A few months back, Globe announced its partnership with Google to bring in the much-awaited Chromecast device to the Philippines.
The Chromecast is an HDMI-capable device that mirrors your smartphone, whether iOS or Android, and casts it unto your TV. That means getting to enjoy all the perks of mobile, from streaming to games, on a larger screen.
Around the same week, PLDT also announced its own dongle for the entertainment bundle for its broadband plans – the Intel Compute Stick. The Intel Compute Stick turns your TV screens into a Windows PC.
Both packaged as entertainment bundles, the question now is which device is better?
The answer is that they are not directly comparable. The Chromecast mirrors your smartphone while the Compute Stick gives you the Windows PC experience.
Here are the specs of the two devices:
The 2nd Gen Chromecast, which is what will hopefully be released here in the Philippines, has a disc-shaped body with a small length of HDMI cable attached (as opposed to the HDMI plug built into the original model). The cable is flexible and can magnetically attach to the device body for more positioning options behind a television. The 2nd Gen model uses a Marvell Armada 1500 Mini Plus 88DE3006 SoC, which has dual ARM Cortex-A7 processors running at 1.2 GHz. The unit contains an Avastar 88W8887 which has improved Wi-Fi performance and offers support for 802.11 ac and 5 GHz bands while containing three adaptive antenna for better connections to home routers.
The Intel Compute sticks packs a punch as well: A quad-core Intel Atom processor with the latest Windows OS. This includes 2 GB memory, 32 GB of on-board storage and comes with McAfee Antivirus Plus for comprehensive protection from Trojans, viruses, spyware and more. This also comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for connectivity, a USB port to connect peripherals and a micro SD card slot for additional storage.
Take note that while the Chromecast is an easy plug-and-play device, the Intel Compute Stick from PLDT will require you a mouse and keyboard as it works just like a Windows PC. Unfortunately, there haven’t been great reviews either on the PLDT-bundled dongle: gizmodo.com/intel-compute-stick-review-don-t-buy-it-1699377058
The Intel Compute Stick is free with PLDT’s DSL and Fibr plans until November 30th, while the Google Chromecast is set to arrive in the Philippines through Globe by the same time.
