When Google first launched the Chromecast, it was met with some interesting coverage. On the one hand, it was a great idea and something that essentially turned any TV out there into a “Smart TV”. However, there were some that thought the platform was a little limited, fast forward to today and pretty much every major on demand provider has Chromecast support built-in to their apps making it even easier to enjoy content on the big screen without a cable subscription or something similar. It’s been so successful that both Roku and Amazon have launched competing products into the market, and now Lenovo is following suit with something a little different.
At $49, the Lenovo Cast looks like a Hockey puck, and unlike the Chromecast or Roku Sticks, it’s packed with connectivity to bring your smartphone or tablet even closer to the TV. See, the Lenovo Cast is packed with both 2.4 Ghz and 5.0 Ghz dual-band WiFi, making it a pretty quick Hockey puck and one that can even work through walls according to Lenovo. Packed with Miracast and DLNA abilities, Lenovo Cast can either mirror your display directing to the TV or pick up media from anywhere on your network and play it back on your TV. This is a more technical approach to the whole streaming stick thing, but whether users will go for it over Google’s Chromecast or offerings from Roku and Amazon remains to be seen. As is the case with other sticks, this guy supports 1080p streaming and works over HDMI (supporting HDMI 1.3).
It’ll be available later this summer, come August, and will cost $49 which does make this a little pricier than other options out there, but still fairly affordable above all else. The Chromecast has continued to grow and grow, and with more devices able to cast their displays directly to the cheaper stick, it looks like Google has things sewn up in this regard. Google I/O gets started later today, and there’s a good chance that the Chromecast 2 will be announced on stage, so it’s possible the Lenovo Cast is getting even tougher competition before it even hits shelves later this summer.