Top pick
This beautifully designed Google TV box pairs a zippy, reliable user experience with leading search and customization features—but it’s double the price of its predecessor.
The Google TV Streamer (4K) takes everything we loved about the now-discontinued Chromecast with Google TV (our former top pick) and repackages it into a fetching tabletop box. This 4K HDR-capable streamer is faster and more powerful than any of Google’s previous media streaming devices while still offering the intuitive interface and organizational advantages that make Google TV our favorite streaming interface.
Google TV provides a more inclusive approach to content. Many media streaming devices have a content agenda. Amazon’s Fire TV devices give you access to all the apps, but they’d prefer if you were a Prime subscriber watching Prime Video exclusives. Likewise, the Apple TV 4K gives you access to all the apps but is still tailored first and foremost for iTunes, Apple Music, and Apple TV+ content.
Google and, to some extent, Roku buck this trend simply because they aren’t major content producers, so they’re a bit more agnostic in their search results and recommendations. When you search for a TV show or movie, Google TV tends to do a better job showing all of the places it’s available to rent or buy—yes, including the Google Play Store—without pushing a proprietary storefront.
It puts the content you’ve been watching right on the home screen for faster access. Open up a Roku interface, and you’ll see apps for Disney+, Hulu, Max, Netflix, or Prime Video, but nothing about what you were watching in them.
Google TV’s home page, on the other hand, will show you a half-finished YouTube video, the next episode of what you were watching on Netflix, and a movie you forgot you started on Max. It’s extremely convenient compared with almost everything else out there. Even though you should maybe know that Stranger Things is on Netflix and Severance is on Apple TV+, it’s great not to have to worry about remembering what you’ve been watching or where you’ve been watching it.
Naturally this functionality will be much more appealing to users who pay for multiple subscriptions across a variety of streaming apps. If you only use a couple of apps, you probably don’t need a $100 media streaming device.
It is blissfully fast most of the time. I use a lot of media streaming devices in my work and personal life, but for the past year I’ve been using my living-room TV’s built-in smart platform to watch content. If you asked me a month ago how it was, I would’ve said, “Just fine.”
After using the TV Streamer (4K), my answer would be, “A bit like molasses.” Compared with even a premium, pricey smart TV—and many similarly priced media streaming devices—the TV Streamer (4K) is bottled lightning. Apps boot instantly, with many running simultaneously in the background, allowing you to seamlessly jump from one thing to another.
I tested the 2024 version of the Roku Ultra right after using the Google TV Streamer (4K) for a few weeks. Both are $100, but the Roku felt so sluggish by comparison I wondered if something was wrong with it at first. While I doubt the TV Streamer (4K) will be this fast when it isn’t brand new, it has enough runway to not become annoyingly bogged down for at least several years, thanks to its 32 gigabytes of storage (compared with the Chromecast’s 4 GB).
The streamer’s processing power is complemented handily by the included voice remote, which doesn’t deviate much in design from the remote included with the previous Chromecast 4K dongle. Unlike the sometimes finicky remote included with the latest Apple TV 4K device, I find the Google remote’s navigation pad to be delightfully fast and accurate. Other than a couple minor snafus, this streamer almost instantaneously identified the content I searched for via the voice remote and loaded it on the screen.
You’ll be happy to see it on your tabletop. Google took a big step away from the dongle/stick design of the Chromecast in designing the TV Streamer (4K), taking pages from the books of the Apple TV 4K and Roku Ultra. The end result is, in my opinion, the best-looking media streaming device you can buy right now.
Available in white or hazel, the box’s smooth, angled design tapers back from a flatter front to a taller back end to make room for a USB-C input (for power or a potential docking station), a gigabit-capable ethernet port, and an HDMI output. Unfortunately, your $100 doesn’t get you an HDMI cable in the box.
You’ll also find a small button that works as a remote finder. As long as the TV Streamer (4K) and its remote are already paired, pressing this button will cause the remote to emit a noise to help you locate it. You can also use the Google Home app to find the remote if need be.
This box is also a smart home gateway, if you need it. Most people probably aren’t buying media streaming devices to use as smart home hubs. But if you fancy that, you’ll be happy to know that the Google TV Streamer (4K) is not only a fully functional Google Home hub, it also supports the Matter and Matter-over-Thread protocols.
I will be the first to admit: I don’t have many smart devices, and I didn’t exhaustively test this functionality. The Google Home interface can theoretically allow you to see your camera feeds on screen or get smart-device notifications while you’re watching things, but we can’t give a full run-down of this functionality until our smart-home team has had more time with the device.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
It’s expensive—but it also isn’t. The TV Streamer (4K) is twice the price of the previous Chromecast dongle, and at first blush it might seem overpriced, given that its core functionality is not that different from Google’s older device or our budget pick.
However, in my testing I found that I preferred this $100 streamer over the comparable $100 Roku Ultra—it’s both faster and easier to jump back into what I’m watching. I also preferred it over the Apple TV 4K and Nvidia Shield TV, which are some of the only other streamers to feature a gigabit-capable ethernet port—and they’re both $50 more expensive.
By those comparisons, the TV Streamer (4K) doesn’t feel overpriced at all—it’s just competing in a different class of products than the original Chromecast was. But if you’d rather get the Google TV experience without paying extra for fancy design, a faster hardline connection, or smart home hub capabilities, check out our budget pick.
You’re only getting the Wi-Fi 5 protocol. Routers equipped with Wi-Fi 6 are faster, deal with congestion better, and handle routing data to multiple devices more efficiently, so it would be great if the TV Streamer (4K) could utilize that protocol, especially when you’re streaming high-bandwidth content.
That said, I actually had an easier time streaming 4K content in dynamic HDR through the Google TV Streamer than through my high-end, Wi-Fi 6–equipped Samsung TV.
You can’t use it hands-free. Some folks swear by devices like the Amazon Fire TV Cube that allow for full hands-free use. But here, your only voice-command option is to press the microphone button on the remote, as there are no microphones on the body of the device.
Oddly enough, our budget pick—a Google TV device that’s half the price of this one—does allow hands-free use.
It’s Android-centric. There’s no support for Amazon Alexa, Siri, or AirPlay 2 to be found here. It’s “Hey Google,” Chromecast, and Bluetooth.
