Google’s cheaper new Chromecast could launch soon
Rumors of Google working on a cheaper Chromecast have been circulating since at least the beginning of this year. Codenamed Boreal, the streaming stick will seemingly run Android 12 and support a maximum resolution of 1080p. In June, the devicepassed through the FCC, signaling it would hit the market sooner than later. The budget Chromecast is now reportedly making its way to dealers, hinting that its launch is closer than ever.
WinFutureclaims that Google could launch its new streaming stick within the next few weeks, as stocks have already arrived with certain dealers. The company is scheduled tohost a Pixel event on October 6th, which is an ideal announcement stage.
In Europe, the streaming stick will seemingly cost €40, making it a fair bit cheaper than the 4K Chromecast that retails for €70. For comparison, the 2018 Chromecast was available for €40 in Europe and $30 in the US.
Given that the streaming stick would be limited to 1080p resolution, it could be sold under the “Chromecast HD with Google TV” moniker. Aprevious report detailedthe device might be powered by the AMlogic S805X2 chipset that supports AV1 decoding and include 2GB RAM. For connectivity, it will apparently connect to Wi-Fi over 2.4GHz or 5GHz bands, which will be more than enough for streaming 1080p content. The addition of AV1 decoding would be a big deal, as it is a rarity in budget streaming sticks.
The low-end hardware should hopefully not lead to any performance woes that have plagued theChromecast with Google TVsince its launch. Google recently rolled out anupdate for its 4K streaming stickto reduce CPU and RAM usage and improve performance. A new behind-the-scene process also frees up storage space on the device as needed. These optimizations should also make their way to the budget Chromecast for a smooth user experience.
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