First there was the Google TV. That flopped. Then the Nexus Q. That flopped so hard it didn't even launch. Then there was the second-generation Google TV — also a failure. Finally, last year, Google launched the Chromecast. At $35, the device was a sleeper hit, especially for cord cutters.
Perhaps emboldened by the success of the Chromecast, Google has decided to try for broader living-room aspirations with the Nexus Player, the first set-top box running Android TV.
So what is the Nexus Player? It's a Chromecast crossed with a Fire TV. That is, it's a set-top box crossed with a Chromecast dongle that also plays Android games.
Looks great on the big screen
The first thing you'll notice about the Nexus Player is that the user interface looks terrific. It's slick and fully optimized for a TV. It's a significant upgrade over Google's previous Google TV efforts.
Android TV on the Nexus layer
The Android TV main screen.
The main dashboard shows off content blocks and recommendations. This includes programs in your Google Play library, YouTube recommendations and programs available in other apps.
Below the content block are icons that provide easy access to direct apps for services, including Google Play Movies & TV, Netflix, Hulu Plus and Songza.
You can also quickly access games compatible with the included remote or the optional $40 wireless game controller.
You can install additional apps on the device, though for now the selection is pretty limited.
Talk to search, with caveats
As with the Fire TV, Google has integrated voice search functionality into the Nexus Player.
To search, press the microphone button on the remote and speak. You can say phrases such as "Watch Scandal," which will bring up the show Scandal inside Google Play.
Google Nexus Player Review
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Open Gallery
Tuning Into Android
Google tried the Nexus Q and the Google TV, now it's trying its set-top box luck with Android TV. The Nexus Player is the first device running Android TV to hit the market.
Image: Mashable, Christina Ascani
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You can also ask for more esoteric requests, such as "Oscar nominated films from 2013" or "movies with Jennifer Lawrence." You can even ask Google Now-style question, such as "When did Friends premiere?"
The voice search is solid but it's held back by one massive limitation
The voice search is solid but it's held back by one massive limitation: it only surfaces content from the Google Play and YouTube ecosystems. So if I say, "Watch Scandal," my Hulu and Netflix results don't come up.
On the Fire TV, Amazon has a whole voice search API that it is slowly but surely integrating with other third-party services. The feature is still a gimmick, but at least with Amazon, it works with more than one content source.
As a result, the search features are really only good for users that want to browse content to purchase from Google Play.
When it comes to Music playback, you can listen to tracks already in your Google Music library, but you can't actually buy new songs or albums from the Nexus Player itself. That's frustrating because otherwise, the Google Music playback experience is topnotch.
Google Music on the Nexus Player
Google Music on the Nexus Player
Image: Google
Running other apps
Netflix and Hulu Plus run identically on the Nexus Player as they do on the Fire TV. That's because it's just the Android versions of those apps upscaled to TV resolution.
The experience is quite good, but be aware that it isn't going to be as beautifully optimized for a 10-foot experience as Google's own apps. I still tend to prefer the Netflix and Hulu experience on Roku.
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Hulu Plus on the Nexus Player
The third-party library of apps available for the Nexus Player at the time of this writing, is fairly anemic.
As a media player, you'll still get access to significantly more content on a set-top box from Amazon or Roku. Roku, we should note, just added Google Play Movies & TV support, making it the broadest content ecosystem available.
This isn't to say the Nexus Player and Android TV ecosystems won't expand; since the devices is based on Android, it means that in theory any app that can run on an Android tablet should be available on the Nexus Player. It's just a matter of actually getting those apps installed.
Games
Google's other big feature with the Nexus Player are games. Right now, there are only a limited selection of games that actually work on the device, either with the included remote or the optional $39.99 wireless controller.
Game quality is quite good. We played Badland and Riptide GP2 and both played great. Riptide GP2 has near-console level graphics and frame rates never seemed off.
The game controller itself looks and feels like a cheap Xbox 360 knock-off. The controls work fine, but don't expect to get the kind of precise timing you'd expect on a console.
Nexus Player Game Controller
The optional game controller for the Nexus Player.
Image: Mashable, Christina Ascani
Still, for mobile games on the TV, they are just fine.
Lots of companies are trying to bring tablet/smartphone games to the TV and lots of companies are failing at their efforts. That's mostly because the reality is, it's tough to take a game optimized for touch and then convert it to a 10-foot experience.
Sometimes that conversion works out well, but other times, it doesn't.
For us, gaming on the Nexus Player is fine, but it shouldn't be the reason you buy this device.
Cast on
The Nexus Player also acts as a full-functioning Chromecast. That's important because you can cast apps from your iPhone, Android or your Chrome browser on Mac or Windows directly to the device.
I used the Watch ABC app for iOS to stream live TV directly to the Nexus Player, and it worked great. Likewise, content from other services such as HBO Go is available, too.
Still,
I couldn't help but wish that some of these apps were also built into the experience
I couldn't help but wish that some of these apps were also built into the experience.
On a Chromecast, you can get over the lack of included apps because of its headless design. But since the Nexus Player does have an interface, it's frustrating to be so limited by third-party playback apps.
Moreover, casting support is no longer a unique feature for these kind of set-top boxes. The Roku supports DIAL (the Chromecast's stream interface) for a number of apps, third-party apps are available for the Fire TV that mimic the Chromecast and Apple TV has AirPlay.
Wireless casting is a great feature for any device, but again, in late 2014, this feels like a basic requirement — not something that gives the Nexus Player an edge.
It's just OK
At $99, the Nexus Player isn't a bad product. It does exactly what it says it should.
If Google had launched the Nexus Player earlier — say, even 12 months ago — I would probably be more inclined to recommend the device.
The larger problem is that it's not the only device like this out there. For $99, you can get an Apple TV, a Roku 3 or the similar — and superior — Fire TV.
Originally, my recommendation was that the Nexus Player was really only worth investigating for someone who buys the majority of their content from Google Play. With Roku's Google Play support, however, I need to amend that to say "and lives primarily in the Android ecosystem who also wants to play games."
If that's the case, it's a fine set-top box. Everyone else can skip it.
Google Nexus Player
The Good
Great interface • Can play games well • Built-in Chromecast
The Bad
Voice search only works with Google content • Small selection of gaming content • Limited third-party playback apps
The Bottom Line
The Nexus Player is a decent set-top box but it doesn't have any notable features that make it better than the more robust — and identically priced — Roku 3 or Amazon Fire TV.
Source Mashable
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