Google’s new Google TV Streamer is much more powerful than any of the Chromecast dongles, but despite that, it’s still encumbered with a years-old chipset. As a result, in terms of sheer horsepower, the Apple TV 4K that it has been compared to leaves it in the dust. ‘
Android Authority was the first publication to get hold of information about the Google TV Streamer’s chipset, and it turns out that the device is powered by the MediaTek MT8696 chip. That’s a fairly old processor that notably appeared in Amazon’s 2021 Fire TV Stick 4K Max.
Still, there are some differences between Amazon’s 2021 Fire TV Stick 4K Max and the Google TV Streamer, with the latter having twice as much RAM available.
As for the Apple TV 4K, that’s much more powerful than either of the above devices. That’s because it’s equipped with the A15 Bionic chipset, which also appeared in the iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhone 14 devices. It’s a six-core CPU with two high-performance and two energy-efficient cores, with the former clocked at an impressive 3.23 GHz. It also boasts a dedicated 16-core Neural Engine and a five-core GPU. The MediaTek MT8696, on the other hand, features a quad-core that has been clocked at a maximum of around 2.0 GHz, and it features a less powerful, four-core GPU.
To be honest, for most people the lack of power in the Google TV Streamer won’t matter at all. The MediaTek chipset is more than powerful enough to decode high-quality video streams.
The Apple TV 4K’s A15 Bionic chipset is probably overkill in terms of video streaming, but the extra power does provide a few advantages. With the expected launch of tvOS 18 next month, the Apple TV 4K will gain machine learning-enabled dialog enhancement functionality for movies, plus vocal clarity enhancement for music, and live captions and Continuity Camera capabilities for FaceTime calls. Other new features include Spatial Audio streaming over AirPlay and an improved Apple Fitness+ experience.
So whereas the Google TV Streamer is really just an oversized streaming dongle, the Apple TV 4K is basically a jumbo-sized iPhone.
It has been rumored that Apple is working on an even more powerful Apple TV box, as part of the company’s push to become more of a force in gaming. While the current Apple TV 4K can steam games directly from the Apple Arcade service, those games are all lower-end titles. With an even more powerful device, it could possibly end up being a powerful alternative to “true” gaming consoles.
Unrelated to the chipset, but an important consideration is the amount of storage space, and although the Apple TV 4K has more of it, Google still might have an advantage here.
When buying the Apple TV 4K, users can choose from 64GB or 128GB of storage, whereas the Google TV Streamer is capped at just 32GB. However, Google’s new device has a key advantage in that it can connect to external storage thanks to the inclusion of a single USB-C port.
Although the USB-C port is ostensibly for powering the Google TV Streamer, Google told 9to5Google that there’s nothing to preclude users from connecting a USB hub to the device, and then drawing power through that, leaving additional USB ports for an external storage drive.
Additional storage could prove quite handy for some users if they’re looking to make the most of Google TV’s extensive app ecosystem, which includes hundreds of different music apps, fitness apps, news apps, games and more. In addition, it’s also essential for those who want to store their own video libraries locally on the device, so they can be watched without any Wi-Fi.
