The four-year-old Google Chromecast base model is getting a big update. Today, Google has officially unveiled the rumors about the turnaround of Google TV and introduced “Chromecast with Google TV (HD)”. The original $49.99 Google TV Chromecast 4K was announced in 2020 and now when you go to the Google Store there is a “screen resolution”option for “4K”(still $49.99).) or the new “HD”. for $29.99.
So, this is one list of stores with two different sizes, which reports that these two devices have only minor differences. They look the same, they have the same remote and the same software. Google TV is Google’s new version of Android TV and is a major upgrade to the Chromecast experience. The original versions were very simple streaming sticks that could only receive content from a phone and had no user interface themselves. Chromecast with Google TV is a complete TV operating system with a home screen, Play Store access, user accounts, and scrollable lists of apps, games, and content. If you’re not interested, Google TV still acts exactly like a Chromecast when you press the Chromecast button in the app.
Like the 4K version, Chromecast HD with Google TV supports 802.11ac (also known as Wi-Fi 5) and uses a USB-C port for power. Google hasn’t released the full spec but confirms that the dongle only has 1.5GB of RAM, while the 4K version has 2GB. Earlier reports on this have indicated that it uses an Amlogic S805X2 SoC (12nm, four Cortex A35 cores), which gives it the interesting feature of supporting Google’s new AV1 video codec, which is not present in the 4K version.
It’s hard to expect this to be resolved in the cheap version, but storage is a major issue for Chromecast with Google TV. It wants to be an Android device, but it only has 8 GB of storage, which is not enough even if you download zero apps. Updates for packaged apps can quickly fill up a device and users constantly have to deal with low memory issues. That’s even before they touch the Play Store and the allure of third-party games or Android apps. Hey Google, how about a quietly updated 4K model with more storage and AV1 support?
Google needed to do this if it wanted to compete with Roku, which sells a similar streaming stick, remote, and OS installation for $30. The old Chromecast couldn’t compete with this one. The new HD Chromecast is now on sale in the Google Store.