Google Nexus Q

The Google I/O developer conference saw the announcement of some notable Nexus products, including the Editors' Choice Nexus 7 tablet ($199, 4.5 stars) and the company's first self-produced home-entertainment media hub, the Nexus Q. The music-focused Q doesn't integrate with Google TV and?is limited to Google Play and YouTube for streaming video content, it?doesn't have a visual interface, and requires an Android device to work. And then there's the price: $299 (direct), which makes it a very expensive way to play the MP3s from your Android phone or tablet through your HDTV or stereo speakers. ?

The Nexus Q costs?too much and offers too little to present any viable competition for inexpensive media hubs like the Roku LT ($49.99, 4 stars) or the Apple TV ($99, 4 stars). It also isn't as well-equipped as wireless audio-based streaming solutions from Sonos or Airplay-enabled speakers as a wireless home audio solution.

Design
A good-looking 4.6-inch, 2-pound black orb, the Nexus Q has a ring of LEDs around its diagonal equator and a single LED on the top of its axis from that equator. The LEDs change color to let you know what the device is doing, and for fun, the LEDs also cycle in time with the music you're playing. The top hemisphere of the orb spins to change the Nexus Q's volume, but otherwise there are no physical controls.

You need to use an Android smartphone or tablet to control the Nexus Q. Without it, the Q will only show a welcome screen with a drawing of the device and the URL for Google's Nexus website on your HDTV. Of course, even after you set up the Nexus Q, it won't show anything besides the volume level, any YouTube or Google Play video you stream from your phone, or the visualizer for any music you're playing. The device can easily work without any HDTV at all, putting sound through a home theater system or powering its own stereo speakers with its built-in 25-watt amp.

All actions occur through the Nexus Q app, which you can get by either searching the Google Play store or, if your device supports near-field communication (NFC), by tapping your Android device to the top of the Nexus Q. At the time of this writing, the app was only compatible with Google Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" (4.5 stars)?devices, of which there are very few right now. I tested the Nexus Q with an unlocked Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone. According to Google, however, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, and Ice Cream Sandwich Android phones and tablets will be supported when the Nexus Q is released to consumers in July. iOS devices need not apply.

Around the back of the orb, you'll find a micro HDMI output, a micro USB port (currently just for service and support), an Ethernet port if you don't want to use Wi-Fi (the Nexus Q supports 802.11a/b/g/n), an optical audio output, and four analog audio ports for unpowered stereo speakers, which can be powered by the Nexus Q's built-in 25-watt amp. The connections are for banana plugs, so if your speakers have bare wires you'll have to make a run to Radio Shack; without the standard binding posts or terminals, you can't connect your speakers to the device with naked wire. Of course, if you hook up the Nexus Q to your home theater via optical or HDMI, that's not an issue (though you'll be bypassing the amp, which presumably accounts for a significant portion of the device's heft and price).

The Nexus Q is impenetrable out of the box; the Welcome screen offers no clues about set-up if you hook it up to an HDTV, so you'll likely spend a few minutes poring over the documentation. Install the app first: Once it's on your?phone or tablet, setting up the Nexus Q is easy. Just tell the Q which Wi-Fi network to use through the Nexus Q app on your smartphone or tablet, enter the password if it's secure, and you're good to go. After that, continue to control the device through the app.?

Not Many Features
The good news is that the Nexus Q does everything it tries to do very well. The bad news is that it simply doesn't try to do very much. You can stream music and movies from your Google Play account and videos from YouTube to the Nexus Q, but that's it. You can't watch Netflix. You can't watch Hulu Plus. You can't play Pandora or Slacker. You can't even watch your own videos stored on the phone or tablet; you can only play movies you've purchased through the Google Play store. Music streaming is a little more robust, but tracks must be stored on your Android device or in the cloud-based Google Music. I streamed both Google Play and local music and video files from my Samsung Galaxy Nexus test phone just by tapping the Nexus Q button that appeared in the respective media apps after I installed the Nexus Q app.

When playing music, the Nexus Q offers a half dozen simple visualizers or screen savers, most of which involve swirling colors shown on your HDTV. The only other selection is a bouncing track information screen. Otherwise, you can just turn the visualization off. There is no other visual interaction between you and the device through your HDTV. If you don't want to watch YouTube videos or movies you purchased on Google Play, you can easily use the Nexus Q without hooking it up to a screen at all. You control it through an Android device, anyway. The Nexus Q also lets any Android user with the Nexus Q app stream music, which is useful for party situations. If you want to keep control over the device, you can disable the feature so only you can stream content to it.

I tested the Nexus Q using the Samsung Galaxy Nexus?phone and Google Nexus 7 tablet as test controllers, by going through the three services available to it: Play Music, Play Movies & TV, and YouTube. I started by streaming some Weezer and Prodigy tracks to the Nexus Q through Google Music; both "Say It Ain't So" and "Voodoo People" played on the connected HDTV easily by tapping the Nexus Q button that appeared in the app. Streaming YouTube videos to the Nexus Q was equally easy; I sent Minecraft playthrough videos to my HDTV wirelessly with a similar touch of the button. I then played Underworld: Awakening from the Google Play Movies & TV store through the Nexus Q. Once again, it showed up on the HDTV almost instantly after I touched the button. Conveniently, the movie continued to play after I returned to the home screen, letting me perform other tasks on the Nexus 7 without interrupting the video.

The limited media selection holds the Nexus Q back to the point that it's nearly useless. Google Play has a decent music selection, and you can store your own tunes in the cloud, but the video selection on Google's store just isn't as strong as iTunes, and without other services like Netflix and Hulu Plus, the multimedia offerings for the Q are anemic at best. With its amp and stereo speaker output, the Nexus Q is clearly designed for music, but given the price, you should get some video services beyond Google Play and YouTube and some music services beyond Google Music and your own library, and the Nexus Q just doesn't deliver.

It's not a wireless solution, but if you don't mind tethering your smartphone to your TV, you can stream almost any audio and video content to your HDTV or home theater through a microHDMI-to-HDMI cable or an HDMI-MHL adapter for as little as $10. Most Android smartphones and tablets have HDMI outputs and some support MHL, which lets you both output video to your HDTV and charge your smartphone at the same time. On one hand, you won't have the freedom and social advantages of a wireless system, but on the other hand you'll be able to show much more from your phone.

Underwhelming Orb
On paper, the Google Nexus Q should be capable of so much more. The device is built around a dual-core Cortex A9 CPU, runs Android 4.0,?and includes 1GB RAM and 16GB of internal memory. These components weren't explored earlier in this review simply because the Nexus Q doesn't seem to actually use them to any real extent. Its lack of any functionality outside of Google Play and YouTube seems a criminal underuse of a device that is both expensive and overbuilt. Google's decision to not put Google TV on the Nexus Q seems to be a giant misstep, as its hardware is certainly capable of taking advantage of the system. Google's decision to not put any Android interface on the Nexus Q seems to be an even bigger failure, since it keeps a robust operating system buried under three meager Google-owned apps.?The only redemption the Nexus Q could possibly see is a full Android interface patch from Google, or in the inevitable hacks and mods to make it more functional. As it stands, the Nexus Q is simply an overpriced toy for streaming music and, if you really like YouTube videos or buy a lot of movies and TV shows on Google Play, video.

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