A less expensive Google TV could price you extra in the long term

Abstract

At its I/O 2025 occasion, Google introduced it was engaged on launching “inexpensive and dependable low RAM TVs” with Google TV.
The brand new Google TVs are geared toward customers on a price range, however it’s unclear how a lot RAM they’ll even have. Google is working with OEM companions on them.
Low-RAM TVs elevate considerations over efficiency and longevity, and will price customers extra in the long term.

Google had loads to share at its current

I/O 2025 event
, asserting over 100 different software initiatives, together with AI mode in Google Search, its Veo 3 AI video era software, and

Gemini expanding to more devices
, together with smartwatches, vehicles, and TVs. Talking of TVs, Google revealed a number of upgrades for its Google TV OS with Android 16, together with Eclipsa Audio help and a visible refresh primarily based on its newly unveiled

Material 3 Expressive
look.

Nonetheless, one announcement that took me a bit off guard was Google’s emphasis on low-cost TVs. Throughout Google TV’s I/O 2025 presentation, it was revealed that Google can be engaged on “launching inexpensive and dependable low RAM TVs” with the goal of “permitting extra budget-conscious customers to expertise high quality leisure.”

Shobana Radhakrishnan, Senior Director of Engineering at Google, said that the tech large would accomplice with “choose OEMs” to deliver these new inexpensive TVs to market.

Whereas this announcement has good intentions, it does concern me. To be clear, my worries do not stem from the truth that Google is growing new low-cost TVs. That is nice information, and for budget-conscious customers, it would make Google TV much more accessible. Nonetheless, what worries me is the “dependable low RAM” side, which stays fairly imprecise and will carry vital implications.

Google TV

Working system: Google TV
Ease of use: Excessive
Sensible assistants: Google Assistant
Advert presence: Average
App availability: Very extensive
Notable options: AI-curated content material; Chromecast built-in

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Low RAM TVs may need longevity points

How a lot is “dependable low” Google?

After I consider a low-RAM TV streaming system, I envision Google’s now discontinued Chromecast with Google TV, which had 1.5GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. As Android Police factors out, that system suffered from efficiency points and storage issues, which Google needed to handle a number of occasions via updates throughout its lifecycle.

Google’s latest streaming system, the

Google TV Streamer
, addresses these issues with sooner processing energy, 4GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage. What worries me about this current announcement is what precisely “dependable low RAM” means.

If it is below 2GB of RAM, that is extraordinarily regarding, as it would really feel to me just like the TVs are outdated from the second you flip them on.

If a Google TV has much less RAM than common, it won’t obtain software program updates for as lengthy.

Google is likely to be making under-the-hood optimizations to make sure Google TV performs extra reliably with much less RAM on these TVs, however that appears more and more tough, particularly as extra performance-demanding options come to Google TV sooner or later, like Gemini this fall. So, efficiency points are undoubtedly a priority.

I am additionally curious whether or not there can be any software program implications surrounding this. If a Google TV has much less RAM than common, it won’t obtain software program updates for as lengthy. Whereas it is totally potential {that a} low-RAM TV might carry out effectively when it is model new, I concern which may not maintain true for lengthy. I imagine Google is shifting within the mistaken course right here.

An OLED TV on a red and yellow background.

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Google TV should not decrease its minimal RAM requirement

Construct up, not down

Google / Pocket-lint

As an alternative of attempting to adapt Google TV for low-RAM TVs, Google ought to preserve a baseline RAM requirement to make sure correct performance throughout all gadgets, guaranteeing a clean Google TV expertise for everybody. To be clear, budget-friendly Google TVs must be accessible, however what is the level of shopping for a brand new TV if, a 12 months later, it would already present indicators of growing older on account of inadequate RAM?

Final 12 months, Google up to date the minimal RAM requirement for Google TV to 2GB (through Android Authority). It stays unclear if its new “dependable low RAM TVs” can have lower than that.

…it appears misguided to launch TVs with low RAM in 2025 that won’t present the standard customers anticipate.

Mid-range Google TVs with 2GB of RAM are already accessible from manufacturers like Hisense, so it is puzzling to me why Google would make this announcement when TVs with the minimal quantity of RAM exist already. This worries me that Google’s new low-RAM TVs would possibly fall under the 2GB threshold.

Contemplating all of the progress Google is making with Google TV, it appears misguided to all of a sudden launch TVs with low RAM in 2025 that won’t present the standard customers anticipate.

Low-cost, inexpensive Google TVs must be accessible to budget-conscious customers, however not on the expense of RAM. If Google goals to reinforce Google TV to compete with Hearth TV and Roku, it should proceed to ship higher options. I do not imagine that pursuing low-RAM TVs will obtain this, as they merely will not have the longevity that customers would anticipate. A low-RAM Google TV could finally price customers extra in the long term, particularly if they should purchase a brand new TV two years later on account of efficiency points.