Wirelessly mirror your tablet, smartphone or laptop on your television with the Netgear Push2TV [REVIEW]

The Netgear Push2TV is a small little device that connects to your television’s HDMI port and allows you to wirelessly display your tablet, smartphone or laptop on your television’s screen. It’s perfect for presentations or for when the whole family is sitting around the television and you want to share content from your personal device.

Setup

Setting up the Netgear Push2TV is simple. Connect the power cable to the device (or plug the USB into your television if it supports it) and connect the device to your television with an HDMI cable. I was a little (make that a lot) disappointed that the Netgear Push2TV didn’t include the HDMI cable. You have to buy that separately making the Push2TV completely useless until you buy the cable.

Once connected, you can begin mirroring a supported device on your television screen after making an initial connection. I did this using the mirroring option on my Samsung Galaxy S4 and it connected within seconds. According to the Getting Started manual included with the Netgear Push2TV, it also supports the Samsung Galaxy S III, the Sony Xperia T and the Google Nexus 4.

What you see

When I made the connection between my Galaxy S4 and the Push2TV, an exact replica of my Galaxy S4 displayed on the television. While probably not the intent of the Push2TV, this feature would be fantastic for giving presentations or teaching a room full of people how to use a device. Whatever you do on your device is mirrored on the television. It’s brilliant.

And when it comes to viewing photos and videos, the Push2TV is smart enough to go full screen without any additional steps which is a nice touch.

Trouble with my laptop

After so easily connecting my Galaxy S4, I reached for my laptop next to make a similar connection using the Push2TV. But here is where I ran into a lot of problems, mainly stemming from the fact that my Windows 8 ASUS laptop is not compatible with the Push2TV and/or the Intel WiDi software (a requirement to use the Netgear Push2TV). I tried updating my drivers and what-not for over an hour but ultimately still struck out in the end.

I can definitely see some uses for wirelessly sharing your laptop screen on your television so it was unfortunate that I was never able to get this to work. I’ll have to take Netgear’s word for it that it works on compatible laptops.

Final thoughts

The Netgear Push2TV is easy to set up and easy to use and I would recommend it for anyone wanting to wirelessly mirror their device to their television. But if your sole intent is to mirror YouTube, Netflix or even Hulu Plus videos from your device to your television, I’d still go with the smaller and cheaper Google Chromecast.

Note: The Netgear Push2TV in this review was provided to me by Verizon Wireless and can be purchased at your local Verizon Wireless store or at www.verizonwireless.com.