When Mango Man launched Teewe 2 streaming dongle a few months back, it was supposed to become the local challenger for the Google Chromecast. However, the device was underwhelming in many way. Now, the Bangalore-based startup has upgraded the HDMI dongle in many ways to offer a better user experience. In my June 2015 review I had mentioned a few flaws with the device. The setup was far from easy, there was significant buffering for all videos even on a fast broadband connection and playing stuff from the phone not smooth at all. The Teewe 2 upgrade The first thing that struck me about the update is that it happened automatically. I hadn’t used the dongle since the review and it went into a software upgrade as soon as it was switched on. It also meant that this time it had no issues finding my WiFi. A couple of restarts later - for this I have to switch off the TV which is the power source - the new UI was on the screen. The new Teewe 2 UI is very clean, very Android. You can download screensaver packs or make your own photos play on the TV. The latter is not recommended, especially since most of our photo galleries are now contaminated by WhatsApp garbage. You can also add weather, news and time widgets to the screen. I don’t really mind that I could not change the city settings from Bangalore, for I could at least be in the garden city vicariously. The upgrade has fixed one of my big grouses with the device and that was the lack of content. Teewe 2 looks beyond Wi-Fi and now comes with Eros content, if high drama from Bollywood and Kollywood is what you crave for. However, the issue now is that this content is all in HD and looks a bit out of place on a Full HD screen. But no issues with buffering over a 8Mbps connection. The other issue with playing stuff from the phone persists. A photos takes at least 20 seconds to show on the screen - yes, i timed it. Videos takes with a OnePlus 2 struggled to play on the screen and a message said the bit-rate of the video was too high and there might be trouble. This is almost as if Mango Man did not expected anyone with a good phone to buy the Teewe 2. The Wi-Fi connectivity seems to have improved, but it does through false positives with alerts saying there is no Teewe device on the network even though I can see the same connected to my Wi-Fi. Everything works once you restart either the phone or the desktop app. Playing stuff from the desktop seems to be smoother than from the phone now. However, the desktop client takes ages to launch, maybe because there were too many folders added. Also, watching a 90-minute documentary from my PC, the player just crashed twice. Once to restart and the next to slip into a deep spiral from which it never recovered. Review over, back to the box for Teewe 2. Verdict The Teewe 2 is a good concept and works well for those who have a lot of downloaded content that they would want to play on a larger screen and patience in equal measure. It is surely not a replacement for the Chromecast that Google’s dongle does the entire YouTube, mirror jig much better. The Teewe 2 is still a bit half-baked and seems like it left the garage in a hurry. But we can expect the team at Mango Man to keep tuning this into a better device and experience. Waiting for Teewe 3. Price: Rs 2,399
