The category of TVs with Smart TV on board has gained popularity for a long time. With brands like Xiaomi, TCL, Realme, 4K TV prices have become affordable. But what if you don’t have a smart TV or if you are not satisfied with webOS or Tizen from well-known manufacturers? Then there is a solution – buy a set-top box or “streaming stick”.
This will be the best way to enjoy your content on your TV with Google TV. Of course, there are already enough such devices on the modern market, but Realme presents another option. Consider the Realme 4K Smart Google TV Stick review as a 2021 novelty from this manufacturer.
Realme 4K Smart Google TV Stick review
The form factor of this device is a USB flash drive. In what follows, we will call it a “streaming flash drive” from Realme. This is the first device from the manufacturer that runs on Google TV. Of course, everyone knows that Google TV is just an updated Android TV interface, but with the orientation of the recommended content (get ready to advertise).
In fact, it’s still the same Android TV, but with an updated user interface that looks more modern and streamlined. This is one of the main arguments in favor of the Realme TV Stick. Can this device compete with the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K? Let’s try to figure it out.
We connect Realme 4K Google TV
Like other similar set-top boxes, the Realme 4K TV streaming stick connects to the TV via an HDMI port. Since the device is quite large than a regular USB flash drive for storing information, connecting to a TV can be inconvenient. Especially for those TVs in which the HDMI port is “crooked”. To avoid this becoming a problem, the manufacturer put a short HDMI extension cable with a male-to-female connector in the box.
The HDMI port itself cannot power the Realme Google TV 4K player by standards, therefore, through an additional micro-USB cable, an additional connection to the USB port on the TV itself (or to an external network adapter) is required. After these easy manipulations, you can configure the Realme flash drive.
After turning on the TV, the supplied remote control is first paired via Bluetooth with the streaming Realme Google TV. Then, following the instructions on the screen, download the Google Home application and complete the installation process.
Everything is simple and straightforward. Of course, there will be a “Google account for registration” item. After entering the data, everything will be synced to this account. The Play Store shares the same identifier with Google apps and services.
Realme 4K Google TV internet and peripherals
The Realme 4K Google TV player supports HDMI 2.1 with CEC, which means sharing the remote to control both the device itself and the 4K TV. There is support for a 5 GHz Wi-Fi network. This is a nice bonus, since most of these devices, especially those purchased from Aliexpress, save on this. By the way, you can connect headphones via Bluetooth 5.0 or other peripherals such as a mouse and keyboard to Realme 4K Google TV.
Google TV interface (Android 11.0)
The first thing that immediately catches your eye is the new Google TV interface. It differs from the Android TV 11 user interface. If you’ve used Android TV on a TV before, there is no unnecessary clutter. The new Google TV interface certainly looks better. It is a modern skin and resembles the Fire TV interface . The main screen is filled with recommendations from various services. Services available: Apple TV +, Hustler Tv, and Prime Video. Yes, there is also Netflix, but the recommendations are not yet visible on the Google TV home screen.
In addition to recommendations for content, the home screen displays tips for applications. Typically these are streaming apps and some lightweight games optimized for Android TV. When you move to the left of the main screen, a search option appears that you can use to view data for a specific movie that you intend to watch.
To the right of the home screen is the Applications tab. This section shows all installed recommendation apps. There is a convenient item “Applications from my other devices”. It helps to install the applications that the user is familiar with.
Google TV system settings interface
In addition to the home screen, there is a quick switch interface. The settings app has also been visually redesigned. It resembles the look and feel of Android on a smartphone and looks much better than on Android TV. If someone has used Fire TV before, then the Google TV user interface will feel familiar and easy to use. In short, after Google’s decision to update the user interface, the result was positive.
Unlike a smartphone, the Realme 4K Google TV stick has no responsibilities to multitask or run heavy games directly on the TV stick. Content streaming apps don’t require a lot of processor power, which is why most of these devices have fairly simple hardware. The Realme Google TV 4K Smart uses a quad-core chip from Amlogic and 2GB of storage.
Less than 8 GB available to the user. The new Google TV interface is well optimized to work with this hardware. No big delays were noticed when navigating the interface. Although there are occasional stutters and dropped frames, it is present on other Android streaming devices as well.
Image quality
The Realme 4K TV streaming stick can stream content up to 4K resolution. This applies to all apps and services such as YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video and the like. There’s also support for HDR10 + streaming for added visual appeal at 4K @ 60Hz. However , the Realme 4K Google TV lacks Dolby Vision support , while the Fire TV Stick 4K does. This is one of the differences between Realme 4K Google TV and Fire TV Stick 4K. There is also no support for Dolby Atmos sound , and Fire TV 4K has – the second difference.
Overall, the picture quality on the Realme 4K Smart Google TV stik is comparatively good. Although the quality of your TV panel is the main metric in the picture. Realme 4K chroma processing is not bad. But when compared to Fire TV 4K, Fire has better visualization than Realmi (due to the presence of Dolby Vision).
Control
The remote control is an area where the Realme 4K TV has clear upsides and performs better than the Fire TV. The remote that comes with the Realme TV Stick has a traditional set of buttons including on / off, mute, navigation keys, back, home, settings and volume controls.
There are dedicated buttons for accessing Google Assistant, launching YouTube, YouTube Music, Netflix, and Prime Video.
Realme 4K Google TV Stik Price
The release date for the Realme 4K Google TV Stik is slated for late fall 2021. At this point, the starting price in European countries will be around $ 53.
Conclusion
Overall, despite the rather high price tag, the Realme 4K gives you a taste of Google TV. It’s an attractive streaming device that works seamlessly and is a gateway for 4K HDR content.
However, at almost a slightly overpriced price (as of October 2021), the Amazon Fire TV 4K delivers Dolby Vision support and a quality user experience. Fire TV can do everything that Realmi TV does. In short, you have to choose.
