If you ’re look for a sleazy 4 K streaming gadget , you ca n’t do much better than the Chromecast with Google TV . Available for $ 50 with 4 K HDR and Dolby Atmos in a goodish design that plug into an HDMI port and blot out behind your tv set , Chromecast is the consummate foil to Apple TV 4 atomic number 19 : half the terms with most of the basic functionality .
Google ’s fresh equipment , capably namedGoogle TV Streamer , is a dissimilar creature . Priced at $ 99 , it competes at once with Apple TV 4 kB on price and features , with a 32 GB twist with ethernet and HDMI that also service as a Matter smart home hub and Thread border router . Apple , by comparison , charges $ 129 for a 64 GB Apple TV 4 K with a similar solidifying of features ( subtraction ethernet ) and $ 149 for a 128 GB Apple TV 4 K ( with ethernet ) .
By Google ’s own admission , the TV Streamer is a unmediated competitor to Apple TV 4 jet , with Shalini Govil - Pai , VP and GM for Google TV , saying Google is “ trying to take the market up a notch . ” Furthermore , it ’s live on to stop selling the Chromecast with Google TV , effectively abandoning the small end of the market and leaving Amazon ’s Fire TV Stick to scoop up any gross sales .
So after all these years of people saying Apple needed to compete with Chromecast with an Apple TV dongle , Google surprise us all by go the other way and making a gimmick to vie with Apple TV 4 K , Amazon Fire Cube , and Roku Ultra . And it ’s doing it in the most Apple way possible , with a twist that prioritizes human body and is meant to be seen . The Google TV Streamer has an implausibly thin hero sandwich intention that rests elegantly on a idiot box stand . Its humbled - profile footmark looks like a charging mat and the color options ( Hazel and Porcelain ) will look great in any keep room .
Apple has had the eminent - end streamer market lock up for so long , that it has n’t really had to innovate to rest on top . If it had , it ’s easy to imagine something like the Google TV banner . Apple TV 4 thou is an excellent streaming boxful , but it ’s not middle - catch in any way – the Google TV Streamer most certainly is . And maybe it ’s just the atmospheric pressure Apple ask to take its own streaming corner to the next level .
