Anker Nebula May Finally Make Android TV Too Cheap To Ignore

The year 2021 may finally be the year that Google made their smart TV platform too affordable to avoid. The Google Chromecast with Google TV is already $50 – a highly reasonable price for what it delivers. But Anker is the sort of company that's positioned to deliver just-good-enough products at low-as-possible prices. With the Anker Nebula 4K Streaming Dongle, the company may get that Google TV experience – starting with an Android TV experience – down to a price that can compete with Amazon's Fire TV.

You may have heard of the brand Anker Nebula before – they've made some waves with some very unique Android TV-based projectors. This week Anker Japan (via 9to5Google) showed a new compact piece of hardware. This is the Anker Nebula 4K Streaming Dongle. This piece of hardware will bring the Android TV 10.0 (and likely Google TV not long after launch), to the masses.

The dongle will be delivered with a remote based on a reference design made by Google. It's different from what comes with Chromecast with Google TV. The Chromecast with Google TV has a remote with a click wheel, back, Assistant, Home, Mute, Power, Input, YouTube, and Netflix buttons. This design, as previously shown by @AndroidTV_Rumor back in February, has all of the previously mentioned buttons plus a TV button, Settings, Bookmark, Channel (up, down), Disney+, and HBOMAX buttons.

The Anker Nebula 4K Streaming Dongle will support 4K output with HDMI and will connect to power via microUSB. There'll also be Dolby Digital Plus support, according to Anker.

The Anker Nebula 4K Streaming Dongle will be released in Japan, first, starting in September of 2021. Cross your fingers the company will bring the same – or something very similar – to the United States before the end of the year.