What Is the Latest Chromecast Firmware Version

The Google Chromecast (3rd Generation) sits as the entry-level casting-only option in Google’s streaming armory. Information technology originally arrived without much hype from Google, and it’southward pretty easy to see why. Still one of the
best streaming devices, this Google Chromecast review volition show how model is nearly identical to the 2d-gen
Google Chromecast
model from 2015, only it’s a trivial faster.

The tertiary gen Chromecast has besides lost a very handy physical characteristic, and information technology has almost nothing to show to reverberate three years of hardware advancement in the streaming space.

This Google Chromecast (3rd Generation) review volition explicate why information technology’s still worthy, only check out our
Chromecast with Google Tv review
to run into why the latest Google streaming device is worthy that piffling chip more.

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• What is Google Chromecast?

If y’all’ve got a 1080p Television receiver kicking around in your kitchen or guest room, and the set doesn’t have smart features congenital-in, the Chromecast is still one of the
best Google Home compatible devices
for inexpensively watching Netflix, Hulu, et al. on a big screen. Otherwise, Google’s bonny little dongle is behind the times.

Google Chromecast (third Generation): Price and availability

The Google Chromecast costs $thirty and it’south available practically everywhere, from Amazon to Best Buy, and (of form) Google.

Also, we’ve got our eyes on the rumored
Google Chromecast iv ‘Sabrina’. Yeah, that’south an interesting lawmaking-name. More than interestingly, it could ditch the whole Chromecast interface for Android TV. And it could work with a remote, something that the Chromecast never has earlier.

Google Chromecast (3rd Generation): Design

As before, the Chromecast is a circular dongle with a 2-inch circumference that attaches to the back of your Telly. Merely now, instead of coming in a drove of vibrant colors with a absurd, screw design on the front, it comes in your pick of plain, tiresome blackness or plain, dull white. (It sports a rather tasteful little “G” logo, either way.)

On ane side, at that place’s a built-in HDMI cable, while the other hosts a micro USB port for power. (The Chromecast comes with both a micro USB cable and a power adapter, although you lot probably won’t need the latter, unless you lot accept a very, very erstwhile, USB-less TV.) There’s also a push you can printing for a difficult reboot, although I never needed this.

Because the Chromecast lives behind your TV, its physical design isn’t all that important. But the device’s latest edition did lose one of my favorite features: a small magnet on the HDMI cablevision that let yous tuck the device neatly against itself. At present, the Chromecast dangles helplessly. This is probably not a big bargain, although I wonder if gravity will stress the HDMI cablevision over time.

Google Chromecast (tertiary Generation): Interface

The all-time reason to buy the Chromecast, equally always, is that it has the simplest, easiest-to-understand interface of any streaming device on the market. That’s because the Chromecast doesn’t require you to larn a whole new Bone or play effectually with an idiosyncratic remote control. Instead, you command the entire feel from your telephone, tablet or computer.

By installing the Google Home app on your mobile device or by clicking the Cast option in a computer-based Chrome browser, you can simply “bandage” whatsoever content you’re watching onto your TV. This isn’t a grade of screen-mirroring. Instead, your phone is just instructing the Chromecast to get option up a signal directly from the content provider (Netflix, for example). This may seem like a subtle bespeak, but true screen-mirroring requires daisy-chaining devices together and often results in a subpar experience.

Controlling the Chromecast is as easy as any given app makes it. For instance, in Netflix, all you have to do is open the content you desire to watch, printing the Cast button and await for your media to appear on your TV. From there, you can pause, play, fast-forward, rewind and adjust volume via your phone. The procedure is just as straightforward now every bit it was when the Chromecast debuted, but it’southward also quite a flake faster now.

Google Chromecast (3rd Generation): Functioning

The just pregnant departure that Google advertises between the 3rd-gen Chromecast and its 2nd-gen predecessor is better hardware. This is supposed to brand the new gadget up to fifteen percent faster than the one-time one.

Because xv percent is not a nighttime-and-day increase, and because the one-time device wasn’t irksome to begin with, this is not easy to test. So, I tried to evaluate the deviation using a stopwatch, a general sense of of what HD vs. SD resolutions await similar, and a collection of videos on Netflix, Hulu and YouTube.

When I watched Thor: Ragnarok on Netflix, the movie took 11 seconds to beginning and 41 seconds to reach 1080p on the second-gen Chromecast, while the same pic took ix seconds to kickoff and 41 seconds to reach 1080p on the third-gen device. That’s a twenty percent divergence in start time but only a 3 percent difference in optimization fourth dimension.

The dissimilarity in Hulu was a little more hitting: xv seconds to start, 20 to optimize on the second-gen automobile and 9 seconds to start, xix seconds to optimize on the third-gen machine. That’s a twoscore percent divergence in start speed simply only a 5 per centum departure in optimization.

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It’s a little bit harder to pinpoint resolution on YouTube, because a lot of content comes courtesy of phone cameras shooting under less-than-platonic lighting weather. Merely videos from this service took 12 seconds to start on a 2d-gen Chromecast and 9 seconds to get-go on a third-gen version. That’s a difference of 25 percent, still in backlog of Google’s claims.

If anything, Google undersold how much faster the new Chromecast is. Just it’s too worth pointing out that the very greatest divergence I observed between the two models was 6 seconds. If you were to stream one video per day, that’d cost you nigh 37 minutes over the course of a whole year — almost enough time for an actress prime-time drama but non that much in the grand scheme of things

Although this is harder to quantify, colors also looked a niggling richer on the third-gen Chromecast, peculiarly the deep blacks and otherworldly blues in sci-fi films similar Star Expedition Across.

Of course, the colour on the Chromecast isn’t anywhere close to what you’d get with a 4K HDR device — which is, honestly, the route I was expecting Google would become. The
Chromecast Ultra
($70/£69) supports 4K HDR content, only that device’south ability-consumption specs brand setup inconvenient. It’s also at present a chip expensive in comparing to other 4K HDR devices, like the
Roku Premiere
($40, or £60 for the closest specced model available in the UK).

In fact, the Chromecast’south 1080p output is arguably its biggest weakness. While 1080p TVs nonetheless make upwardly the bulk of sets worldwide, their reign could come to an terminate
equally early as next year. If you just bought a brand-new 4K smart Television receiver, in that location’s no reason to get a third-gen Chromecast for that set up — and even if you didn’t, it’due south better to spend the extra $5-$35 on something a piffling more future-proof.

Google Chromecast (third Generation): Search

Using the Google Abode app, you can search for content beyond a few dozen apps, including heavy hitters similar Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and Vudu. The app does a pretty skillful job of directing you toward apps y’all already have installed on your phone or tablet. Google Home hardly approaches the subtlety of an
Apple TV
search (which can notice movies based on Rotten Tomatoes ratings or Goggle box shows based on a unmarried, obscure guest star) or the breadth of a Roku search (which blazes through hundreds of dissimilar content providers). Merely information technology’ll get the task done for ordinary TV and movies.

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Google Chromecast (third Generation): Content and Apps

Considering Chromecast released its SDK to the public a few years back, just about every major provider offers Chromecast functionality. Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Pandora, Spotify, Vudu,
Sling TV
and the list goes on.

Chromecast owners with Amazon Prime number Video take lived through the ordeal that Fire Television set and Roku owners who wanted
HBO Max
endured in 2020. Yep, years ago, Amazon and Google spent forever negotiating to bring Amazon Video back up to the Chromecast.

The simply hassle left is that
Peacock
is even so non on Burn down TV, one of the more pop streaming services in America.

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I nice thing virtually Chromecast is that Google’s audiovisual apps have casting functionality built right in. If y’all desire to display your Google Photos on a Tv set, listen to your Google Play Music, or show off your library of Google Play Movies and TV, all you have to exercise is open up the app and press the Cast button. Most other streaming devices offer similar functionality, but there’s unremarkably a bit of irksome media-server setup involved. Yet, Google Play Music won’t permit you bandage music from your personal collection — but stuff y’all’ve purchased through Google.

Google Chromecast (3rd Generation): Bottom line

The new Chromecast is a divisive streaming gadget. It’s piece of cake to like it for the intuitive interface and wide variety of content, and the speed improvement is noticeable. Withal, the new Chromecast doesn’t innovate in any real mode.

Overall, as this Google Chromecast review has shown, the latest edition feels backside the times, and information technology’s lost 1 skillful characteristic along the style. But for $35/£30, it’s still a very capable 1080p streaming gadget. Pick information technology upwards if you lot similar the interface and have a full-HD Boob tube that needs some dearest. Otherwise, your coin is better spent on a 4K HDR device similar the $forty
Roku Premiere, which will provide improve motion picture quality for a longer period.

Credit: Tom’due south Guide