Google kills off Chromecast with a new far superior streaming device

Google is officially sunsetting its Chromecast branding to introduce a new streaming device that is much more powerful and expensive.

The search engine giant took to its blogs to announce its discontinuing the Chromecast brand after 11 years of it being in service to introduce a new product called the Google TV Streamer. The new streaming device isn't designed to be a direct replacement for Chromecast dongles, but Google will replace the $50 4K Chromecast with the $99 Google TV Streamer.

What separates the Google TV Streamer and Chromecast? Google has outfitted its new streaming device with all of the features of Chromecast, plus a little more. The new set-top box is much more powerful than the highest-end Chromecast, as the new device contains a processor that's 22% faster than the previous generation, twice as much RAM at 4GB, and four times the storage at 32GB. Additionally, the Google TV Streamer supports 4K streaming at 60FPS and comes with a HDMI 2.1a port.

Furthermore, the new Google device comes with HDR support (Dolby Vision), spatial audio (Dolby Atmos), and an Ethernet port. Unfortunately, Google has decided not to include an HDMI cable in the box with the Google TV Streamer.

Google has also integrated a bunch of Google Gemini AI features, with the company claiming it can summarize or review TV episodes, or entire seasons by a user simply asking it to. Additionally, Gemini will recommend users new content to watch based on what they have been watching, and users can build personalized watchlist.

The Google TV Streamer is available for pre-order as of August 6 and will be available for $99.99 from the Google Store and third-party retailers on September 24.