One of the great things about cloud gaming with services like GeForce NOW and Xbox Cloud Gaming (Xcloud) is that you don’t need a state of the art PC or console to enjoy some of the latest AAA games on your TV. Walmart’s “onn.” Google TV device may be the most affordable way to stream games in from the cloud to your TV yet!
Recent TV models from the likes of Samsung and LG have built in apps that let you stream from cloud gaming services (like GeForce NOW, Amazon Luna and Xcloud) with no device attached to the TV at all! But if you don’t have a brand new TV, we’ve often recommended streaming devices like Chromecasts, FireTV sticks and the NVIDIA Shield TV as great devices for cloud gaming. For 4K support, these typically run from $50 and up (the Shield TV being above $100 as a premium device). However, Walmart’s onn streaming device, which runs Google TV like the Chromecast, is a new 4K streamer that retails at Walmart for the ultra-low price of $19.88!
$19.88! And, that isn’t even a sale price! Let’s check this little device out.
The Device Specs
The onn. Google TV comes with a remote that is very similar to the Chromecast with Google TV but has a few more buttons (including buttons dedicated to Youtube, Netflix, Disney+ and Paramount+). The device itself is just a little bigger than the Chromecast. It is shaped like a miniature puck and is nearly weightless.
Specs:
- 4K Resolution
- Google TV / Android TV OS
- 8 GB Storage
- 2GB RAM
- Wifi 5
In my opinion, the device is snappier than the 4K Chromecast With Google TV – a device that launched back at the end of 2020. Where the latter device can often feel sluggish, the onn interface (which is basically identical to the CCwGTV) feels steadier, more responsive and quicker to switch from task to task.
While the WIFI 5 radio is a little dated at this point, I didn’t have any trouble with any cloud games I tried on our local WIFI network.
The overall interface of the Walmart onn device is essentially identical to that of the Chromecast with Google TV. Really, it is hard to find even minor differences. I was also impressed to see that the device received an update to Android 12 (which is on par with the official Google TV Chromecast).
Officially Supported Cloud Gaming Apps
You can find official Android TV apps for a variety of applications in the builtin Google Play store on the device. I was able to install NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Boosteroid, Shadow, Antstream Arcade and Blacknut.
NVIDIA GeForce NOW played as well on the device as it does on the official. Google Chromecast with Google TV.
The stream was clear and the framerate felt consistent.
While the onn TV is a 4K device, GeForce NOW unfortunately caps out at 1080p60 on the device. This is identical to the Chromecast but lower than the 4K resolution GFN offers on an NVIDIA Shield Android TV device. That device will cost you over $100 more than the onn, however.
Another app I tried was Blacknut Gaming. The app has a nice clean interface for Android TV that allows navigating the collection of games in a really enjoyable way. I tried playing a few titles. All of the titles were capped at 720P (and what felt like 30FPS). This is again consistent with performance on other Android TV devices.
While Blacknut doesn’t win any awards for fidelity on the TV, the games I tried were responsive and kept a steady performance.
Xbox Game Pass
While Xbox Game Pass is not officially supported on Android TV or Google TV, I was able to follow our instructions for getting the Android Xbox Game Pass App sideloaded onto Google TV. The result was an experience that again felt as good or better than on the Chromecast With Google TV.
We are still eagerly awaiting and official Android TV app from Xbox. But for now, this experience is more than adequate. I’m not exactly sure what the resolution of the stream was. It felt distinctly better than the Blacknut stream. It also felt distinctly worse than GeForce NOW.
One annoyance is the “Play Games on your Android mobile device” notification that is shown in the picture above. This seemed to occur during the first run and randomly after. Restarting the app is a possible solution.
You can similarly sideload apps for Amazon Luna (from Fire TV) and Utomik to get the full gambit of cloud gaming apps on the device. It’s fantastic to have thousands of games at your immediate disposal.
Review
onn. Google TV 4K Streaming Box
Summary
The onn Google TV device is snappy and responsive, offering a similar interface to the Chromecast with Google TV. It supports several officially supported cloud gaming apps, including NVIDIA GeForce NOW and Blacknut Gaming, with good performance and consistent frame rates. You can also sideload the Xbox Game Pass Android for Xbox Cloud Gaming support. At $19.88, this is the cheapest way to cloud game on your TV – and the performance is surprisingly good!
