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Walmart’s onn media streamers have been around for a few years, and they’ve earned a reputation for offering tremendous bang for the buck. Now the company has launched a new model that basically offers the same experience as a Chromecast with Google TV for less than half the price.
The new onn Google TV 4K Streaming Box sells for $20, while Google’s 4K streamer has a list price of $50.
It’s still kind of hard to find Walmart’s new media streaming gadget in stores using Walmart’s website (it’s listed as unavailable nearby for every zip code I’ve entered), but a handful of folks have been finding them on store shelves for a few weeks at this point, and 9to5Google reports that Walmart has officially confirmed that the new model has now officially launched, which means it should become more widely available in the coming weeks and months.
The new model looks a lot like the version Walmart first launched in 2021, but it features an updated design with a slightly larger body and corners that are a little more rounded.
The most important changes, though, are that the processor has been updated to a new chip that should offer similar performance while also adding support for hardware-accelerated AV1 decoding, and the software has been switched from Android TV to Google TV, which means that the interface should be nearly identical to what you’d get if you bought a Chromecast.
Actually using the onn Google TV 4K Streaming Box might be a little different than using a Chromecast though, since the remote control from Walmart’s version has more buttons including channel change buttons and four shortcut keys instead of two.
It’s a Bluetooth remote, which means it doesn’t need to be pointed directly at your device. And that means it should be easy to hide the media streamer behind your TV. But there’s also HDMI CEC support, allowing you to use the remote to turn your TV on and off or adjust the volume.
While the onn Google TV 4K Streaming Box is one of the most affordable 4K-ready media streaming devices available, it’s not necessarily a no-brainer purchase. Wireless capabilities top out at WiFi 5. It has just 2GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. And it has a micro USB port for charging rather than USB-C.
According to a review from 9to5Google, it also lacks support for features like Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, and supports at least some HDR content, although some users have found HDR performance to be hit or miss.
Click bait — with caveats. Despicable.
Yep, got one of the new ones about a month ago for my 4K tv and moved the 1080P Chromecast with Google TV to the FHD tv. Only issue I’ve had so far is having to tinker with the setting to get the audio to work, but other than that great experience. I do plan on replacing the remote with a Google one though, just because the volume controls on it, and it feels higher quality.
Buyer beware: I purchased one of these Onn AndroidTV boxes about six months ago and the remote failed after four months. It’s a known issue with these Onn devices and there are a lot of online suggestions for re-pairing the remote and your mileage may vary on ever getting the remote to pair again with the device. Unfortunately, my original remote won’t re-pair with the device, can’t be detected, and I have to use the Google Home app to control the Onn device. The frustrating part was that every time I wanted to use the Onn device, it prompted us to pair the original remote before using it even though it wasn’t registered/paired to the Onn device as a remote/device. We’ve gone back to a Roku for our streaming and media needs.
You are supposed to tinker with your Onn garbage by taking it apart and playing with it in an Arduino or some sh.Those products aren’t actually usable out of the box. The low price is still overpaying even for Onn e-waste as is most bigtech products. It would be better if civilization was euthanized and we could restart.