Kwesé Play, a Streaming Device With Potential

While I don’t watch much of the local TV channels in South Africa other than to catch up with the latest news and current affairs, I used to rely a lot on my media player for movies, series and documentaries.

So when my Western Digital Elements Play took its last breath, I was at a crossroad on what my next device would be. I do have an Apple TV, but I wanted to add to the streaming and storage device collection.

After looking at what was on the market, I decided to go with the Kwesé Play for various reasons other than the fact that it won the Stuff Magazine TV gadget of the year.

The Kwesé Play retails for about R 999 and is a plug and play set up. However you will need a stable Internet connection with a minimum speed of about 4Mbs.

The Kwesé streaming device fits in the palm of your hand, and comes with everything you need to get connected including an HDMI cable.

From initial tests, I found that the Kwesé Play supports 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, wired Ethernet, 720p and 1080p HD video, and screen mirroring from Android devices.

According to Kwesé Play CEO Ryan Solovei, while there are over 5,000 channels to choose from, only 100 are currently available with others hopefully to be added soon.

As an official content partner, Netflix is also thrown in free for the first three months. There is also YouTube, and Red Bull TV.

With the Formula one season underway, I was a bit disappointed that was no live streaming of the race on live sports, but hopefully that will be added soon.

Overall the Kwesé Play is not bad at all allowing you to stream all the content without forking out over R800 for satellite television.