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Amazon has a pretty nice deal on the Nexus Player right now. You can grab it for just $64 and change, which is a long way from its usual price tag of $100.
The Nexus Player was the first commercial Android TV device, and although it may not have all the bells and whistles you could dream of — like HDMI passthrough — it can definitely provide a very capable and competent smart TV experience in the absence of having smart TV features built-in.
It’s better than having to spend thousands on a whole new set of glass, anyway. Be sure to head to Amazon and order one before its price hikes back up. (PS: consider picking up the optional gamepad if you’re looking to do some gaming on the thing, too.)
I don’t see how they expect anyone to play any games on this thing with only 8GBs (probably more like 4-5GBs usable) of storage. You put any one Telltale type game on it and you’re full.
Delete and install another my friend.
Lol, you must work at Google
Not an acceptable solution. If this supports external storage of some sort for you to install apps/games on, then that would make it much better. But I’m not sure it supports that (as I’ve read the nVidia Shield does support).
Nah I’m just a consumer and pretty sure this device primary purpose isnt to play games, rather just an additional perk to it.
The limited storage affects a bit more than games too. That’s a hell of an investment to manufacture an additional $50+ controller for just that “additional perk” when you’re bottle-necked so much by its local storage though.
I understand where you are coming from but if you look at its selling page its geared towards being a multimedia device more so than a gaming device. The apps for Hulu, Google Movies, Netflix etc, aren’t very big and since you’re streaming that data you don’t really need an ample amout of internal storage. As for the controller, this is Andorid and we were always given plenty of options with majority of things that are released under the name that aren’t always meant for the primary functioning of a device. It’s all about making money for the companies while trying to meet demand.
I agree, I’m just constantly annoyed by Google all but forcing us to stream things and use the “cloud” by neutering the local and expandable storage on most of their Nexus devices. It’s great for most things, but I hate being restricted by it too.
True, expandable storage does seem to go be going by the wayside but on a bright side at least we are given ample cloud storage for free and their cloud generally performs without many hiccups. Otherwise I couldn’t be a Nexus user.
Despite have an (optional) controller, I don’t think they really intended the device to be a game console. Otherwise they’d opened it to all Google Play games and apps, not only ones for Android TV.
Install Android M developer preview (or wait 4 months) and plug a micro USB drive in the back to extend the available storage.
And in Canada the only three places to buy it, Staples, Amazon.ca and the Google store have it for $109 CAD and have never dropped the price or put it on sale once.
all I’d like to know is, do emulators work on this device?this would be a neat little emulator device for playing old snes nes etc games, especially with the optional controller :)
Yea emulators and Kodi all work very well from what I’ve seen. The x86 SoC in this is quite powerful. If your looking for an emulator box it’s the best choice especially at $65. Keep in mind if you want to use bluetooth controllers (PS3 or PS4’s) you may need to root and install the Sixaxis app, those aren’t supported out of the box like OUYA did.
This is a great deal. I’ve been waiting for a better version to come out… Is something better around the corner? Is it better to wait?
Can someone convince me why I would need/want this if I have Chromecast and wouldn’t use the gamepad?
Unified search is a strong point. It’s annoying to search Netflix, Google Play and Amazon separately to see where a movie is available. I have a Fire TV that should be capable of unified search but searching from the main menu only gives you Amazon results because that’s how Amazon wants it. I love the Chromecast for what it is for the price, but you have to manage content in a bunch of separate apps. Not the biggest deal in the world, but Unified search would be a nice feature.
…and a physical remote. No having to get out your phone or tablet just to pause and unpause.
I’m a huge proponent of physical remotes too. I like being able to feel the buttons under my thumb so I can click without taking my eyes off the TV instead of having to look down at a touchscreen to make sure I’m hitting the correct button. However, gesture-based touchscreen remotes can accomplish much of the same if all you have to do is put your finger (preferably anywhere) on the screen and slide or tap. I lost my Fire TV remote a couple weeks ago so I’ve been using my phone, and navigating and selecting in the menus can be done entirely on the touch pad area above the on screen buttons. The touch pad replaces the dpad and select button. I still have to look at my phone to hit the skip, play/pause, back and menu buttons though.
Basically it has a physical remote, unified search, and limited gaming ability with a gamepad. It’s up to you if any of those are useful or interesting enough to make the Nexus Player worth more than two Chromecasts.
Just got nexus player on eBay with the control pad for 55 bucks in almost new condition! Can’t beat that deal Amazon lol