The Chromecast with Google TV is one of the best Android streaming dongles on the market — quite impressive for a device that’s nearly two years at this stage. The next logical step for Google would be to follow up with a more powerful and capable version. But that’s apparently not happening anytime soon. Instead, Google seems to be readying a cheaper Chromecast.
We first learned about Google developing a watered-down version of the Chromecast with Google TV in January this year via an APK teardown. A report from Protocol followed shortly and revealed additional information about the device’s hardware and features. Now a Google-branded “Wireless Device” (G454V) has been spotted on FCC. While the filing doesn’t explicitly mention it being a streaming dongle or Chromecast device, the below diagram linked in the FCC document makes things quite clear.
The EUT (Equipment Under Test) in the diagram refers to the device in question and we can see it’s connected to the power socket via a USB power cable. We can also see there’s a remote controller.
The FCC documents also reveal that the device in question supports 1080p video streaming at 60Hz, which is in line with previous rumors and rules out the possibility of this being a Nest speaker. The listing also mentions dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz) support and Bluetooth LE support.
As per previous reports, the Chromecast HD with Google TV will be powered by an Amlogic S805X2 CPU with Mali-G31 GPU. It could also support hardware decoding for the AV1 video codec, which is missing on the current Chromecast. The FCC appearance typically means the device is closer to launch; however, we have yet to hear anything about the device from Google yet.
Google recently expanded the existing 4K Chromecast with Google TV to 12 new markets, including Europe. It’s also coming to India and a few other Asian markets.
Source: FCC