The first to arrive since last year’s Chromecast
We were really impressed by last year’s Chromecast with Google TV. Not only did the included remote immensely improve browsing and streaming shows and movies, but the new UI provided an excellent portal for adding content to your watchlist. Since then, other manufacturers — including Walmart — have made some tremendous Android TV boxes, but we haven’t seen any new Google TV offerings beyond the Chromecast. That’s finally changing next week, with a company you might not have expected.
Realme is launching its “4K Smart Google TV Stick” on October 13th, and on paper, it sounds like a pretty great alternative to anything else on the market (via XDA Developers). As the name implies, it’s capable of outputting 4K video at up to 60FPS, along with HDR10+ and HDMI 2.1 support. The stick itself looks pretty unassuming, with a matte black finish and the usual USB-C port for power.
As far as software goes, the name itself gives it away: it’s running Google TV, just like last year’s Chromecast. That grants users all of the usual streaming apps, along with Assistant for voice-powered search and typing. We’ve seen TVs from Sony and TCL upgraded with this interface, but competing streaming sticks have been stuck using the plain Android TV UI so far.
Even though Realme has a teaser site up, there are a few lingering unanswered questions about this gadget. We don’t know where in the world it’ll specifically be sold — although any region where Realme products are usually found seems likely — or how much it’ll cost. We also haven’t gotten a look at the remote yet either, leaving us wondering what media services might be included by default.
Luckily, we don’t have to wait too much longer for answers to all our burning questions. Realme will reveal everything about the device this upcoming Wednesday, and if you don’t feel like waiting, you can sign up for email notifications for more information.
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