I tried the first Google TV with Gemini, and it’s the most important Google TV upgrade yet
I’m in the middle of reviewing the TCL QM9K, the first Google TV with Gemini AI support. And while the QM9K is an impressive TV in its own right – with a specified 6,500 nits peak brightness, it’s certainly the brightest TV I’ve yet tested – Gemini encourages a level of interaction that I rarely find myself pursuing with smart TVs.
I find myself actually wanting to talk to the TCL QM9K.
Before I get into the details of that, let’s first discuss the rollout of Gemini support on Google TV. The feature is available on the TCL QM9K out of the box, and will be made available as an update to the company’s QM7K, QM8K and X11K models later this year. Other TVs slated to get Gemini include the 2025 Hisense U8, U7 and UX models, and the feature will also be added to the Google TV Streamer and Walmart onn. 4K Pro streaming box.
Google, I have questions…
Gemini on Google TV responds to questions, the same way it does when using the Gemini app on your phone. Since it’s on a TV, the questions have slightly changed to be more TV-related ones, such as “show me the highest-rated action films on HBO Max”.
But Gemini’s usefulness doesn’t stop there. In my initial testing of the feature, I found I could ask for a list of Mission Impossible movies available on Netflix, and then immediately follow up by asking for a ranking of those movies by Rotten Tomatoes scores to see which one I’d like to watch first. Hmmm… will it be Rogue Nation or Ghost Protocol? Check out TechRadar’s very own Mission Impossible movie ranking to see where these sit.
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In my brief time testing it, I found having a sophisticated AI chatbot built into the TV’s smart interface really did help to navigate what’s available to stream, and the contextual, conversational nature of the interaction usefully let me narrow searches down to only the services I subscribe to.
There are, of course, other things you can ask Gemini other than what to watch. In advance of a trip to Toronto, Canada, I inquired about the city’s art museums and followed up with a question about current exhibits and admission prices at a specific one I wanted to visit. I also inquired about archaeological sites near Cancún, Mexico, and was provided with an overview of both popular and lesser-known Mayan sites.
In both of those cases, a row of relevant YouTube videos was also provided – not surprising given that Google owns YouTube.
More Gemini tricks and treats
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The TCL QM9K features a built-in presence sensor that can be set up to automatically turn on the TV when you enter a room. When this happens, Google TV goes into a low-power Ambient mode, displaying an image onscreen, with the option to show widgets with the time, weather, and top news headline of the day.
You can configure the TV to show images from various Google collections or to use your own Google Photos feed as the source, and you can set a slideshow timing for the rotation of images. Another option is to use Gemini to create original images, with voice or text-based prompts guiding the process.
I used the TV’s built-in far-field mic to ask Gemini to create “a frozen cottage in the woods surrounded by swarms of Monarch butterflies,” and it delivered a pretty good rendering of what I had in my head. Continuing with the wintry theme, I asked Gemini to generate “a frozen lake with cracked ice and a comet streaking through the sky”. I was more than happy with the resulting image, and opted to use it as the TV’s main screensaver.
Gemini can also do things like generate a news brief, with headlines and news clips drawn from its library of Google Freeview channels, which contain many local and national news outlets. This is a good way to get a quick overview of what’s going on in the world, and can be a jumping-off point for finding out more about a specific event or topic.
Will your Google TV get Gemini?
Gemini will be coming to more TVs and Google devices in the future, though it’s unclear which older TVs with the Google TV smart platform beyond the ones already announced are eligible for the update. Gemini AI obviously requires a higher level of processing power than some existing Google TVs provide, and there is also a requirement for a built-in mic on the TV or remote control.
If you’re a Google TV owner, keep your fingers crossed, because Gemini is a pretty cool and useful addition.
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