Google’s Chromecast has established itself as one of the best streaming devices that you can get, and it’s been that way for several years. Not only does it make it easier to cast from your phone or computer to your TV, but you also get Google TV in 4K at the highest tier. The pricing isn’t aggressive either.
As great as it is though, the Chromecast is relatively dated and it has been begging for a suitable replacement for years now. Finally, it seems that is on the way in the form of the Google TV Streamer. However, if you’re expecting the same great price as the Chromecast, you’ll be disappointed.
The Google TV Streamer 4K Is Expected To Cost About Twice As Much As The Chromecast In One Region
Google’s Chromecast with Google TV was birthed into the world way back in 2020, which by tech standards, is ages ago. Since then, it hasn’t received any substantial updates, while competitors continue to upgrade and improve their hardware. Being very compact and staying unchanged for years means that the Chromecast is now relatively underpowered and offers very little storage.
Finally, an update is on its way, in the form of the Google TV Streamer. We don’t know too much about it beyond the drastic new design it comes with and a changed remote control, but the much larger form factor means that we should expect much better hardware running inside.
The only problem with the impending Google TV Streamer is that it isn’t expected to be very cheap, though that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise from Google. According to Dealabs, Europeans should expect to pay €119.99 for the set-top box. That’s a major jump over the €69.99 price of the Chromecast with Google TV 4K in the exact same region. Hopefully, the hardware will make paying that premium unarguably worth it.
The Google TV Streamer Will Make Good Use Of Its Larger Form For More Connectivity
The Google TV Streamer, being much larger than the Chromecast, won’t be able to hide behind your TV the way that one does. I’m sure Google prefers the set-top box model as it’ll be sure to do some of its own advertising to friends and family over at your place.
The bigger form has supposedly allowed Google to include an ethernet port in its design, as well as a “Thread” radio, which means that it should be able to communicate with other Thread-compatible smart home devices in your residence. There could potentially be USB-C as well; the addition of that could make this a real winner.
The Google TV Streamer Won’t Be Available To Customers Until September, It Seems
If you’ve been itching to get your hands on whatever the successor to the Chromecast with Google TV was going to be, then your time to strike is almost here. However, you’ll still need to wait quite a bit, as it seems that regardless of when its announcement event might be, it is only going to be officially available on September 24th. That’s like a six-week wait.
