Review: Nexus Player

Introduction

They say lightning can't strike twice. That two products from the same family, one right after the other, can't both be fantastic, must-own devices.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the £80 Nexus Player - an Asus-made follow-up to the fantastic £30 Chromecast - they were right. Lightning missed its mark.

The Nexus Player, the first device to run Android TV, has nice ideas: a fairly decent UI, great screen-sharing capabilities, an announced 8GB of storage, a microphone-enabled remote (and even an optional gaming controller). But for everything the system does right, something else is slightly amiss.

At its core, the device wants to be your go-to streaming video and low-end gaming console. And it wants to do this for under £80 - right around the cost of a Roku 3 or Amazon Fire TV. It'll harness technology from Google to give you recommendations by pulling from your recently watched YouTube videos and your preferences on Netflix.

Press the voice search button on the remote, ask anything related to film or television, and it'll pull up videos related to your query. Ask "who was in Wanted?" and the Nexus Player will spit out names like Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman. Click their names and you'll see every major movie the actors have starred in. Click the icon for the movie and you'll get a list of applications where the movie is available; although you quickly plough into the relatively limited options.

Now, you may have just thought to yourself "where's Amazon Instant Video? Where's iPlayer?" Bad news: they're not here. And while maybe they'll show up down the road, I wouldn't hold my breath they'll arrive soon.

The US version was criticised for a distinct lack of video and music streaming apps, and the UK version is even more limited by the loss of the likes of Hulu. Netflix is present and correct, but there's no Spotify, no BBC iPlayer and certainly no Amazon Instant Video. There's YouTube and a few random TV 'channels' but it's not going to blow your mind.

You could argue that the ability to 'cast' your browser window to the Nexus Player (as you can on the £35 Chromecast) removes the need for some of these apps, but it certainly isn't the most ideal of user experiences.

But streaming apps are only one-half of the coin. The other half is gaming.

Throw open the Google Play Store and you'll find three categories of curated games: TV Remote Games, Casual for Gamepad and Action for Gamepad. You won't find the Google Play Store's extensive library of games here, but because connecting your phone isn't a perfect process yet maybe that's for the best. The gamepad Google is referring to here is the £35 Asus Bluetooth controller that's sold separately from the Nexus Player - but more on that later.

Each category has about 10 to 15 games that range in difficulty and price. The TV Remote Games are what you'd find on your smartphone. They're ephemeral experiences that more often than not ask you to spend virtual currency to get ahead. Most require the circular pad on the remote to move left, right, up and down, and the button in the center to control the action. There are a few gems in this category like Sky Force 2014 TV and Going Going Gone: HR Classic, but it's all stuff we've seen before on iOS 8 and Android.

The two other categories, Casual and Action, are the Player's bread and butter. You'll find everything from old-school classics like Pac-Man, Final Fantasy III and King of Fighters to some newer titles like The Walking Dead Seasons 1 and 2, SoulCalibur, Modern Combat 4 and The Wolf Among Us. I don't foresee the Nexus Player overtaking console mainstays like the PS4 and Xbox One, but it has enough power to run last-gen-quality titles on its hardware without severe slowdown.

Design and interface

The Nexus Player's design acts as an almost faux-Rorschach test because the design is painfully simple. At a cylindrical 120 x 120 x 20 mm it most resembles a hockey puck, flat on the top and stockey in the middle. But you wouldn't be far off if you said it looks like a shrunk-down roomba, miniature frisbee or Mrs. Fields cookie. What's important is the fact that it sits flat on your shelf.

If displaying the discus isn't your bag, you can hide it behind your media center without worry. The remote connects via Bluetooth instead of infrared sensor, which means it won't need direct line of sight to transmit commands to the main box.

Flip it over and you'll find a sync button, power LED indicator and the three ports - power, micro-USB and HDMI. Missing, you might notice, is an ethernet port. Unfortunately, without one, connection speeds can be sporadic. One minute you'll be watching your favorite cooking show, the next you'll be caught in a never-ending buffer screen. Trust me. It happens. It does however support 802.11ac, so at least you're working with the latest radio inside.

Also MIA are an optical audio-out port and a second HDMI port for pass through functionality. Optical audio-out isn't something you'd see on any one of the streaming sticks, but because both Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV support it, it would've been nice to see the Nexus Player follow suit. The same could be said for HDMI pass through; it's not necessary, but its addition could've helped secure the Nexus Player a spot on my media shelf.

Interface

The interface is actually the Player's shining jewel. It's clean, well-designed and accessible.

It achieves this by dividing content into four rows - recommended video, installed apps, games and settings. Each icon has large, easy-to-read font without cluttering the screen with too much to see. Recommended content leverages your past viewing habits to create a personalised playlist from your installed apps and videos it thinks you'll like from YouTube and the Google Play Store. It can be hit or miss, but when it's hit you'll be glad it's there.

If you can't find what you're looking for there's always the safety net of the voice search button to fall back on and, unlike the Fire TV, it works 99% of the time. The only problem here is that search, for now, is limited to the Google Play Store and YouTube. That means if you search "Frank" a film you know is on Netflix, you won't see that option appear in the results. Searching a film, though, brings up pertinent information like its cast and similar films. These too look polished. The art here looks marvelous, and almost like it's been hand-selected for large screens.

Transitioning from one app or video to another is lightning quick except for the times when it fails completely. That sounds contradictory but the system either works or fails miserably without any rhyme or reason. Some early adopters have even claimed Netflix is wholly broken, as they're unable to login or get past the initial credential screen. While I didn't run into this problem myself, Netflix did crash once or twice and encountered an endless buffering screen a handful of times.

Remote and controller

Asus and Google could've easily saved some money by ditching a remote. Thankfully, they chose not to.

The remote, while a bit plastic-y and light, greatly improves the usability of the system. And, like the interface itself, the remote makes more sense after you use it for a few hours.

You'll find three control buttons beneath the circular directional pad: back, home and play/pause. In practice each button is useful and fairly self-explanatory. At the top of the remote is the voice search button, which we've already covered in detail. It's a bit light and therefore may feel a bit flimsy, but it's functional and aesthetically pleasing.

The controller, as stated on the first page, looks and feels like an Xbox 360 controller, despite having in-line control sticks. Buttons have a great tactile feel and the d-pad, while a little mushy, is serviceable. Even the triggers feel good.

It's weightier than it looks, and that's a very good thing. It feels well-built, like you could toss it around a bit without fear of it snapping in two. The only complaint I have is that there's nothing really to use it with yet; the only games I found worth their cost were two Telltale games, The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, Real Boxing and Asphalt 8, a staple on Android.

Good games, at this point at least, remain few and far between.

Specs, content and performance

The biggest and best feature when it comes to the Player's bag of tricks is Google Cast, which, admittedly, isn't exactly new. That said, it's just as impressive here as it was on Chromecast.

It's still platform agnostic which means, unlike Apple TV, Google Cast will work with Android, iOS, Macs, and Windows PCs. Native apps that support Google Cast include YouTube, Netflix, Google Play Music and Google Play Movies & TV. Or, if you're looking for something more substantial, any laptop equipped with Google Chrome can share what's on its screen.

It's useful, powerful technology and one of the most compelling reasons to buy into the Android ecosystem.

Specs

Because it's half-game console, half-media streaming system, the Nexus Player needs better than average specs to achieve what it sets out to do. And in this regard, it succeeds. Mostly. Here are the specs of the Nexus Player in full detail:

• Processor: 1.8GHz Intel Atom SoC (quad-core)


• Graphics: IMG PowerVR Series 6 Graphics 2D/3D Engine


• Memory: 1GB LPDDR3


• Storage: 8GB eMMC storage


• Connectivity: 2x2 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.0


• Operating system: Android TV (Android 5.0 Lollipop)


• Ports: 18W power, 1 x HDMI out, 1 x micro-USB 2.0


• Size: 120 x 120 x 20 mm (L x W x H)


• Weight: 8.29 ounces (235g)


• Accessories: Remote with 2 AAA batteries

Having only 1GB of memory is a double-edged sword. It's more than enough when you want to stream content, but load up a game and you're bound to hit a few snags and screen tears along the way. The same can be said about the 8GB of multi-media card storage. I found it to be more than adequate to download every one of the 16 available video channels but, when I went to start downloading games, I quickly ran out of room. The quality on the apps themselves, at this stage, is actually quite high (think early Xbox 360-era graphics), but the tradeoff of having this level of control is limiting the store to about 20-25 titles.

Moving from one app to another is lightning quick and, for most folks, that'll be enough. The lower-end specs put a dangerously close expiration date for the Nexus Player as a gaming console, but it's hard to blame Asus from staying away from better (and more expensive) specs on a new, potentially impotent platform.

Verdict

Ideally, every set-top box would have access to every streaming service, game library (both iOS and Android) and music collection. Sadly, this is not a perfect world.

Google, however, made the best of the situation with the Nexus Player. It gets full marks for its simplistic, it'll-fit-anywhere design and sharp-looking interface. It does a decent job of putting the right specs in while keeping cost down and making a complementary platform for Android 5.0 Lollipop. But, unfortunately, it takes a huge loss when it comes to the level of service on offer.

The biggest issue we had with the UK version of the Nexus Player is that it doesn't make enough of a case for buying it ahead of cheaper options like Chromecast and the Amazon Firestick, and at its price point it feels less powerful (and less functional) than the Amazon Fire TV. The tie-in to your Google accounts is nice, but it's not enough to compete with its peers or justify the extra outlay on the cheap streamers.

We liked

The Nexus Player is the first device in what is sure to be a successful line of Android TVs. The OS is smart, functional and fast, even on lower-end hardware. Its interface, full of curated and recommended content, feels like a tailor-made system. Plus, when you run out of content to watch, or feel the urge to stream from a laptop or tablet, pushing the Google Cast button brings whatever content you were viewing on your mobile device to the big screen.

If you're buying it as a gift for someone less technologically oriented than you, make sure you let them know about the search feature located on the remote. It not only saves a serious amount of time zipping from one tile to the next on your own, it's a pretty neat party trick as well. Everything on the remote feels necessary and works cohesively to make an overall painless viewing experience.

We disliked

While the design is aesthetically pleasing, it's not the most functional. For example, why on a system that desperately needs a consistent connection to the internet, would you not have an ethernet port? It is, without a doubt, a bit of a miss. And, while it's not directly Google's fault, the inability to display content from iPlayer and Amazon Instant Video starves the system's already barebone streaming options.

Picking a single, trite idiom, the Nexus Player's biggest problem is "too little, too late." It's the last horse to show up for the set-top box derby and it came in with the least amount of content. Now, that's something that could change quickly if Google chooses to invest the time and money to get the platform off the ground but, if I had to bet, I'd wager that it won't be a problem the Mountain View company will fix until the next iteration of Android TV.

Final verdict

It's hard to recommend the Nexus Player as a purchase. If you want a great, powerful and slick box that can also play games (and you don't mind forking out for Amazon Prime) then the Fire TV is better at a similar price point, if you want great Google-tied functionality then it's not enough better than the Chromecast which is half the price. There's plenty of potential here, but until that is realised then other options remains a better choice.

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