The world’s fastest-growing smartphone brand realme has scheduled a launch event for September 24 in India. The company has confirmed to announce a number of products at this conference. One of them will be realme Smart TV Neo 32”. Unlike other smart TV models from the brand, this television will not run Android TV.
When realme revealed that it will be launching the realme Smart TV Neo 32”, it also put up a teaser page on its website. The page does not mention Android TV at all.
Even after multiple teasers, there’s still no indication of Android TV. The only thing we can notice is that the television will come with ‘Youtube 2021’ built-in. We even mentioned the same in our previous article.
This clearly suggests that this particular TV will boot some other operating system. We believe it will run a Linux-based OS like cheap smart TV models from Sony.
If that’s the case, then the television may lack many features that are common among smart TVs. First and foremost, it may not have support for leading streaming platforms. The render on realme’s website only shows YouTube, Hungama Play, Eros Now, and Yupp TV.
Secondly, it may not come with a voice assistant. Although it could have Miracast, the casting experience will not be as convenient as Chromecast.
One might think it is bizarre for realme to skip Android TV. But we think the company is making a smart move. Let us explain why.
For those unaware, the price of TV panels was in rising for the past few quarters. Hence, OEMs have been hiking the price of their televisions for a while. Although the price of panels is expected to drop in Q3 2021, consumers will see the effect only by the end of this year.
Hence, the Redmi Smart TV 32 launched today costs higher at ₹15,999 than the launch price of older 32-inch TVs from Xiaomi. This is what realme is trying to avoid.
We think that the brand is offsetting the price of the panel by opting for different software. In case you do not know, OEMs have to pay license fees to use Android TV. Hence, by using some other OS, realme does not have to spend more money on software.
Also, since the brand is advertising the realme Smart TV Neo 32 as ‘Dumb TV Killer’, we can surely expect it to be cheaper than other 32-inch televisions running Android TV.
Having said that, do you still consider buying this TV if it offers great picture and sound quality for the price? The answer is yes. You can easily get access to better smart features by using any cheap Android TV streaming stick or Amazon Fire TV Stick.
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