Laggy Google TV device? New ones are about to get worse, thanks to Google.

You don’t have to pay an arm and a leg for a smart TV running the Android TV or Google TV platforms, but non-smart TVs are still significantly cheaper. Now, Google has announced that smart TVs with reduced RAM are coming. Shobana Radhakrishnan, Google’s senior director of engineering for TV, confirmed in a YouTube video that “low RAM Google TVs” are on the way: We’ll be partnering with select OEMs to launch affordable and reliable low RAM panel TVs, allowing more budget-conscious users to experience quality entertainment. This seems like a double-edged sword for the platform. On the one hand, this means that many more people should be able to buy TVs with the Google TV platform, potentially bridging the gap between smart and non-smart TVs. This would also reduce the need for a separate TV stick/box purchase. On the other hand, one of the biggest complaints about cheap Android TV devices like the old Xiaomi Mi TV Stick is that performance can be an issue. This is largely due to the s ... Read full article.