Hands-on: Netgear's NeoTV Prime Google TV box
updated 08:53 pm EST, Thu January 10, 2013
Netgear differentiates Google TV offering
Several Google TV devices appeared this week at CES in Las Vegas, where Netgear unveiled its contender: NeoTV Prime. Electronista met with the company to try out the new set-top box, which brings all of the standard Google TV features alongside a few Netgear-exclusive enhancements.
All of the latest Google TV devices benefit from improvements to the platform, such as unified search and the latest Chrome browser. Netgear chose to preload the box with its own app, aVia, that provides access to media content stored on separate devices, network-attached storage or USB hard drives. This is a perfect feature for someone who already has a library of music and videos on an external hard drive.
We found the remote control to be easy to use, with a touchpad on the front and a full QWERTY keyboard on the back. The design is similar to other Google TV controllers, but with a dedicated button for Netgear's aVia app and several other shortcut buttons.
The NeoTV Prime is currently shipping for $130, commanding a slight premium over Vizio's Co-Star.
