If your TV and audio gear help it, you can even arrange the Streamer’s distant to manage your different units. You’re additionally prompted throughout setup to create a number of profiles, together with kid-specific ones — hooray! — and to select whether or not you need your screensaver to be out of your Google Photos or some AI-generated artwork. (Jen requested it to generate pictures of a South Carolina sundown, and the AI made sundown “pictures” that appeared like they have been taken on the worst digicam you would discover.) The entire setup course of, together with a crucial software program replace, took me perhaps 10 minutes.

The quickest approach I’ve discovered to do virtually something on the Streamer is through voice. In extra nonsensical branding, the Streamer’s voice assistant is Google Assistant and never Gemini, regardless that Google says it’s Gemini expertise underneath the hood. What issues is that Google TV handles voice instructions largely very nicely. “Play Industry on Max” took me precisely the place it ought to. “Show me Mission: Impossible films” introduced all of them up, so as. “Play Brooklyn Nine-Nine” triggered a menu with all of the locations I can watch the present.

It’s not good: “Play ‘Hot Ones’ on YouTube” didn’t work, however “discover ‘Hot Ones’ movies on YouTube” did, and whereas it’s useful to have Google Assistant inform me all of the locations Brooklyn Nine-Nine is out there, it ought to be capable to be taught that I’m watching the present on Peacock and simply take me there.

In normal, although, if you recognize what you need to watch — and particularly if you recognize what service it’s on — there’s no quicker method to navigate any set-top field than through Google Assistant right here. And, in fact, the Streamer continues to be a Chromecast, so you should use your telephone to search out and forged stuff to your display screen as nicely.

Flipping across the homescreen on the lookout for one thing to look at, I encountered probably the most disappointing factor in regards to the Streamer: it’s not quick. It’s not sluggish, and it’s noticeably quicker than the lag-plagued Chromecast from a number of years in the past, however it’s undoubtedly not quick.

The five-year-old Nvidia Shield is noticeably zippier and smoother as I open and shut apps and scroll the interface, as is the most recent Apple TV. Given how a lot Google hyped the processor and RAM upgrades on this system and the way way more costly it’s because of this, it’s slightly disappointing. It additionally makes me nervous for the longer term given the Chromecast with Google TV’s status for degrading efficiency over time.

But at the moment, it’s quick sufficient. And it is once you don’t know what you need to watch that Google TV actually shines — on the Streamer and elsewhere. It aggregates FAST channels from its personal Freeplay service and extra, so there’s a number of stay and free stuff to look at. The “Trending on Google” row is extraordinarily zeitgeist-y and enjoyable. Just given what it already is aware of about you, from YouTube and Search and elsewhere, plus the continued work it’s doing with Gemini, Google has a virtually insurmountable benefit in terms of recommending stuff you’ll like, and it exhibits.

That’s what makes the Google TV Streamer a wonderful streaming system. But what takes it excessive is its good house options — and for that, my colleague Jen has the small print under.

Streaming could also be within the identify, however the Google TV Streamer additionally quietly doubles as a really succesful good house hub. I’m a giant proponent of marrying the good TV with the good house; it’s only a pure match.

With Matter controller and Thread border router chops, the Streamer can join good house units like lights, locks, and thermostats to Google Home, identical to Google’s Nest Hubs can. But because of a built-in ethernet port and a brand new good house panel, it’s a extra strong choice for placing on the coronary heart of your good house than the Nest Hub (second-gen) or Nest Hub Max. It’s additionally a lot snappier than both of these.

In reality, the Google TV Streamer is the one Google Home hub that helps Matter, Thread, ethernet, Google Assistant voice management (via the distant), and good show features (via your TV) multi function package deal, making it my new advice for the very best good house hub for Google Home.

With the brand new good house panel, the Streamer brings direct management of the good house to Google TV for the primary time outdoors of voice. The panel, which first appeared on Google’s Pixel Tablet (which ought to have been a wise house hub however isn’t), pops up in your TV display screen to supply shortcuts to show off lights or view your cameras with the press of a button.

The Home panel takes loads of design cues from the Apple TV, which — let’s face it — all the system does. But I used to be happy to see that it gives extra flexibility, extra choices, and is extra intuitive than the Apple TV’s model for good house management.

The panel relies across the Google Home app interface, so it feels acquainted. It has the identical mounted shortcuts that take you to cameras, lights, and local weather controls. Then there’s the identical scrollable listing of your “Favorites,” which might embody every thing from particular person units or cameras to teams and automations.

I used to be impressed at how briskly the panel was for controlling lights and automations — the lights in my front room turned on and off immediately, and a Movie Time scene controlling a number of units executed in seconds — a lot quicker than utilizing voice management via the Chromecast or a Nest speaker.

In my few days of testing the system, I discovered myself choosing up the distant to make use of the Streamer to manage my lights greater than utilizing my telephone. Thanks to the choice to program the brand new shortcut button on the distant to open the panel, it acquired me to the controls quicker. It’s additionally good to not have to achieve for the distraction that’s my telephone whereas watching TV.

Pulling up stay feeds from related cameras took a bit longer, however I’m wonderful with that now that there’s lastly the choice to have your video doorbell present mechanically on the TV when somebody’s on the door. This is a function Fire TVs and Apple TVs have had for years. On the Streamer, a small picture-in-picture seems within the high proper, displaying a snapshot of your customer, with the choice to click on “view” to see the full-screen feed. (You need to be fast right here because it goes away in a number of seconds.)

The picture-in-picture half solely works with Google Nest doorbells (I examined it with the battery-powered Nest Doorbell), however Google says you’ll nonetheless get a textual content notification on the TV when utilizing any doorbell suitable with the Google Home app and might then pull up a livestream.

The largest draw back of the Home panel is that you could’t customise it; it’s persistent throughout units. What I choose for the Favorites part within the Google Home app on my telephone is what exhibits up on my TV. It can be good to decide on the cameras I need to see and the lights and automations I need to entry primarily based on which room the Streamer is in. But that’s a minor quibble. 

The addition of help for Matter and Thread, a mesh networking protocol designed for Connected Devices units, elevates the Streamer to true good house hub standing. Thread is one in every of two wi-fi protocols the brand new Matter good house normal helps, and it creates a extra dependable communication pathway for low-power good units like lights, locks, and sensors all through your own home. Current Google Nest Hubs and Google Nest Wifi routers are additionally Thread border routers, and the extra border routers you’ve, the extra dependable your community shall be (so long as they’re all from the identical firm, for now).

Additionally, Google’s new Home runtime function, which is coming to its Google Home hubs later this yr, will allow direct native management of devices over Matter. This ought to considerably cut back latency when issuing instructions to good units.

It’s these good house capabilities that make the Streamer value buying over the $50 Google TV with Chromecast or Walmart’s Onn 4K Pro. Neither of these works with Thread, and neither can mechanically pull up a livestream in your TV when somebody rings your doorbell or allow you to management good lights and alter your thermostat on the massive display screen. 

David and I agree: that is the very best set-top field Google has made but. It’s not some earth-shattering new thought or game-changing enchancment on the components, however Google TV is the very best streaming UI available on the market, and the {hardware} doesn’t maintain the streamer again this time. Combined with an easy-to-use good house panel and Matter and Thread help, all for underneath $100, that is the set-top field we’d advocate to most individuals.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge