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While the Chromecast brand has become almost as ubiquitous as Google itself, its time has come to an end. Now, the Google TV Streamer 4K has taken its place, and with it comes a new rectangular design. Alas, Google's dongle is dead.

With improved hardware, broad streaming support and better smart home integration, this lightweight hub has a lot to offer if you're buying your first streaming device. But while the previous iterations were an affordable entry point into video streaming, the higher price on this new product may be a hard sell for customers considering an upgrade.

Chromecast vs. TV Streamer: What's the difference?

Google's TV Streamer is an amped-up iteration of the Chromecast with Google TV, that's powered by Android 14. Hardware upgrades, including doubling the amount of RAM to 4GB, translates to performance improvements across the board - and you can tell.

Navigation feels smoother and snappier, whether you're using the remote or voice commands, load times are quicker and audio/visual quality is excellent. It's still not the fastest kid on the block and kind of clunks along from time to time, but you'd hardly call it slow.

Storage space has also quadrupled with 32GB available for apps and media files (photos, videos etc). It's a substantial upgrade, though storage is still limited compared to other streamers, like the Apple TV 4K, which offer substantially more.

As well as Wi-Fi 55, Google has added a gigabit (high-speed) Ethernet port. This is a welcome addition as cables, unlike Wi-Fi, are far less prone to dropouts that can interrupt streams and reduce picture quality. But while the lack of Wi-Fi 6 support is disappointing, Wi-Fi 5 is still more than up to the task of handling high-quality, 4K streams.

Overhauled design

The dongle era is over, as Google has now opted for a larger, flat rectangular streaming box with rounded edges. While older Chromecasts were designed to sit discreetly behind your TV or computer monitor, the TV Streamer has a rather sleek appearance that looks right at home on a TV cabinet.

But the bigger box makes the TV Streamer a little less travel-friendly than its predecessors. Where Chromecasts could easily plug into the HDMI port of a hotel TV, the Streamer is a bit too heavy to leave hanging back there. Though still light and portable, you'll need to pack a longer HDMI cable if you want to connect on the go.

The sleek design compliments your home entertainment space.

At almost 14cm, the updated remote is also a little larger, with a few minor adjustments. Volume control, for example, has been moved from the side to the front which feels easier to use, especially for people with limited dexterity. Otherwise, it's more or less unchanged.

The navigation pad and buttons are limited to the essentials – home, mic (for voice commands), power on/off etc. As well as dedicated Netflix and YouTube shortcut keys, Google has included a customisable 'star' button to quickly open an app of your choice.

Finding your favourites

If a streaming service exists, then it's probably supported by Google. All of the major options, and plenty of specialised ones, are available, including Netflix, Disney+, ABC iView, Tubi and Plex to name a few.

The home screen acts like a streaming hub, listing content from a variety of services that you may enjoy, alongside new releases, movies and shows to continue watching and so on. Google's approach to the amalgamated content feed is one of the better examples around, though it's not without its quirks.

New and trending recommendations tend to be quite good after Google gets a handle on what you like to watch. It generally pulls an equal amount of recommended content from streaming services that you are and aren't subscribed to, but the latter can be a bit annoying.

The home screen pulls content from all of your streaming subscriptions.

Fortunately, you can turn this so-called feature off. After that, the TV Streamer will only recommend content from your existing subscriptions. Meanwhile, content that you've rented or purchased is stored in a separate 'libraries' tab, which helps keep the home screen clutter free.

The 'continue watching' section, which pulls content from all of your subscriptions, is quick and easy to access. But content doesn't consistently appear in this list, sometimes forcing you to navigate to the app to pick up where you left off, which defeats the point of a home screen hub.

Using voice to search for movies and shows is one of the highlights of this streamer. Not only are voice commands accurate and responsive, they're really fast. In fact, these commands might just be the quickest way to get around.

Searching multiple streamers

A rather consumer-friendly feature is the range of search results from different apps. The TV Streamer will list all available streaming options, whether they're subscription based, available for rent/buy or free with ads.

For example, Seinfeld is available on Netflix, without ads, and on 9Now for free, albeit with commercials. The TV Streamer lists the paid and free services when you ask it to "stream Seinfeld". This may be a tad cynical, but you'd expect tech brands to prioritise paid options these days, so it's great to see Google highlight free alternatives as well.

A smart home hub

In many ways, the Google Streamer feels like a culmination of Google's ongoing efforts to turn streaming devices into smart home hubs. It's easier than ever to communicate and control supported devices on your network – such as smart lights, security cameras and smoke alarms.

Though these controls have been available in older models, the interface, integration and response times are a bit more robust here. Adjusting your lights or viewing security camera feeds from the same hub as your movie streaming apps is much easier than reaching for your smartphone, for example. Where these commands might have felt like a bit of a novelty with your phone, they're genuinely useful, and faster, via the Google TV Streamer remote.

Of course, this is all dependent on whether the smart devices around your home can play nice with Google's preferred smart home connection standards – Matter and Thread. If not, you may not be able to fully utilise the smart hub features on offer.

Supported streaming formats

Though plug-and-play is a perfectly viable option, the TV Streamer supports a range of audio and HDR formats for home theatre enthusiasts. This is also dependent on what your TV supports and what the streaming service provides. Options include:

• High-dynamic range (HDR): HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, Hybrid log gamma (HLG).
• Audio: PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos.

The TV Streamer includes an Ethernet port.

Should you buy the Google TV Streamer?

This really depends on the state of your streaming setup. The TV Streamer is a great device in its own right. It's fast, easy to use, has a sleek design and support for just about every streaming app under the sun.

Smart home integration is great, especially if you're already invested in Google's ecosystem. It may be worth picking up if you're thinking about expanding the range of smart devices in your house.

However, the argument for upgrading from an existing Chromecast isn't all that convincing. The performance jump is more of a slight hop forward and certainly not quite enough to justify the RRP if you already own the last-generation Chromecast. In this case, it's best to wait for a sale.

Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.

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