I’ve been trying out new Chromecasts for years in the hope that one year, Google might make a device that works for my use case. And in 2020, Google finally released one that did - the Chromecast with Google TV.
My Use Case
My use case is fairly simple - I wanted a device to connect to my secondary monitor which I could control with a remote control which was also able to stream media (in various formats) from my NAS device. Previously, Chromecasts would require an in-between phone or other device to pass media to the Chromecast - it was effectively a dumb wireless receiver. I always found this passable but its reliance on the phone always made it less convenient to me compared to an Apple TV, which stood on its own.
The Chromecast with Google TV changes this - it is a (nearly) full-fledged Android device like the Apple TV, with the ability to install apps and run completely independently of a phone - which means it has its own remote. It also costs a fraction that an Apple TV does.
The Good
There’s a lot of good things to say about the new Chromecast. It’s small - fits behind your television, monitor, wherever it needs to be. It would be good if it came with an extension cable, or an Ethernet port built into the power adapter (like the Chromecast Ultra), but it packs a lot of utility. It is slightly longer and wider than its round predecessors.
It has a USB-C port - which doesn’t sound like much, but you can connect a USB-C multiport adapter to it (like those widely available for use with modern laptops) and use it to connect webcams, an Ethernet cable, USB drives, and more.
It works amazingly - no real lags, a real BACK button (unlike the Apple TV’s dual purpose button) which means you never exit out to the home screen when you don’t mean to. You can install apps to cover any shortfalls, VLC and PLEX both run great on the Chromecast.
Because of my existing setup, I don’t have to run an extra power adapter - it only needs a USB-C cable into the multiport adapter for power. No figure-8 cable, freeing another socket on my powerboard.
It also supports… volume control! Unlike the Apple TV which just assumes it will be connected to a television with its own volume control, the Chromecast gives you the option to control its audio volume by itself! It isn’t as good with normalizing the audio, however - so you will be pressing the audio up/down buttons a fair bit, especially between different apps (and Youtube channels sometimes.)
The Bad
The Wi-Fi reception is horrible. Even a mere 5 meters away from a good wireless access point (I have an Ubiquiti Unifi setup now), it was dropping connections when playing 1080p video from the NAS. It’s fortunate that I have a way to wire it up via Ethernet, or it would be unusable.
The remote is a slippery mess. It’s a semi-circle and rounded so that unless you are gripping both the top and the bottom of the remote, you are probably going to have it slip out of your hands at some point. It’s not a massive challenge, but you’ll know very quickly when you are “holding it wrong”. I love the back button, but I wish the two app buttons weren’t hard-coded to YouTube and Netflix - there are ways to remap this by installing Android software, but I wish this was just built in.
Software reliability is a bit of a question mark. After about 1-2 months with it, it gave me the equivalent of a BSOD and complained about data corruption. It is also at this time that I learned the remote doesn’t work to resolve this problem, and you will need to press a button on the rear of the Chromecast unit (apparently, connecting a keyboard directly to USB-C may also work.)
Given the ability to install apps, I wish there was more of an app drawer rather than just forcing me into their “content” experience. The default app drawer goes up to 12 apps, which you max out fairly quickly in Australia if you install all the free-to-air TV apps as well as those for the multiple streaming services.
Conclusion
Fundamentally, it has a big flaw - poor Wi-Fi reception. If you can put the Chromecast in a good location for Wi-Fi or wire it straight to your LAN, it is an excellent replacement for an Apple TV or even the older Chromecasts given it is a straight-up improvement in every way. If you need to put it behind your television where it will be shielded from Wi-Fi reception and can’t pull an Ethernet cable to it, you probably need to look elsewhere.