Within my year-back coverage of Google’s August 2024 multi-product launch event, I devoted multiple prose paragraphs to the $99.99 TV Streamer 4K, the company’s high-end replacement for the popular prior Chromecast with Google TV 4K and HD series:
Memory-drive evolutions
Part of the motivation for Google’s product-succession move, we belatedly learned, was a requirement unveiled three months later that all new Google TV O/S-licensed devices needed to ship with a minimum of 2 GBytes of RAM. While the original (4K) Chromecast with Google TV met that specification, the HD sibling undershot it by 25% (1.5 GBytes). The TV Streamer 4K, on the other hand, doubles the onboard RAM allotment to 4 GBytes.
Another increasingly problematic issue with prior-generation devices was their dearth of integrated nonvolatile (flash memory) storage, which adversely affected not only how many apps and how much other downloaded content could be held on-device but even the available capacity to house operating system updates. Both the 4K and HD variants of the Chromecast with Google TV included only 8 GBytes of storage, only around half of which was user-accessible. The TV Streamer 4K quadruples that total amount, to 32 GBytes.
Then there’s the competitive angle. A year ago, the most advanced device in licensee-slash-competitor (frenemy?) Walmart’s product arsenal was the $19.88 onn. 4K Streaming Box (which I just noticed they’re calling the “Streaming Device” again in conjunction with the recent packaging refresh) with 2 GBytes of RAM and 8 GBytes of nonvolatile storage, memory capacity-matching the Chromecast with Google TV 4K at less than half the price. That said, as any of you who saw one of my last-month teardowns already knows, Walmart subsequently unveiled a “Pro” device of its own, with 3 GBytes of RAM, 32 GBytes of nonvolatile storage, and, at $49.99, a price tag once again half that of the Google TV Streamer 4K counterpart.
And amid all this memory-related chitchat, don’t overlook equally important processing and graphics horsepower, along with connectivity and other hardware enhancements. Walmart has historically leveraged Amlogic SoCs, sometimes architecture- and/or clock speed-upgraded from one generation to another, and other times generationally essentially the same. Up to this point, at least, Google has also done the same. What’s inside the TV Streamer 4K, claimed to be “22% faster” this time? And do its feature set “adders” versus competitive alternatives, such as the ability to act as a Google Home and Matter-and-Thread hub…umm…matter? Let’s find out.
eBay once again comes through
Sorry, folks, but given my per-teardown monetary compensation, I’m not going to drop $100 on a brand new dissection “patient”, especially if I’m not confident upfront that I’ll be able to get it back together afterwards in cosmetically pristine and fully functional form. Fortunately, back in early May, I came across a “Porcelain” color (“Hazel” is also available) used-condition device with all accessories included on eBay for $52.25 plus tax, with free shipping. It was a bit beat up, but seemingly still worked fine:
Here’s how it and the accompanying accessories arrived (inside a bubble wrap-rich cardboard box, of course), as usual, in the following photo (and others to come) accompanied by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. penny for size comparison purposes:
Let’s have a close-up peek at the power supply first. I was admittedly surprised to still see Google shipping devices accompanied by wall warts with legacy USB-A outputs, mated to USB-A to USB-C cables, although the combo still seemingly provides sufficient juice to power the streamer:
That’s a 5V/1.5A (7.5W) output, if you can’t discern the faint fine print:
Next, the remote control:
It’s a slightly larger version of the one bundled with the Chromecast with Google TV HD (to the right in the following photos), notably moving the volume controls to the front versus the side:
And now for the star of the show, with the following specifications:
- Length: 6.4 in
- Width: 3.0 in
- Height: 1.0 in
- Weight: 5.7 oz
Note that (optional for use, in addition to built-in Wi-Fi) wired Ethernet support is integrated this time, not necessitating the use of a separate USB-C hub. More generally, left-to-right, there’s the status LED, a “find remote” button that does double-duty for reset purposes, USB-C (software-enabled for both power and peripheral data purposes), GbE Ethernet, and HDMI 2.1:
Open sesame
Time to dive inside. That underside rubberized “foot” is usually a fruitful pathway bet:
No luck yet, but the various-shaped and -sized opening outlines barely visible below the translucent next-level layer are encouraging:
That’s better…
…save for the lingering “bubble” after I put the “foot” back in place, a familiar sight to anyone who’s ever imperfectly applied a screen protector…
Let’s pause for a moment and take in the lay of the land:
There are screw heads in all four corners, along with recessed tabs on both sides, and additional holes (with metal visible within them) at both the top and bottom edges:
Removing the screws was easy:
The tabs were more of a struggle and, ultimately, a surprise. What I thought I needed to do was to carefully bend them out of the way, thereby enabling the two halves to vertically separate. And indeed, I was able to shift one to the side, fortunately not breaking it in the process. But when I turned my attention to the other, the two halves instead separated sideways in response:
And then they vertically lifted apart. Turns out I could have saved myself some trouble (and potential tab breakage) by just sliding them apart from the beginning:
Tackling various temperature inhibitors
Next up: that sizeable heat sink. Remember the earlier-mentioned “additional holes at both the top and bottom edges”? Those were for the four additional screws that now need to be removed; the tips had been visible through the holes to the other (bottom) side:
Houston, we have liftoff:
Next, the PCB, held in place by plastic tabs (and the connectors’ inserts to the case back panel):
And yes, as you can see from the now-present smear, I got thermal paste all over myself, etc. in the process of getting the PCB out of the bottom case half:
A close-up of the LED light pipe and button mechanical bits:
Voila:
Already visible are the PCB-embedded Wi-Fi antennae on both sides; the TV Streamer 4K supports Wi-Fi 802.11ac (both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) along with both Bluetooth 5.1 and a Thread transceiver. Before going any further, let’s get rid of the rest of that thermal paste, properly this time (via rubbing alcohol and a tissue):
Now let’s flip the PCB over and see what the other side reveals:
Another Faraday cage! And another embedded antenna (lower left). I’m guessing that it’s for Bluetooth and, doing double-duty, Thread, both protocols being 2.4 GHz-based.
While here, let’s get this cage off. Unlike most I’ve encountered, this one has numerous discrete “dimpled” tabs holding it in place, versus longer segments each with multiple embedded “dimples”:
Tedious patience eventually won out, however:
The “fins” (which I presume are for “spring” purposes) on top of the Faraday cage are interesting:
And what’s with the three gold-color “clips” (for lack of a better word) scattered around the cage, readers? I’ve seen them in past teardowns, too; I’m not sure what purpose they serve:
A new generation, a supplier transition
A closeup reveals, at lower left, an unknown chip stamped thusly:
MG21
A020H1
B02ARA
2436
to its right, an unknown-function MediaTek MT6393GN (although this has me suspecting it’s a power management controller, and to my earlier “what SoC is in the design this time” question: hmm, MediaTek?), and at lower right, a Samsung K4FBE3D4HB-MGCL 32 Gbit LPDDR4 DRAM:
Back to the topside, and (tediously, again) off with another Faraday cage:
More thermal paste inside, unsurprisingly:
Zooming in, I’m guessing that the application processor is at far left, under the lingering lump of paste (which I’ll attempt to clean up next). Below it is the nonvolatile storage, a Kioxia (formerly Toshiba Semiconductor) THGAMVG8T13BAIL 32 GByte eMMC flash memory. To its right is the wired Ethernet transceiver, a Realtek RTL8211F. And at far right is the wireless communications nexus, MediaTek’s MT7663BSN “802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi 2T2R + Bluetooth v5.1 Combo Chip”.
Who’ll take my bet that under that glob of thermal paste is a MediaTek-sourced SoC?
I win! It’s the MT8696, based on a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 and capable of clocking at up to 2 GHz. I can’t read the markings on the crystal in the SoC’s upper left corner, but TechInsights’ analysis report, which I’ll revisit soon, says that the MT8696 runs at 1.8 GHz in this design.
All that was left was to apply fresh thermal paste everywhere I’d cleaned it off, set the Faraday cages back on top of their brackets, push the tabs back in place, snap some side-view shots:
and then fire it back up and see if it still works. I didn’t bother with putting the top back in place at first, in case it didn’t work, but that white LED glow in the lower left is an encouraging sign.
Huzzah!
I let it run for about 15 minutes to ensure that it was thermally stable, then unplugged it and completed the reassembly process.
Is the enemy of my enemy my friend?
In closing, I’ll share the report summary of another teardown I came across, from TechInsights, with the identities of a few other ICs. And I’ll toss out a few questions for your introspection:
- Given that Google’s conspicuous reference to this one as the “4K” model, will they follow up later with a “HD” edition as they did in the Chromecast with Google TV era?
- Given the subsequent unveiling of both Walmart’s aforementioned 4K Pro Streaming Device and even newer “little brother” (sorta…hold that thought for another teardown to come) onn. 4K Plus Streaming Device, plus other manufacturers’ Google TV O/S-based products, all significantly lower priced, just how many TV Streamer 4Ks does Google really expect to sell?
- And at the end of the day, given that Google is fundamentally a software company (with a software-licensing business model), does it matter? Is TV Streamer 4K fundamentally just a showcase product to advance the feature set of the overall market, analogous to Microsoft and its Surface computer product line? Said another way, are Amazon (with its various Fire OS-based devices), Apple (with tvOS-based Apple TV products), and Roku (Roku OS-based sticks, boxes, and TVs) Google’s real competitors?
Wrapping up, some words I previously wrote (and EDN subsequently published) last August:
Competing against a foundation-software partner who’s focused on volume at the expense of per-unit profit (even willing to sell “loss leaders” in some cases, to get customers in stores and on the website in the hopes that they’ll also buy other, more lucrative items while they’re there) is a tough business for Google to be in, I suspect. Therefore, the pivot to the high end, letting its partners handle the volume market while being content with the high-profit segment.
How well (or not) has my year-back perspective held up? Any other thoughts on what I’ve shared today? Let me (and your fellow readers) know in the comments!
—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the company’s online newsletter.
Related Content
- Google’s fall…err…summer launch: One-upping Apple with a sizeable product tranche
- Perusing Walmart’s onn. 4K Pro Streaming Device with Google TV: Storage aplenty
- Walmart’s onn. full HD streaming device: Still not thick, just don’t call it a stick
- Google’s Chromecast: impressively (and increasingly) up for the video streaming task
- The Google Chromecast Gen 3: Gluey and screwy
- Google’s Chromecast Ultra: More than just a Stadia consorta
- Google’s Chromecast with Google TV: Dissecting the HD edition
- The Google Chromecast Gen 2 (2015): A Form Factor Redesign with Beefier Wi-Fi, Too
- Google’s Chromecast with Google TV: Car accessory similarity, and a post-teardown resurrection opportunity?
- The Google Chromecast with Google TV: Realizing a resurrection opportunity
The post The Google TV Streamer 4K: Hardware updates on display(s) appeared first on EDN.
