Chromecast is a great, cheap entertainment device that has some advantages over other content streaming devices. It uses your phone or any computer on your network as a control device, and these devices typically have a better UI/keyboard than what you have with the remotes on most smart tv?s, blueray players, etc.
If you live alone this won?t matter much, but for those who share their lives with others who may have their own content, the Chromecast allows each person with their own content account (Pandora for example) to use their accounts on the same Chromecast. Most other streaming devices cannot easily change accounts from one person to the next.
Being able to cast a Chrome tab or your entire desktop has some practical advantages that are available now. For example, once a month my wife hosts a meeting of our neighborhood?s HOA covenants committee, either at our home or at the neighborhood clubhouse (has wifi & large tv). In both locations I use our Chromecast to easily display documents from my laptop in the back of the room to the tv without messing with a cable between the laptop and the tv. Documents such as pdf & doc files, drawings, photos, emails, and Google Maps satellite & street view are often displayed on the tv during these meetings, all wirelessly from my laptop. Since the content is all static the slight delay between my laptop?s screen and the tv is tolerable. There are other more expensive and troublesome ways to accomplish this, but Chromecast is unique in doing it all in a device that fits in my pocket for $35, on any tv with an hdmi port and a wifi network. In addition, since I still have unlimited data on Verizon, I can set up my own wifi network with my phone anywhere Verizon covers (I?m rooted), so all I really need is a tv with hdmi, my phone, laptop, and the Chromecast.