So, for $50USD, you can get a user experience similar to a $40 FireTV stick, with a crappier remote.....

sykozis:

So, for $50USD, you can get a user experience similar to a $40 FireTV stick, with a crappier remote.....

I picked one up tonight. the remote is way better than the fire tv remote. The ui is also a lot better than the firetv ui. It'll be replacing my fire tv in my living room and I'll prob pick another one up to replace the fire tv that is in my office. The remote has ir and has the volume buttons on the side. One thing that really annoys me is instead of a normal c to c cable it uses an a to c cable and charger.

sykozis:

So, for $50USD, you can get a user experience similar to a $40 FireTV stick, with a crappier remote.....

The bad UI and forced amazon content makes Fire Sticks my least favorite device of all. I prefer a Roku Stick. Both have decent remotes. Anecdotally, I also had numerous issues with Fire Sticks. Lots of device freezing and one failed remote. I suspect I would also like this Google device over the Fire Stick/TVs.

0blivious:

The bad UI and forced amazon content makes Fire Sticks my least favorite device of all. I prefer a Roku Stick. Both have decent remotes. Anecdotally, I also had numerous issues with Fire Sticks. Lots of device freezing and one failed remote. I suspect I would also like this Google device over the Fire Stick/TVs.

the issues with the fire tv are why i've been looking for replacements. device freezing, black screens, slow to respond to the remote. it is really just a poor user experience. so far the chromecast has been good. now to find someone to pawn my fire tvs off on lol

EnthusiastX:

Amazon UI is extremely cluttered with visually-intrusive sponsored and promotional content. Firestick also sends out Multicast/Chromecast signals way too often. Using with AP isolation / VLAN after Installing AdGuard and TechDoctorUK's Debloater v3 via remote adb significantly improves overall performance. If you root, you can install a custom launcher without any ads, but rooting Firestick 4K requires extra effort. I don't know if you can root Chromecast or install the same apps on it. In the end, I think it is a matter of preference - Out-of-the-box VS. Post-Tweaking experience. For Out-of-the-box experience, I would choose Apple TV. For Post-Tweaking - depends on new Chromecast's tweakability.

You can't unlock the bootloader in the dev options, was the first thing I tried to do. But it has access to the play store and as far as I can tell you can side load apps on it too although I haven't tried as kodi, youtube tv, prime video, etc were all on the play store.

ok been using it now for about 2 weeks and i'll deff be ditching my firetvs. youtube tv is pretty much just part of the os and it makes using yttv a lot nicer. remote is solid and works well, kodi works fine on it and will prob end up working better on it than the fire tvs because it uses the newest android. now to find someone to sell these firetvs to

I picked up a pair of Chromecast with Google TV devices today. So far....I've had better experiences with every competing product. Initial setup was painless.....however, everything since has been anything but..... Live Channels app is not accessible from any home screen. Most of the content of the home screens are advertisements. The HDHomeRun app doesn't work thanks to Google.... It's laggy. Takes way too long to start up.... It's like FireTV all over again....