If you’re looking for an Android TV dongle, you’ll certainly need a remote to interact with your now smart TV. The question is, what type of remote will work best for your situation?

Prepackaged Android TV Remote Control

Most HDMI and USB TV dongle bundles come with their own remotes, making them ideal solutions for working with an Android media dongle. These look a lot like your standard TV remote: rectangular blocks with various buttons for you to play with.

This is a simple solution that gets the job done, although manipulating the Android media interface can be quite cumbersome. This is especially true when entering text and numbers, which involves pressing a lot of complicated buttons. Stick to this solution if you want to keep costs down and are willing to put up with a bit of a cumbersome entry.

Android based remote applications

Many dongles have an app for Android smartphones and tablets. All you need to do is install the right app and voila, your nifty tablet or smartphone is now a TV remote! The phone’s virtual keyboard also makes text entry a lot easier, solving another big headache. You can even install apps that allow a TV streaming dongle to send videos to your Android device.

However, the downside to using these devices is that you will often need wireless Internet access for the setup to work. You should also be very careful when using your smartphone or tablet as a remote control. Dropping and breaking a twenty or thirty dollar remote control is nothing compared to dropping and breaking a device worth a few hundred dollars.

Specialized Android TV Remote Controllers

There are remote controllers that are specifically designed to work flawlessly with the average dongle. These come with their own keyboards for typing text, Bluetooth systems for connecting without Internet access, and miniature touch screens (or pads) for selecting larger tiles on the computer screen with pinpoint accuracy.

Needless to say, you’ll have to spend a little more money on these dedicated Android TV controllers, but the resulting increase in ergonomics will make the purchase worthwhile. This is the option for those who are willing to invest in a solid and reliable control system to go along with their Android TV dongle.

Voice and gesture controllers

Major tech companies like Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, and Google are pushing voice and gesture-based technology into the average home. There are already some examples of smart TVs that you can manipulate using voice commands and hand gestures. It’ll just take a little while for that technology to become available for the average Android TV dongle setup.

Such technology is not yet mature enough to be useful to today’s consumer; however, if reliability and usability issues are overcome, voice and gestures will be an excellent, if somewhat expensive, method of manipulating the user interface of the average Android TV device.

Keep this in mind and you should be able to find the perfect control setup for your Android TV dongle!