But that’s beyond the Chromecast’s responsibility. Hulu, for example, still lacks 4K playback. Performance is still middling for the most part, and it’s frustrating that some apps still lack features on Android TV OS versus other platforms. Google could even up the price by a few dollars to cover these changes, and I don’t think it would come with much of a complaint.īut beyond storage, how is the product holding up? Fine … I guess. A new Chromecast with Google TV packed with a 16GB storage chip and perhaps an updated chip that can handle the AV1 standard Google has been pushing so hard would extend this product’s life without much of an investment. Google needs to address this problem, and at this point the easiest solution feels like a simple product refresh. But Android 12 is a meaningful update that, frankly, just isn’t feasible with this storage constraint. Android 11 would be a waste of time, frankly, as it doesn’t deliver much to the TV experience, especially on the user-facing level. In 2022, the Chromecast with Google TV is still based on Android 10. Worse yet, it also prevents any form of major system update – or at least makes it much more difficult. This is restrictive enough for security updates, but it also limits how often Google can address bugs and other quirks that may arise. But nearly six months later, that’s still the most recent update, and it’s almost surely due to the fact that Google knows a lot of people can’t install anything else. It brought with it a tweak that opened up some more storage space, some HDR improvements, and a new security patch. The last update, rolled out in December 2021, weighed in at 158MB. When most Chromecast owners have a mere 100–400MB to spare, there’s hardly any room for Google to work with when installing any kind of Android update on the Chromecast. It is not nice.īeyond that, there’s the dilemma of system updates. My personal Chromecast has been in use since September 2020, and it has just shy of 70MB available today. That’s not including the inevitable cache data that they will build up either, not to mention the other major apps that are sure to be installed for many folks like YouTube, YouTube TV, Apple TV, and others. The Android TV apps for Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Prime Video, HBO Max, and Peacock alone eat up over 530MB. This would have been fine back when streaming services were limited to Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and a handful of others, but there are so many more now. The first and most obvious problem is the lack of space to install apps. There are plenty of things that are unfortunately not great about the Chromecast with Google TV two years later, and several of the biggest problems stem from one area - storage.ĨGB of storage was not enough for a streaming stick in 2020, and it’s even worse a couple of years later. How has the Chromecast with Google TV aged? ![]() What the Chromecast is capable of is also still mostly on par with the competition in its price bracket.īut, it’s not all great news. Nearly two years later, Google TV continues to be a solid way to sift through the ever-growing list of streaming services and has expanded that support in the time since it launched. The UI is clean and modern-feeling, unlike Roku, and keeps all of its advertising focus on content you can actually watch, unlike Fire TV which often steers into actual products.Īnd really, most of these points hold up to this day. ![]() While there are plenty of people who feel frustrated by the ads on the homescreen and the lack of focus on apps directly, I’ve personally always felt like Google has struck a decent balance here. The UI made it easy to tell where content was, keep a central watchlist of what you wanted to check out, and recommend content based on your interests in a relatively clean way. Google TV came at just the right time with its “lifeboat” to streaming services, as we put it in our review. ![]() The biggest thing that the device got right, though, was its software. The Chromecast also shipped with an easy-to-use and comfortable remote with a design that looks pleasant and works well for its intended use case. Its $50 price point offered an affordable point of entry to a brand new platform and allowed the hardware enough room to support most of the major standards. Google did get a lot of things right with its first Android-based Chromecast. What the Chromecast with Google TV got right ![]() Chromecast with Google TV oddly switches to pre-order at Amazon with ‘User profiles’ advertised.The Chromecast with Google TV ushered in a new era for the company’s streaming endeavors, but as we continue to move forward, time hasn’t been particularly kind to the Chromecast, and we’re itching to see what’s next for Google’s vision. It’s been almost two years since Google revealed its updated take on Android TV – and its first streamer with a remote.
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