We asked, you told us: Many of you own an Android TV set or box

Many TVs these days are of the smart variety, and Android TV is one of the most popular smart TV platforms around. However, AA colleague Adamya Sharma lamented her experience with her Sony Bravia W950D Android TV set.

In any event, that got us wondering just how many people have an Android TV set, streaming box, or something different altogether. We posed this question in our opinion piece last week and here’s what you said.

Do you own an Android TV device?

Results

This was a pretty popular poll, accruing over 3,400 votes to date. The winning pick? Well, it turns out that 43.74% of respondents say they’ve got a TV running Google’s platform. We’re not sure if this poll reflects consumers at large given that Android TV boxes/sticks are much cheaper than Android-toting TVs. Then again, Android TV is pretty common on smart TVs these days.

Meanwhile, 26.2% of surveyed readers say they’ve got an Android TV stick or streaming box. As Adamya noted in her opinion piece, dedicated Android TV boxes like the NVIDIA Shield and Chromecast with Google TV get more (and more timely) system updates compared to smart TVs running the platform. So it makes sense to buy these devices over a smart TV if you’re worried about updates and/or price.

Otherwise, almost 17% of polled readers say they don’t have an Android TV device of any kind. We’re guessing at least some of these voters have an Apple TV box or a device with Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Tizen, or LG WebOS. Finally, 13.2% of respondents indicated that they have multiple devices running Android TV in their household.

Comments

• Grey: I do not trust any Smart TV and any Smart TV updates. I have a Roku TCL and I never connect it to the internet. I plug in my Chromecast or any other smart device for that aspect.
• Craig S.: Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend actual Android TV sets when you’re at the mercy of the Android TV OEM themselves to deliver the updates…with Android TV being the wild wild west situation that it is. Hisense doesn’t update much either. Amazon keeps their Fire TV OS builds on their Fire TV’s patched and they continually add new new features, but they never update the entire FireOS Android codebase to a new version of Android. Roku updates their Linux based Roku OS TV’s for years, delivering every few months with updates and usually smaller features. Dunno how well Samsung with Tizen and LG with WebOS do??? Android TV is fine with cheap HDMI sticks/dongles or the Shield that’s been updated for 7 years now, but NOT inside of the actual TV.
• Fried PB+Banana Sandwich: This kind of garbage is why I refuse to buy an expensive TV these days. Quality is no longer linked to price, all you’re getting is a headache’s worth of problems. Just get a basic smart TV, never connect it to the net, and plug in a set top box for all your media needs. Or better yet, get a PC connected so you can stream everything for a decade+.
• icwhatudidthere: This happened with my Sony Android TV also. At least you got 5 years out of it. I got 2 years out of mine. After a series of bad updates and various bugs it finally just hung during an update and never turned on again. Will never buy another Sony TV ever again.
• Arlondiluthel: This is part of the reason that I believe a Chromecast is a better route: take any working display and make it “smart” for under $100. Then, if the “smart” functionally gets EoL’ed, it’s under $100 to replace, as opposed to $1K+ for a new TV. Of course, if the TV itself craps out, you’re up the creek either way.
• darjen: I have a sony x800d in the bedroom… about 7 years old. all of the hdmi inputs died a couple years ago. can’t connect any device without the picture being completely scrambled. i can only assume it’s the motherboard or something. the one thing that still makes it useful is the built in android tv, where you can still use it to watch anything you want. honestly doesn’t matter one bit that the version is old. it still works completely fine with all the streaming apps.
• Masked_Avenger: I had a Sony TV that died after 6 years. The cost of replacing the motherboard was half the original cost. Also have a Panasonic LCD, non smart TV which is probably 12-13 years old and still going. Won’t buy Sony again… Android isn’t the problem the manufacturer is.