Quick review
The good
The not-so-good
Upgrading your TV to a smart TV has been easy enough with a Chromecast over the past decade, but Google is changing things with the TV Streamer. Is it a welcome change?
You might have heard that Google has technically killed the Chromecast, because it kind of did. Not too long ago, Google decided to end its long-running Chromecast gadgets, devices that used to come in $59 Full HD and $99 4K variant, and making it easy for anyone with a TV — old or new — to make the transition to a smart TV of sorts.
If you’re wondering why, AI is largely the reason, as Google commits to using the technology in most of its gear, and unfortunately, the old Chromecast models were just ill equipped.
Its replacement has the features and tech: the Google TV Streamer is a little bit different, delivering a small white plastic wedge of a thing that forgoes the built-in HDMI plug and comes with 4K by default.
It’s not the same, and yet in many ways, it also feels like it is. Kinda sorta.
What is the Google TV Streamer?
Unlike the plug-in Google Chromecast with Google TV of old, this little wedge-shaped device is the set-top box equivalent of the Chromecast for some reason or another.
You’ll need to bring your own HDMI cable, and you’ll also want to be careful taking it out of the box. For some reason, it’s packed upside down and the remote seems to fall out immediately upon sliding the cardboard frame out. Go figure.
What does it do?
If you’ve ever checked out a Google Chromecast before, you probably know exactly what the TV Streamer does, because it is more of the same in a different design.
Like the previous iteration, the Google Chromecast with Google TV, it’s a smart TV streaming device with support for casting using Chromecast, complete with the Google TV operating system onboard.
You get a remote with some function buttons, a microphone, and a little directional pad, and you can browse apps for entertainment services, download the occasional game, pair a controller, and even ask Google questions.
Unlike the Chromecast for the past decade or so, the Google TV comes in a totally different design. Rather than plug it straight into your TV using a built in HDMI cable, Google has taken the route of designing it more like a small set-top box, rather like Google had its own variation of the Apple TV. Kinda sorta.
There’s support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, provided the services you subscribe to can support it, and there’s also support for smart home technologies by Matter and Thread. You can also set up a nice screensaver like you can on the Chromecast and Nest displays, using either art or your own photo galleries.
The TV Streamer also includes 32GB, which should be plenty of storage for apps and even the odd game if you can find one worth installing. It’s not like Android’s game selection on the phone or tablet, that’s for sure.
The idea is still the same, but the hardware design is different, and it’s now a little bit faster, designed to accomodate some AI from Google Gemini, if you’re at all interested in using that.
Does it do the job?
Plug the USB cable in, and plug in that BYO HDMI cable, and then you’ll be ready to set up the TV Streamer, which is basically using the Google Home app to run through a few steps and get the device on your network and in your account. Fairly basic.
Once set up, you’ll find your remote lets you navigate the Google TV interface all too easily, with a custom shortcut button that’s yours to decide.
Browsing is pretty much the same as it ever was, with maybe a little more speed from the system as you search for titles or work across apps.
You’ll find voice control works easy enough, with Google’s AI providing quick review summaries on titles so you can quickly work out whether a movie or show is worth watching or not.
It’s also technically there if you’d like to ask Google about other things: where to find kids movies, a search on milkshake recipes, or something else that you can also do on the gradually less impressive and buggy Google Nest Hub smart displays.
What we didn’t find was the Gemini app from the Pixel 9 Pro XL on the TV Streamer itself, but that doesn’t seem like a big loss right now. We’re not entirely sure what AI could bring to the TV Streamer package right now, beyond that summaries of movies and shows, which you might just find yourself ignoring in the first place.
What does it need?
There are things that could make the TV Streamer better, or even just different. It has smart home technology and a little more grunt for an AI component that may or may not be useful. But it could still be better.
For instance, it could include the HDMI cable, which is now an optional extra that you actually need to make it work. The previous Chromecasts had this built in, but not the TV Streamer.
It could include better gaming support, with entertainment titles not quite where they are compared with the Apple TV, and the remote lacking motion sensitivity, so you have to bring a controller to the package. The remote has gotten a little bigger and the buttons are slightly more customisable, but the system isn’t a whole lot more interactive.
Google could have also included an extra HDMI input to make the TV Streamer different. Interestingly, you can map the custom function button to trigger a different input, just not from the Streamer itself. The idea is there, even if the practical usage to make the TV Streamer gadget itself better.
Is it worth your money?
At $160 in Australia, the TV Streamer hardly feels like much of an evolution on the Chromecast, or even the previous Google TV with Chromecast, which is basically what this model is.
It’s not a bad device by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn’t seem like the replacement for what the Chromecast was: an easy recommendation to anyone needing smarts added to their TV.
If anything, it’s more of the same with a little more processing power and about $60 more in cost. That makes it more expensive than the Hubbl, the Amazon Fire TV Stick models, and also more expensive than the original Google TV with Chromecast it was meant to replace.
In fairness to Google, the TV Streamer is technically less expensive than an Apple TV, but the lack of games makes the TV Streamer not quite as impressive overall.
Rather, the value just isn’t quite where it used to be. Google should price it closer to the $99 of its predecessor, maybe for a max of $20 more. The difference isn’t dramatic enough to wipe our memories of what the Chromecast could do.
Yay or nay?
Despite the price change, Google still makes a decent TV streaming gadget, but it’s one that doesn’t read like it’s necessarily worth the increased price.
It’s the slightly smarter, flatter Chromecast, but one with an inconveniently upsized price, all without changing a whole lot extra. There’s still a great gadget here, but the TV Streamer is less of an obvious buy that its predecessor was.
