Tech

Forget the Apple TV — this dirt-cheap Google gadget revolutionised my living room

By Rob Price
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television black and white old fashioned fifties
Paul Townsend/Flickr (CC)

Looking to spruce up your lounge?

An Apple TV top box starts at $159 (£129).

A PlayStation 4 is currently $343 (£284).

A smart TV will set you back hundreds.

Forget all of them — Google sells a gadget for just $35 (£30) that will transform how you watch TV.

It certainly did for me.

I'm talking about Chromecast. It's a "dongle" that Google sells that you plug into the back of your TV.

Chromecast
Google

You slot it into a HDMI port, the sort found on basically all modern TVs. Once there, you control it with your smartphone.

chromecast tv new hdmi cable port
TechStage/Flickr (CC)

You can throw videos and music onto your TV to watch by pressing the Chromecast button on any of the hundreds of compatible apps.

chromecast photo
Google

YouTube, Netflix, BBC's iPlayer, NBA ... all of them work with the device.

House of Cards
Netflix

You can also mirror the screen of your smartphone, browse the internet, and show off photos. It even has some compatible games.

google chromecast photos
Google

In effect, it turns any television into a smart TV — but for a fraction of the price of one, and with almost no hardware.

samsung smart tv
Pictured: A Samsung smart TV. Don't bother — buy Chromecast instead. Samsung

This is because most of the heavy lifting is done on your phone. You've got a powerful computer already in your pocket, so the dongle capitalises on that to keep costs low.

samsung s6 edge smartphone two hand
Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Samsung

Your smartphone becomes your new TV remote.

tv television remotes
Wave goodbye to these. Travis Wise/Flickr (CC)

I picked one up about a month ago and it has revolutionised how I watch TV. My housemates and I don't have to search for a laptop and HDMI cable to watch movies or worry about battery — anyone can throw on a film with a single click.

google chromecast tv mission impossible streaming
A Google employee demonstrates playing a video on a phone and transferring it to a television using the new Google Chromecast SDK during a Google special event at Dogpatch Studios on July 24, 2013, in San Francisco, California. Google announced a new Nexus 7 tablet made by Asus and the Chromecast SDK. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

And if you've got friends round, you can make a queue of music and videos via YouTube that anyone can contribute to via their phone.

friends watching televsion
Wonderlane/Flickr (CC)

Oh, and it's not just for Android phones. It also works with iPhones, as well as tablets and laptops.

android iPhone side by side
Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr (CC)

Sure, so this isn't just breaking news. The new Chromecast launched back in September 2015. But I'm not exaggerating when I say that it's one of the best gadgets I've bought in years. Don't bother shelling out for an Apple TV or smart television: This is all you need.

chromecast google
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

You can pick up a Chromecast straight from Google at Chromecast.com, for £30 in the UK and $35 in the US »

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Rob Price
Rob Price was a senior correspondent at Business Insider, based in San Francisco. He wrote investigations and long-form features about platforms, people, and power in Silicon Valley.His stories variously led to attorney general investigations, large-scale internal reviews at major tech companies, high-profile personnel departures, citation by state and federal lawmakers, and the closure of a well-funded startup. His 2022 story on the Bitfinex hack is being adapted into a feature film, and in 2024 he received an SPJ NorCal Excellence in Journalism award for his reporting on AI and relationships.Rob's scoops and exclusive stories were cited by The New York Times, Bloomberg, the BBC, Associated Press, Reuters, CNBC, Politico, The Guardian, Axios, and many other national and international publications. His writing has also been published in or syndicated by The Washington Post, The Independent, Vice, Slate, and elsewhere, and he appeared on CNN, the BBC, CBS, Reuters, ABC Australia, and other broadcast media to discuss technology, business, and culture.He worked for Business Insider from 2015 to 2025. Prior to joining the features team, Rob covered Facebook and Silicon Valley, and before that wrote about tech business, policy, and the gig economy in London. Between September and October 2019, he was acting executive editor for Business Insider's UK bureau. He also sat on the board of directors for the San Francisco Press Club, the leading non-profit media advocacy group in the Bay Area, and was a volunteer crew member at the Marine Mammal Center, the world's largest animal hospital for marine mammals. You can contact Rob Price via email at robaeprice@gmail.com, or +1 650-636-6268 (Signal / WhatsApp / Cell). Selected stories:— They spoke out against their employer. Then they were hit with trade secrets suits.— The rise of 'shadow stand-ins'— App, Lover, Muse: Inside a 47-year-old Minnesota man's three-year relationship with an AI chatbot— Deel Speed: The inside story of a $12 billion HR startup's breakneck growth— Private islands, flying cars, and psychedelic parties: Inside the wild post-Google lives of Larry Page and Sergey Brin— 'I want your Instagram account': First came the threatening texts, followed by the SWAT teams. Then someone wound up dead.— Inside Iconiq: How Mark Zuckerberg's banker built a secret Silicon Valley empire and made billions— Gaia was a wildly popular yoga brand. Now it's a publicly traded Netflix rival pushing conspiracy theories while employees fear the CEO is invading their dreams— A drunken late-night assault allegation has roiled the secretive world of Mark Zuckerberg's private family office. Personal aides are speaking out about claims that household staff endured sexual harassment and racism from their colleagues.
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