Nexus Player Review [VIDEO]
Google is taking another stab at entering your living room with the introduction of Android TV and its flagship device, the Nexus Player. The new platform promises a simplified, content-driven approach to home entertainment, but will a lack of options ultimately doom the Nexus Player’s chances to get a foothold in the market? How long until Google reinvents its TV strategy again? Read on to find out.
11 Things new Nexus Player owners should know
Hardware
For Google’s simplified television solution it makes sense that the company would go with a simplified hardware design. The discreet set-top box, which is manufacturer by Asus, has been compared to a hockey puck, and that’s not so far off. It’s more like a regulation hockey puck that has been run over by a truck. It’s thinner but takes up a larger footprint overall. All that is to say, once you have it setup among your home entertainment options, it’s hardly a focal point of the living room. This isn’t the eye-catching design of the short-lived Nexus Q and it’s not as bulky as many of the Google TV devices that came before.
The Nexus Player is powered by a quad-core Intel Atom processor clocked at 1.8GHz. The Imagination PowerVR Series 6 Graphics 2D/3D Engine makes the Player a more-than-capable gaming device, but some might be disappointed to learn that Google only provides 1GB RAM. The Nexus Player only includes 8GB of on board storage and no options for expansion.
Setup is quick and easy. Connect the Nexus Player with an HDMI cable to your TV and plug in the power supply. Throw some batteries in the remote and you are done. It takes less than five minutes to go from the box to completed setup (not including software).
Connectivity
The smooth circle of the Nexus Player is interrupted by a cutout for its various ports. There are only three: HDMI-out, microUSB, and power jack.
There is no ethernet connection (though ethernet is listed as an option under the Nexus Player’s settings menu). There are no outputs for digital or even analog audio to connect to a home theater system. There is no HDMI pass-through (you’ll have to switch television inputs to access Nexus Player content). Oh, and that USB port? Lest you think you will be expanding storage or sideloading apps out of the box, Google says the port exists solely to allow developers to debug their app experiences. [Editor’s Note: While this appears to be Google’s official stance, users have reported that the USB port can indeed support wired peripherals including keyboards and mice in addition to expandable storage, though it is not its intended use and therefore is not as simple as plug-and-play in all cases. MicroUSB-to-ethernet adaptors will also work, apparently. We are working to confirm.]
As for wireless connectivity, WiFi 802.11ac is the only option for networking (remember: no ethernet port). We understand the reasoning behind it. As long as they have a fast, reliable WiFi network it won’t make much of a difference to the average consumer whether the device is connecting to their home network via a wireless or wired connection, and one less port means one less component adding to the cost of the device. Still, it’s a simple addition that would have gone a long way.
The Nexus Player also includes Bluetooth for pairing accessories like the included remote and optional gamepad. A button (the only hardware button on the actual Nexus Player) that initiates the pairing process is centered on the underside of the puck. We appreciate Google going with Bluetooth here. It opens up the possibility of connecting all sorts of controller accessories down the road, but it also means we aren’t dealing with pesky line-of-sight IR sensors. The Nexus Player could be stashed in a drawer and the remote would still work effortlessly.
The Remote
Google didn’t attempt to reinvent the wheel with the Nexus Player remote. It looks similar to the controllers included with devices like Amazon’s Fire TV, the Roku, and, yes, Apple TV.
A large circular D-pad is used to navigate system menus. It’s not capacitive so there is no scrolling simply by running your finger around it; you will have to click. The select button is centered within the circle and below both are Android’s standard navigation controls (home, back) and a play/pause button. Perhaps the best addition to the remote is a voice search button and built-in microphone, but more on that later.
The remote runs on two AAA batteries (included). The construction of the whole thing feels a bit cheap, but we don’t really need much more for a device like the Nexus Player. Alternatively, Android users can download an app that allows remote control from their smartphone.
Software and Experience
Time for a very brief history lesson: Google’s path to the Nexus Player began in 2010 with the launch of Google TV, a smart TV solution based on Android that acted as an intermediary between your television service provider and you. Google TV allowed users to search the internet alongside TV listings, jump from an app to live television, and access services like YouTube and Netflix. It never caught on with consumers and the consensus seems to be that Google TV attempted to do too much. It was feature packed but often clunky and buggy.
Why is this important to the story of the Nexus Player? Because the Nexus Player is the first consumer-ready device based on the Android TV platform, a completely revamped experience from Google TV. It is built off of Android 5.0 Lollipop as part of Google’s effort to unify the Android operating system across devices that now include smart watches, tablets, smartphones, and your television.
Android TV is far simpler than Google TV. Starting up the Nexus Player we are greeted with a main menu. A top row emphasizes recently viewed and suggested content and below are rows for installed apps and games. It’s Google, so of course there is a search bar at the top. Everything Android TV can do is accessible from this menu, which is to say it doesn’t take long to learn the ins and outs of the Nexus Player.
Native apps
As the first commercially available Android TV device, the Nexus Player suffers initially from a limited ecosystem when it comes to available apps and games. The Google services are there — YouTube, Play Music, Movies & TV, and the Play Store — though we don’t get the full suite. The included apps are all tailored toward the media experience (and mostly toward Google’s content ecosystem). Don’t expect to find full web access via Chrome or even the ability to check your Gmail.
The decision not to include such Google apps speaks to what Android TV is attempting to accomplish. It also shows when checking out the currently available selection of non-Google apps and games. Android is known for its wild west approach to openness, but here Google is being a bit more choosy about the content available for their television platform. Apps and games must be specifically tailored for Android TV or they don’t make the cut.
We are not faulting Google for wanting a consistent quality across the Android TV experience, but it does mean early adopters won’t be greeted with the widest selection. At worst, Android TV never catches on with developers and a lack of approved apps and games turns into persistent issue (as was the case with Google TV).
So what do users get access to out of the box? The aforementioned Google services are there plus Netflix and Hulu Plus. Users can opt to download from a selection of other streaming providers including Food Network, PBS Kids, Bloomberg TV, TED TV, and more. For music options include Pandora, Vevo, and iHeartRadio. A Plex app is available for local content streaming.
What is almost inexcusable, though, is a lack of certain streaming apps that have become staples of competitors like Apple TV and Roku. Want HBO Go? It’s not available yet. Spotify as a music option? Not here. And forget about Amazon content. Perhaps some of these apps will eventually find their way to Android TV and the Nexus Player, but not having them at launch is disappointing to say the least.
Google Cast
Some of Android TV’s shortcomings in the apps department are addressed with the addition of perhaps the device’s most killer feature: Google Cast. Google Cast allows users to wirelessly beam content from a smartphone, tablet, or computer directly to the TV with the tap of a button (provided the service supports casting). No HBO Go app on the Nexus Player? No problem. HBO’s mobile app supports the ability to cast content to your TV. For apps that don’t support casting directly, the Chrome browser features tab casting, allowing for a quick and easy work around (provided the service can be accessed via the web).
So why isn’t the presence of Google Cast a true saving grace? A completely native app experience still trumps the ability to cast content from your phone or computer. It’s the most accessible option for a shared media device like the Nexus Player. More importantly, though, Google Cast capabilities can be brought to your television for much cheaper with a $30 Chromecast dongle. If beaming content is a suitable solution, there is almost no reason to justify buying the Nexus Player.
Voice search
Like Google Cast, voice search might not be reason enough to run out and buy a Nexus Player, but it is one of the better software features. Typing out search queries using the remote turns into a real chore, but pressing the microphone button on the remote and speaking the same query is a quick and easy task. Voice recognition is fairly good, though not perfect — background noise and others speaking in the room can be an issue — but the responsiveness is what we have come to expect from Google’s voice integration.
Your range of searchable options, like with other aspects of Android TV, is limited. You can’t search for web content, but you can still ask classic questions like “How old is Barack Obama?” and get a result. You can search for a specific movie, search for content by artist, tell your Nexus Player to start playing your favorite artist — it all works and works well.
Gaming
There is a taste of console-quality graphics and gameplay with titles like Riptide GP2. We get to see the quirky, indie side of Android with side-scrolling title Badland. Arcade classics like Pac-Man offer familiar fun.
This was perhaps the most unexpected aspect of the Nexus Player. The games felt polished and ready for larger screens. The controls worked. The hardware handled it all without any major hiccups. We hesitate to say the Nexus Player has what it takes to be a serious contender in the console wars, but it provides an excellent gaming experience that is not strictly set on the casual market.
Gamepad
The Nexus Player’s optional gamepad is what allows the device to transcend above being simply a box for playing blown-up mobile games. It’s a full-on Bluetooth wireless gaming controller that most closely resembles that of the Xbox 360. The buttons are all there: two analog stick, one D-pad, four trigger buttons, and four action buttons. Like the remote control, it’s not the most premium-feeling thing in the world, but it gets the job done.
The nice thing is you can use the controller to navigate the entire Android TV system, and we actually almost preferred it over the standard remote if not for the lack of a microphone and voice command support.
Conclusion
The problem with the Nexus Player is that it shows a lot of promise but is in many ways limited by its fledgling Android TV interface. It’s the sort of device where content like available apps and games make a huge difference, and should more become available in the coming months our opinions about the Nexus Player overall could change.
For now, though, it’s hard to say the Nexus Player and Android TV are the answer we were looking for. While Google TV was never the biggest success, it holds some advantages over Android TV. The same can be said the other way around, but neither of Google’s television platforms has gotten it completely right at this point. For $99, we can think of a couple TV streaming devices (Chromecast, Roku 3) we would purchase ahead of the Nexus Player, and it’s hard to recommend the average consumer not do the same.
If your are engrained in the Google content ecosystem it may the device for you, but otherwise you will want to weigh your options.
Pros
- Google Cast expands content source options
- Responsive voice search
- Easy to set up and jump into content
Cons
- No TV pass-through
- Limited app and game selections
- Lack of hardware ports (ethernet, audio-out) and internal storage
Overall: 3/5