The original 4K Chromecast with Google TV was released in 2020 and is starting to show its age. Google released the 1080p Chromecast with Google TV late last year after months of leaks and rumors, but nothing has been found related to a new 4K model. That is, until now, since the first evidence of a new 3rd Chromecast model has been spotted. Read more ›
With the new 3rd-gen Fire TV Cube being released tomorrow, I decided this was a good time to refresh all the benchmark scores for all competing devices so that everything was on an even playing field, since scores can change over time due to software updates. While no device ever scores exactly the same as before when rerunning benchmarks, especially when years have passed between tests, the two scores are usually close enough to not make much of a difference. As I retested the streaming devices in my arsenal, it became clear that the scores that dropped the most were the ones from devices that updated from Android 9 and 10 to Android 11 and 12, like the Nvidia Shield TV and the Google Chromecast 4K. The performance hit, from software updates alone, was as much as 12% in one case. Read more ›
The new budget-friendly Chromecast HD from Google has been released and now that I’ve run it through a few benchmarks I’ve started digging deeper into what it has to offer. One surprising aspect of the 1080p Chromecast is that, much like Google’s Pixel phones, the Chromecast HD’s bootloader can be unlocked with the simple flip of an option in its settings. Read more ›
Google released its 2022 Chromecast with Google TV HD this morning and I picked one up to see how it stacks up against all the popular Google TV, Android TV, and Fire TV streaming sticks and boxes from Amazon, Walmart, Nvidia, Tivo, MECOOL, and more. First and foremost, here are Geekbench CPU and GFXBench GPU benchmark scores to see how much raw performance power the new Chromecast HD has compared to its big brother, the Chromecast 4K, and all the other streaming devices I could get my hands on. Read more ›
As expected from numerous leaks, Google has released a non-4K version of its Chromecast streaming device. The Chromecast with Google TV HD, as it is officially called, provides what you’d expect from a budget streaming device with few surprises. At $29.99, the cheaper Chromecast competes directly with the Fire TV Stick Lite and Roku Express which cost the same. However, the Chromecast HD comes with the same remote as the 2020 Chromecast 4K, so you get TV power and volume controls on the remote, which the Fire TV and Roku do not offer at this price point. Read more ›
Google’s upcoming 1080p Chromecast has been steadily leaking since the start of the year. Most recently we learned that the new model would likely cost $29.99 and be released very soon. New information has now surfaced, including a lengthy understanding of the device’s hardware specs and images that reveal the device will look identical to the existing Chromecast released in 2020. Read more ›
Hints of an upcoming new Google Chromecast with Google TV have been circling around since the start of the year. The device is expected to be cheaper than the existing $49.99 model released in 2020 and only support up to 1080p content. A new report from WinFuture claims that retail sources say the new model has already started arriving at retailers, which indicates the launch is imminent. Further, these sources claim the price of the new device will be €40. Comparing that to the existing 4K Chromecast, which sells for €69.99 in Europe, means the device will likely be $29.99 in the US. Read more ›
Over the last few weeks, there have been several newsworthy bits of information about Android TV and Google TV devices. Here’s a roundup of that news, which includes insight into new internal storage minimums, Nest, Fitbit, and Wear OS hardware integration, Tivo’s more into Smart TVs, and various software updates. Read more ›
Amazon is now, oddly, listing the 2020 Chromecast as a pre-order item that will be released on May 13, as spotted by 9to5Google. The model number on Amazon’s page matches the Chromecast with Google TV that was released near the end of 2020, so it raises the question why is Amazon just now listing the old device and, more strangely, taking pre-orders for it, no less. Read more ›
Rumors of a new Chromecast streaming device from Google have begun to surface. 9to5Google reported last weak that the next Chromecast is currently in development and is codenamed Boreal, but didn’t provide any further information. Now Janko Roettgers from Protocol, who has a good track record for insider information, has been told by a source that the new Boreal Chromecast device will be cheaper than the $50 Chromecast released in 2020 because it will only support 1080p video and not 4K. Read more ›
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