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Amazon has the Nexus Player on the cheap, with a nice 30% discount being applied to its regular cost of $99.99. That makes it about $69.99 before any taxes and shipping costs.
The Nexus Player was the first commercially available Android TV box, and it still should be on your wishlist if you want a smart TV experience without buying an actual smart TV. There aren’t many other Android TV boxes out at the moment, though NVIDIA’s new SHIELD Android TV console does provide quite the compelling package.
That said, the SHIELD TV costs a minimum of $200 so if that’s a bit too high for your budget then be sure to consider the Nexus Player at Amazon.
Considering this got the Android M preview too, seems like a decent time to buy.
what does this do that chromecast for 20$ can not do? Other than give people a hard remote instead of using an android device / laptop.
It can run apps and if you live in a dense area with a lot of interfering 2.4GHz WIFI then 5GHz support is very useful. The issue is it’s redundant and less capable than most phones and too expensive for a basic streamer and mirroring device compared to Chromecast. If the new Chromecast 2 supports 5GHz band at ~$30 price point then there’s no need for this. With that said love the 1st gen Chromecast with Popcorn Time IO for internet streaming and VideoStream Chrome browser app for local streaming and it works great for me over 2.4GHz 802.11n.
Built-in apps, Kodi, Emulators for gaming.
who really games on these things? Any real gamers have consoles. Unless you got little kids..most games on android suck, the good ones are just ports better played on consoles.
Just saying, they make great project boxes for Kodi and classic game emulators and such. Not talking about games on android, yes those suck, talking about NES, Genesis, SNES, N64, PS1, etc. As far as regular streaming apps, Chromecast pretty much does all that.
I dont see the appeal to this over buying a cheap Chromecast elsewhere. And you folks damn sure better not buy it if you already own a PS4 or X1
Agreed. PS4 and chromecast do everything.
I’m not saying the Chromecast isn’t a neat device. But saying that a Chromecast is all you need is a bit narrow minded. A proper entertainment center media player should have a remote for better transport control (fast forward / rewind and on screen selection). Do all that on you mobile or tablet is not as convenient, specially when there are other people in the room whom may want to browse movie title with you an not have to look over your shoulder to see your small screen before you Cast it to the big screen. Sure you could mirror cast but that is just an extra step that is cumbersome.
The Chromecast is great. But everything the Chromecast does is in the Android TV and more. As other have mentioned besides the remote there is gaming, emulators, and media player like Kodi, Popcorn Time, Plex…etc.
Saying that a Chromecast is all you need is like saying a moped is all you need to get around town. There are cases where a moped would be most beneficial (parking, traffic…etc), but having a car is much nicer.
My wishlist for a Nexus Player 2: Ethernet port, USB port, 2GB RAM.
These are great little boxes. We have both a TV with a Chromecast and one with a Nexus Player. The Nexus Player is a better user experience overall. Having a dedicated remote is very useful. It is nice to share in the experience of selecting which app to run, selecting a movie, choosing a TV show or playing music. Since it is a dedicated remote it does not walk off when the person who started the content loses interest or decides to take a break. The Player runs all the apps I would want for a TV including Sling TV, Netflix, Hulu, Google Play apps, Pandora, etc. Since it includes Google Cast it can also be used to cast pictures and media stored on a phone or cast supported applications from a phone.
You can do real gaming on this too, on live and steam…. This needs 3 RAM though.