Life After Chromecast: Walmart's New 4K Google TV Streamer Is Super Affordable
In some respects, it's been a bit of a rough patch for fans of Google's Chromecast dongle. For one, Google effectively killed the Chromecast in favor of its new Google TV Streamer hardware priced at $99.99 MSRP (slightly cheaper on the street). Then more recently, owners of Google's second-generation Chromecast as well as Chromecast Audio devices had to put up with a quirky authentication issue (Google eventually rolled out a fix) that appeared to brick some dongles. If you're looking to jump ship, Walmart's new streaming device looks like a solid candidate, and it's affordable too.
More precisely, it's a streaming setup by Walmart's house brand, Onn (it's not clear if Walmart actually owns Onn or has a licensing agreement, but either way, they're closely tied with one another). On tap is the Onn Google TV 4K Plus, priced at $29.88 at Walmart.
It's not an HDMI dongle, but a compact streaming box that, if desired, you can affix to the back of your TV with the included adhesive tap. It plus into an HDMI port (just like a streamer) and comes with an HDMI cable. The kit also includes a power adapter, remote control, and a pair of AA batteries (for the remote).
There's no press release or official blog post (that we're aware of) for Walmart's new streaming hardware, but specification on the product page look promising. It's powered by a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor and G310 V2 GPU, it has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage, and it supports both Dolby Vision (as well as "up to HDR10+)) and Dolby Atmos. And of course it can stream in 4K Ultra HD.
The specs also list Wi-Fi 6 support. As for the remote, it supports voice input (a nice perk at this price) and Google Assistant. It's also off to a strong start with a 4.9 out of 5-star rating out of 42 votes (and 41 overwhelmingly positive user reviews, for what that's worth).
Walmart's also offering an even cheaper variant, the Onn Google TV 4K for $19.88. From what we can tell, the differences between this and the Plus variant is that the cheaper model is powered by different SoC (Cortex-A35 CPU and Mali-G31 MP2 GPU), it has half the storage at 8GB, and it lacks Dolby Vision support. It still comes with a voice remote, but it's slightly different—it doesn't have a 'Free TV' button (which is used to access to Google's FAST channels with ads) or a customizable button. Also, it supports up to HDR10+ and Dolby Audio.
Two other options (not new models) include the Onn Google TV Full HD dongle that's on sale for $12.97 at Walmart, and the Onn Google TV 4K Pro for $49.88. The Pro model ups the ante with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of built-in storage, and an Ethernet port for wired connectivity (100Mbps). It also has a 'Find My Remote' button.
As far as the newest Onn streamer goes, this feels like a product that Walmart should be actively promoting. Why it's not is anyone's guess. It looks like a great option for the price, though if you'd rather not take a flier on Onn, there are plenty of affordable streaming solutions out there. Here are a few...
- Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max: $39.99 (save $20)
- Amazon Fire TV Stick: $29.99 (save $20)
- Roku Express 4K+: $29.99 (save $10)
And if you want to stick with Google, you can find the Google TV Streamer 4K for $99.99 at Amazon and $92.99 at Walmart.
