So was looking for an android TV, but was surprised when it was mostly Sony and Hisense that have android TV.
I've heard about issues with Hisense. Some reviews mention it has very little storage and is slow.
It's expected on lower end model, but want a smooth experience.
Sony seems to fair a bit better with smoother experience. Decent SOC,16gb storage and 3gb ram.
Just hard to find the actual CPU/RAM/Storage configurations on some of these android tvs.
I am happy with my Philips TV (55OLED854)
New 2020 Hisense TV’s in the US have a quad-core MStar A55 SoC which should be fairly capable. Sony has 3 different but capable SoC’s in the lineup currently; first the Realtek RTD2873 which is another quad-core A55 for use in their lower tier TV’s. Next the Mediatek MT5893 with quad A73 cores is found in their flagship devices. Lastly the fastest SoC of the bunch is their Mediatek MT5895 with higher clocked A73 cores but currently only found in the X900H.
Devices with either the MT5893 (X950H, A8H, A9G, Z9G) or MT5895 (X900H) from Sony will have the fastest integrated Android TV system.
I have a 2019 950g, it runs as good as my Shield in every way.
Depends on manufacturing date and model. I have 2020 X950H which is running Android 9 and its super fast and responsive.
I have the Hisense Q8G (H8G in the US). I have zero slow down for android TV. I use if to stream Kodi and haven't had any hangups.
I'm actually fairly content with my TCL.
I have two Hisense H8G’s and they run Android TV great
I have a 2017 Sony x900e and Android TV runs like crap on it. But my 5 year old Nvidia shield runs it like a champ.
Beautiful TV though, great in every way except the software.
2019 X850G and X950G performs very well. I keep my old X850C (2015) in the room and it barely runs Android TV as long as I close out background apps. A8G (2019) is my new daily driver now but not as fast as the 850G and 950G, but still beats the old 850C by miles. I do miss the snappiness of the 850G/950G and regret not getting the A9G instead of the A8G. If I do come across a Shield for a good price I might jump on it for the A8G. The 850G/950G should perform well enough without the need for Shield.
Philips is good too
Philips is also good now if your in the UK. I wouldn’t take people’s experience with old TVs into account. My 2016 Philips set was awful but my 2019 set is very fast and will probably be good for quite a while. The nvidia shield will definitely beat the TVs though and will probably get more frequent updates
I have Kodi (Android 8) Android TV. It runs great. I have Netflix, Prime Video, Kodi, Stan, Optus sports and few more apks installed. Runs smooth.
The 2020 model Sony’s much improved specs were just recently posted on Kodi forums:
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=356128
The HDMI 2.1 X9000H is the most powerful Smart TV going around at the moment.
There is literally no lag running Android TV on that model mainly due to its ripper of an ARM Mali G52 GPU.
Visit Android TV Guide for all things Android TV.
Why hard to find specs? Just install some benchmark software, like AIDA, and you'll find what you need. My SABA/Changhong Android TV has an ARM V8 quad ore CPU, 1.5 Gb of RAM and 8 Gb of storage. Runs everything pretty smooth: YouTube 4K, streaming, Amazon Prime, Google Chrome...
My brother in laws Sony tv runs android tv and it’s an absolute shit show. I think the Nvidia Shield is the only decent Android Tv machine that isn’t utterly pathetic and frustrating. I would either get the best “dumb tv” you can find, or just bypass the entire OS on the tv and just use it as a monitor for a brand new Nvidia shield. It really is that god awful on all other machines.