This New Dongle Is Basically A Clone Of The Discontinued Chromecast With Google TV
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Summary
- Thomson has launched the Cast 150, a Chromecast with Google TV lookalike streaming device.
- The Cast 150 supports 4K streaming, Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, and has a dedicated Live TV button.
- Pricing and US availability for the Cast 150 are unclear, with sales reportedly starting in Europe.
Last year, Google officially discontinued the Chromecast with Google TV that many of us loved and replaced it with the more expensive Google TV Streamer, which takes on a proper set-top box design. The original Chromecast with Google TV (4K) offered great performance and features for just $50, but the new Google TV Streamer costs nearly double.
Now, another company has essentially cloned the Chromecast with Google TV, relaunching a very similar-looking device.
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As first spotted by 9to5Google, Thomson has launched its new Cast 150, which looks and works almost exactly like Google’s previous Chromecast. It features the same rounded pebble-like dongle design and the familiar white finish. Just like the original Chromecast, the Cast 150 plugs directly into a TV’s HDMI port and is powered via USB-C.
It’s like Chromecast never left
The Cast 150 supports 4K streaming and offers compatibility with both Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. Under the hood, it is powered by a quad-core Cortex-A35 processor, paired with up to 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, and supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi networks.
One small difference is that Thomson’s remote includes a dedicated “Live TV” button. Google has reportedly mandated OEMs to add a “Free TV” or “Live TV” shortcut to remotes for quicker access to Freeplay or live TV content. We are now starting to see more devices integrate this, like Walmart’s recently launched Onn Google TV 4K Pro, which features a “Free” button.
The only real drawback with Thomson’s Cast 150 so far is pricing and availability. The company has not officially announced how much it will cost or when it will be available in the US. One report suggests the streaming device is already available for purchase in parts of Europe, but pricing details are still unclear.
Considering Thomson mainly sells in Europe, there’s a chance the Cast 150 may never officially arrive in the US. We will keep you updated if we hear more about the product coming stateside.
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