Vizio announces its first Google TV set-top box product; pre-orders open up next month

Vizio announced its first Google TV set-top box product called the Co-Star today, which offers access to the Google Play App Store, live gaming, a slick remote and much more.

Vizio first made its intentions to produce a Google TV box at CES 2012, where the company showed off an unnamed prototype device. The device announced today has 802.11n support, one USB port, HDMI in/out ports, and an option to use a wired Ethernet cable. The Co-Star box will come preloaded with Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, iHeartRadio, and cloud gaming service OnLive as well as all the other perks that come along with Google TV.

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The Co-Star also has a full-featured Bluetooth remote control with all the standard TV buttons (channels, volume, number pad, etc.), a touch sensitive trackpad, quick buttons (Netflix, Amazon, M-Go), full Qwerty keyboard, and gaming buttons. Pretty much anything you’d possibly conceive of doing on your TV is accounted for.

But the biggest selling point of the Co-Star is probably its $99 price, which is competitive to both the Apple TV and Roku 2 XS. By comparison, the recently announced Sony next-generation Google TV set-top box is twice that price.

So, when can you get your hands on this bad boy? Vizio hasn’t said, but pre-orders for the Co-Star open up next month.

Copyright 2012, VentureBeat