Hands-on review: UPDATED: Google Nexus Q
Hands-on review: UPDATED: Google Nexus Q
Google wowed attendees at the Google IO 2012 conference when they announced the Google Nexus Q media streaming device.
Seeing that multi-screen options for experiencing media are all the rage this year, it should really come as no surprise that Google too, was eager to jump on the bandwagon.
But how does the Nexus Q compare to other options out there? Google was nice enough to send us home with the device and following are TechRadar's initial impressions.
Keep it simple
The interesting thing about the Nexus Q is its relative simplicity. We plugged the device via HDMI into our television, connected it via an ethernet cable, downloaded the Nexus Q app to our Nexus 7 tablet and fired up the app. Within minutes we were up and running.
As we mentioned before, the Nexus Q is an extremely simple device. And here is where criticisms will no doubt be raised.
We were easily able to stream music from our Nexus 7 tablet to the Nexus Q as well as YouTube. Things got a little dicey however, when we streamed video content.
YouTube videos looked like, well, YouTube videos. When we streamed video that looked perfectly fine on the Nexus 7 tablet to the Nexus Q, image quality dropped off precipitously. Google ships the Nexus 7 with "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" and while the movie looked great on the device itself, there were some artifacts visible when we streamed the movie to our 70-inch Sharp Aquos HDTV. Of course, the Nexus Q works by streaming the content NOT from the device itself but by streaming it from the Google Play store. An interesting choice to say the least.
Additionally, the Nexus Q lacks a standard UI as you have to have an Android device like the Nexus 7 or an Android phone to control it.
Early verdict
An upside to the Nexus Q, according to Google is the device's social aspect. Simply put, multiple users can interact with the same device.
After a bit of wrangling we were able to utilize this function. We started "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" on the Nexus 7 tablet and then interrupted it by playing music that we were controlling on our Galaxy Nexus S mobile phone running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. We can definitely see how this feature would be great in party situations where revelers tend to "fight for the iPod."
Google is obviously taking shots at Apple and their iOS and Apple TV solution. That said, the Nexus Q is a whopping $299 (through the Google Play store).That's a lot to pay for a device that essentially does less than competing solutions.
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