It’s been almost a year and a half since Google launched a new version of its Chromecast streaming device. That was back in September of 2020 when the first Chromecast with Google TV got introduced. It featured a new software experience, a better chip, 2GB RAM, and 8GB of internal storage.
The world of tech moves quickly, even just a year counts as a long time. In other words, the current Chromecast with Google TV is already starting to feel outdated when you look at its specs. It seems Google is well aware of that, though, as the folks at 9to5Google have stumbled upon a new Android device that the company is working on in an APK teardown.
The codename for this new device is Boreal, which was discovered to be in the same family as the current Chromecast with Google TV, nicknamed Sabrina. Another piece of evidence supporting the theory that this is a Chromecast device is Boreal’s direct connection to the Google TV software that the current model is running on.
Current Chromecast with Google TV
Sadly, there is no other juicy information about this alleged future Chromecast device to come out of the APK teardown. Its specifications are still unknown, although 9to5Google suspects it could probably come with support for the Av1 format. That would be only logical, as Google requires it from all Android TV devices launched after March 2021.
The current Chromecast with Google TV is not capable of AV1 video decoding. It comes with a quad-core Amlogic S905D3G chip and supports 4K HDR10+ footage and the Dolby Vision format. Maybe this mysterious new Chromecast will come with even better HDR support and will be able to handle 8K resolutions.
Do you own a Chromecast device? If so, what do you wish it had, and what do you want the next version to include? Would you be willing to upgrade to it?
