Google TV Streamer (4K)

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The $99 Google TV Streamer is the latest iteration of Google's media streaming hardware and makes several important upgrades over Google's Chromecast dongles. Rather than dangle from your TV's HDMI ports, it sits out front like a traditional streaming box, includes an Ethernet port on the back, and adds support for modern smart home networking standards. While these are all welcome additions, the streamer fails to include hands-free voice control and carries over older Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1 radios. If you're locked into Google's ecosystem and find the addition of Ethernet enough of an upgrade, it makes some sense, but the $139.99 Amazon Fire TV Cube and the $99.99 Roku Ultra include many advanced features for a similar price. More importantly, Google is still currently selling the 4K Chromecast With Google TV for just $49.99, and it remains our Editors' Choice for affordable streamers.

Not a Dongle Anymore

Though you can still buy one, Google is phasing Chromecast dongles out in favor of its new Google TV Streamer and licensing the Google TV platform to television makers. The Google TV Streamer eschews the notion of plugging a hanging dongle into the back of your TV in favor of a slightly larger and more flexible package.

As its first non-dongle media streamer, Google gives the Google TV Streamer a simple design. It’s a bare, angled box measuring 1.0 by 6.4 by 3.0 inches (HWD) and weighing 5.7 ounces, intended to sit next to or under your TV. The top panel is shaped like a pill and flat, angled forward to almost touch the surface of whatever it’s resting on. The raised rear edge gives the back panel enough room to hold the HDMI port, USB-C port (for the included power cable and charger), Ethernet port, and remote finder button. It’s small and elegant, and with its unassuming profile and lack of visual flourish, it can virtually disappear wherever you place it. It comes in Hazel (gray) or Porcelain (off-white, pictured in this review).

The 5.4-inch remote is a longer, slightly redesigned version of the existing Chromecast remote. It’s white and pill-shaped, with a flat top surface, like the Google TV Streamer itself. A circular navigation pad dominates the top quarter of its face, with large circular buttons below it. These include (from top to bottom) Back, Home, Mic, and Mute, along with a volume rocker and dedicated service buttons for Netflix and YouTube. Below these, you'll find the Power and Shortcut buttons, a pinhole microphone, and an indicator LED.

A Faster Processor, the Same Wi-Fi

Internally, the Google TV Streamer is only a slight upgrade from the Chromecast. According to Google, its processor is 22% faster than those of older Chromecast models, and it has twice as much RAM (2GB) and four times as much onboard storage (32GB). It streams up to 4K resolution with support for high dynamic range (HDR) content in Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HDR10+, just like the Chromecast. It also has the same HDMI Dolby-encoded audio pass-through support, so you can watch movies and shows with Dolby Atmos in spatial audio. Notably, Pixel Buds Pro 2 users can enjoy wireless Dolby Atmos when they pair their buds with the Streamer for private audio.

The Ethernet port is a nice addition that helps justify the refreshed form factor and size by letting you plug it directly into your router. That puts it on the same footing for wired connectivity as the Amazon Fire TV Cube and the Roku Ultra. It lags in wireless features, though: It only supports dual-band 2.4/5GHz 802.11ac, or Wi-Fi 5. The Amazon and Roku media hubs, as well as the pricey Apple TV 4K ($129), support 802.11ax and/or Wi-Fi 6. The latter is a more advanced Wi-Fi standard that can be both faster and more reliable than Wi-Fi 5. The Fire TV Cube supports Wi-Fi 6E, an upgraded version of 802.11ac that uses the 6GHz band, giving it even more space in the airwaves to work. You need a Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E router to take advantage of this, but they’re common and affordable now. The omission of Wi-Fi 6 on the Google TV Streamer is pretty significant not only because it’s available from similarly priced competing products, but because it’s also on the $50 Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K.

The Google TV Streamer covers smart home control well: It can serve as both a Matter hub and Thread border router and control all Works with Google Home devices.

Google TV—At the Press of a Button

As its name indicates, the Google TV Streamer uses Google TV for its user interface, just like the Chromecast. It’s a capable, powerful platform with apps for all the major streaming services, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Crunchyroll, Disney+, Netflix, Paramount+, Sling, Twitch, and YouTube. It also has Google Cast for streaming anything you want from your Android phone, tablet, or Chrome tab.

You can access Google Assistant on the Google TV Streamer by pressing and holding the microphone button on the remote and speaking into it. Google Assistant is a full-featured and useful voice assistant that lets you discover content, control compatible smart home devices, search for general information like sports scores and weather forecasts, and check your calendar.

Google Assistant on the Google TV Streamer has just one problem: You can’t use it without your hands. You need to pick up the remote and press the button to use the voice assistant, which is disappointing on a $100 media hub. While it isn’t as robust as a full voice assistant, the Roku Ultra has hands-free voice controls through its remote's mid-field microphone array. The slightly more expensive Fire TV Cube offers fully hands-free operation. Many Google TV-powered televisions also have hands-free Google Assistant, like the Hisense U6N. Chromecast devices have never had hands-free voice control, but between the Google TV Streamer's significantly higher price and its larger body, Google should have added it. You can control the Google TV Streamer with your voice via Google Assistant only through a separate smart speaker, like the $49 Nest Mini. But that’s an extra expense on top of an already pricey device.

If you don’t mind relying entirely on the remote, smart home controls are easy to use on the Google TV Streamer thanks to a recent update to Google TV. You can still press the microphone button and use Google Assistant, but you can also hold the Home button to bring up a floating home panel that lets you access your devices through on-screen controls. It’s useful in its own right, though it’s not as useful as hands-free access.

The Google TV Streamer performs great, even if it’s limited to Wi-Fi 5. It feels more responsive than the Chromecast, which is particularly noticeable with Twitch’s poorly optimized Google TV app. Loading and backing out of streams to the app’s home screen only takes a second or two, while the Chromecast often needs five to 10 seconds. Navigating most apps feels fast, and videos load immediately. This is definitely the snappiest Google TV has ever felt.

Verdict: The Upgrades Don't Fully Justify the Price

The Google TV Streamer is certainly the fastest and most advanced Google TV-powered media hub yet. We like the added Ethernet port and the ability to control Matter and Threads smart home devices. The new processor serves up peppy performance, and the Google TV user interface is as powerful as ever. However, without Wi-Fi 6 and hands-free voice control, it trails its closest competitors, the Amazon Fire TV Cube 4K and the Roku Ultra, which offer both. Any media streamer that costs $100 or more needs some extra justification for the price, specifically hands-free control, when there are great options for half as much.

For feature-filled media streamers with Ethernet ports, the Fire TV Cube remains our Editors’ Choice thanks to hands-free Alexa voice control and Wi-Fi 6E. And while it's still available, the Chromecast With Google TV remains our Editors' Choice for affordable media streamers thanks to its low $49.99 price and good media playback support.