Puffin TV Browser

Robert Jefferson Oct 12, 2021

★★★☆☆

It could use a few tweaks such as the pointer, instead of having to hold down the button to move it, it would be nice to either have a tab option or just better control. Holding the button down makes move past the point you're trying to get to and repetitive button pushing is very tiresome. not everyone is using a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard on their Smart TV. More options to change the layout and dark mode options/theme would be a plus as well. Other than that I think it's functional for a browser. Subscription wise, I think more features/user control would go a long way to make it more user friendly and acceptable.

Benjamin Glasthal Dec 29, 2020

★★☆☆☆

I won't completely trash it like many are for the subscription. It is a functional browser, and works with the new Chromecast with Google TV well. It may even be the only one as far as I can find. It can play videos in browser, and generally functional. For that you deserve more than 1 star. However, your price plan does not. Yeah, $10 for a year subscription of anything is negligible, but that doesn't make it sensible. I could do it without thinking, but I have such a hard time supporting that model because its frankly anti-consumer to charge a subscription for your app like this when you're not needing any major server upkeep or anything. I could understand a $10 one time purchase (still would be high mind you) but to expect that regularly just seems like you're trying to exploit the market. It doesn't even have the options for tabs so I can keep multiple pages open. If you had some deep settings like I could customize navigation on the remote and tabs, and if you had some more specialized integrations than QR codes then I might understand more. But it just feels like you're on the edge of exactly as useable as I could expect at the bare minimum past playing videos, and that I should be happy to pay for that. Unfortunately, I'm just not sure I am or that I can recommend anyone else does so either. If you rethink your business model to a one time payment, then call me and we can talk.

JomSpoons May 21, 2021

★★★★☆

I enjoy the app and I don't mind spending a little to use it, but one thing I'd like to see is improved bluetooth device support. I have a little handheld keyboard with a trackpad that I was hoping to use in conjunction with this app, but it seems the native Android TV bluetooth mouse cursor and the mouse cursor in Puffin TV conflict with each other, rendering the native cursor difficult to use with the app. I'm having trouble trying to explain it but if you try to use a bluetooth mouse for yourself you'll probably see what I'm referring to. Hope to see this worked out in an update.

Adam Segal May 21, 2021

★☆☆☆☆

Browser works great until it tells you you hit your browsing limit. I don't really care about any of their server side optimization, just the basic browser functionality with ad blocking. Why is that so difficult to get on a tv? I'm not paying a subscription for a browser. Maybe if it were like $3.99 one time I'd use it. How about offering the browser as a normal browser, and add the extra 'speed' from whatever server processing as a subscription? I hated amp pages and don't want any of my sites processed server side anyway.