New Chromecast SKU hits FCC, but your current one is not being replaced
You may come across news today that a new Chromecast model has found its way to the FCC, but that isn’t cause to put yours up on Craigslist or eBay in preparation for a new one. A Googler was questioned about the device’s appearance at the FCC in a recent Ask Me Anything session on Reddit, and he suggests this new model won’t be anything to sing to high heaven about:
We’re always working to update Chromecast with the the latest software and hardware components, but we don’t have any new user-facing features planned for this device.
He continues:
No plans for big announcement on this one. Mostly because it will have the same features as the original and most users won’t notice a difference. Sorry–I can’t say more about this topic.
So there’s that. He says “most” users won’t notice a difference, though we’re not exactly sure what he considers “most” to be, nor does he go into any detail about what the difference might bring. Smoother performance might sit atop the list for anyone who thinks the current model is a bit too slow, but I’m sure that’s something we’d all notice if we were using them side-by-side.
There really shouldn’t be anything to worry about, though. Set-top boxes, consoles and the like have long been updated with more efficient internals without most users noticing the difference. The original Xbox 360 comes to mind, with the jumps to Jasper and Falcon chipsets that offered the same processing and graphics performance, but cut down on excessive heat and lowered the failure rate.
For Chromecast, this could just be a case of Google using better internals, more affordable internals or simply rewiring a couple of things to ensure long-term use without issues. All of that is to say if you were planning to get a Chromecast then there probably is no use in waiting to pull the trigger.