Another day, another device I get, this time I'm new to the Google TV UI and I must say I'm disappointed.

SPECIFICATIONS:

- Android 11

- Amlogic S905Y4 with AV1 hardware decoding.

- ARM Mali-G31 MP2.

- HDR, HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG.

- 2GB RAM.

- 8GB internal storage.

- WiFi AC.

- Bluetooth 5.0.

- HDMI 2.1.

PROS:

- We still don't have those hated ads in my country yet.

- I can finally use the internal microphone of any UVC webcam different than Logitech to make videocalls thanks to the security patch installed on the device dated january 5th 2022, though I'm not sure if it's Android 11 the one that makes this possible but anyway, at least it works.

- Google TV's user profiles support (currently rolling out though I still haven't received the update).

- Other enhancements brought by Android 11.

CONS:

- The UI is laggy and sometimes unresponsive as well as the overall performance of the stick, sometimes it reboots by itself, Realme really needs to improve it.

- I don't like the Google TV interface, I was optimistic about the switch from the Android TV UI but it really needs some polish in these aspects:

1. There isn't a clock on the home screen 👎
2. The Android TV channels can't be moved or removed from the home screen and some of them look ugly 👎
3. Google hid the Play Store, Play Movies and Play Games apps from the launcher so they must be invoked using the assistant or by going to the apps section in settings, I know there are some apps in the Play Store that helps to create a launcher icon but that's not the point. I also know that the Play Movies library is integrated into the UI but I don't like the app to be hidden 👎
4. The "apps" section is ugly as well, Google also integrated the Play Store interface but it lacks the updates screen integrated as a row so we can learn when a new update is available without going to the Play Store directly to check that out 👎
5. All the launcher icons in one single grid in the app drawer makes it look messy, I really love how they are organized on the Android TV UI, apps and games in its own separate section 👎
6. Adding apps as favorites to the home screen is so ugly, the UI only has space for a limited number, the rest remain in the "Apps" drawer 👎
7. The Live tab is not available in every market because Google needs to partner with everything that breathes to make more money 👎
8. Sometimes when I'm moving through the interface the screensaver suddenly appears which is annoying (it may be a bug) and I hate when it also appears when I press the back button on the remote control 👎
9. Changing the screensaver between Google photos and the other options can be done from the device directly without using Google Home, but it doesn't work if the device hasn't been added first to that app 👎

- Android 11 and its scope storage thing broke some apps I tested, for example, I always use X-plore and the app is unable to create, delete or move folders to and from the internal storage, it shows an error message stating the process couldn't be performed.

- I've been unable to use game console emulators because they don't see the external storage connected to the device or apps doesn't work very well yet with that storage framework, formatting it as internal doesn't fix the problem either.

Dolby Vision is presumably not supported but an option appears in the screen settings, however, the option appears in the "not available" section along the HDR option since my TV doesn't have support for them but I'm not sure if the Dolby Vision option becomes available when the stick is connected to a TV with support.

- The device lacks a Dolby Audio license, which means, Dolby Digital Plus internal decoding is not supported but only passthrough, for example, I'm not getting audio from HBO Max when the stick is connected to a TV with only PCM 2.0 support but this is a problem of the app rather than the device itself, I had to report the issue to HBO.

- Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and Master Audio passthrough is not supported, but the stick is able to passthrough the DTS Core from DTS-HD streams, however, many video apps can decode them as multichannel PCM without losing the lossless quality, meanwhile, Dolby TrueHD decoding to multichannel PCM is not working properly because it gets downmixed to stereo, but it's probably an issue of the firmware.

- Auto framerate is not supported as far as I can tell but it will be supported once Android 12 arrives to it... someday.

CONCLUSION:

The device is relatively new and it will take some time for Realme to improve its performance.

I understand that the Google TV UI is a resemblance to the Google TV app on mobile devices but it leaves a lot to be desired honestly.