Open the window to a wide world of online television
A super-slim little black box that will…
‘You have the option of wirelessly throwing video from your phone or tablet’
Television is changing. The quality of programming has been stepped up enormously over the last few years but so has the volume of content. On-demand services are being launched regularly as even niche content providers find an audience. All of these can’t survive or prosper via the old-fashioned terrestrial TV system so subscriptions are required with some funded by targeted advertising, and some delivered exclusively over the internet.
The Nexus Player is Google’s window into the world of Android TV. It’s a small circular device slim enough at 20 millimetres to sit unseen under your TV set. You’ll need to buy a HDMI cable separately to connect it to your TV. After powering the player up you’ll be prompted to enter your Google account details, much as you’d do on a new Android phone, and the Nexus Player will start syncing your Google account with the device.
The Nexus player’s focus is all about Android TV and as soon as it’s powered up, you’ll be presented with an attractive linear layout of movies along the top row of the display. It’s a clever format that places suggested content at the top, and then the Google services most of us are familiar with lower down the screen. You navigate to these using the included Bluetooth remote control. For anyone who’s used an Android tablet or phone the layout style will feel familiar but if you’re new to Android it’s easy to figure out.
Because you use your Google account on the player, content you’ve watched elsewhere can be found easily. As well as the Google content and apps like YouTube you can use the built-in Play Store app to download new apps straight on to the player. You also have the option of wirelessly throwing video from your phone or tablet to your TV, and this works really well – I didn’t experience wireless buffering even once.
Although the interface is easy to use, it’s not as slick as other TV box systems and feels a little clunky when installing new apps. The remote is well made and easy to use and has voice-search built in, but it misheard lots of what I said and can be slow to get from voice command to search results.
Overall though, the Nexus Player is reliable and well made. Perhaps it’s more suited to second room viewing but it gets your Android TV content on to your screen for a great price.