It looks like Walmart plans to start selling an onn.-branded Android TV streaming stick for $25. A listing on its website spotted by 9to5google.com shows a device called the “onn. FHD Streaming Stick,” an Android TV-powered streamer that looks like it belongs to the same family as a 4K Android TV product that broke cover last week.
The two gadgets appear to share the same voice-enabled remote control.
In the box, Walmart includes the streaming stick, the remote, a Micro USB cable for power, and an AC adapter, plus an HDMI extension cable in case your TV’s HDMI ports are inaccessible.
In comparing the Android TV stick to the $30 onn.-branded Android TV streaming media device spotted last week, it looks like the major differences between these products is their price, their design, and the resolution they support: The streaming stick can only do 1080p Full HD, while the more expensive device can do 4K.
But neither streamer appears to support high dynamic range (HDR) formats like HDR10 and Dolby Vision, which we would argue make a bigger difference to picture quality on a compatible TV than 4K.
Both devices support dual-band Wi-Fi AC, (the 4K version gets Wi-Fi MIMO) as well as Dolby Audio for up to 5.1 channel surround sound.
At $30, the onn. Android TV UHD Streaming Device, as Walmart refers to it, competes directly with Amazon’s $30 Fire TV Stick Lite, a smaller, more portable streaming media device that doesn’t do 4K resolution, but does support HDR 10.
It also competes with the $35 Roku Express 4K, a Walmart-exclusive version of the Roku Express 4K+ that combines 4K with HDR support and even Dolby Atmos on select streaming services.
Whereas, at $25, the streaming stick competes with the similarly-priced Walmart-only Roku SE. The SE can’t hide behind a TV and it comes with a simpler, non-voice-capable remote, giving the new onn.-branded streaming stick a bit of an edge in terms of features.
Walmart’s onn. Android TV devices are an extension of the company’s onn.-branded line of consumer electronics that includes Roku-equipped soundbars and wireless speakers.
As Android TV devices, they support both the Google Assistant as well as Chromecast, which lets devices like smartphones and laptops stream audio and video to a TV or mirror the contents of a device’s screen.
The new streamers do not appear to be getting the Google TV interface that Google launched on its own Chromecast with Google TV, a $50 streaming dongle that supports 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos. Google TV offers Android TV users a personalized experience that places an emphasis on content curation and discovery, as opposed to the more app-centric approach of the standard Android TV interface.
The included remote controls are very similar to the one that accompanies the Chromecast with Google TV, offering volume, mute, and power controls for a connected TV, as well as a dedicated Google Assistant button that will let you issue voice commands via the built-in microphone. That’s a feature the Walmart-only Roku SE and Express 4K lack.
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