If you’re having trouble tracking down one of Google’s recently discontinued Chromecast devices, which are still being sold while stocks last, you might want to consider snapping up an alternative in the shape of Thomson’s new “Cast 150” dongle instead.
The Cast 150 was announced at a media event in Austria last week, with the company pitching the device as an affordable 4K HDR streaming dongle that provides access to the Google TV platform, transforming regular televisions into smart TVs.
As Flatpanels HD reported, the device seems to be a kind of “spiritual successor" to the Chromecast with Google TV dongle that was discontinued last year with the launch of the new Google TV Streamer.
Its design resembles that of the latest Chromecast in terms of its form and factor. Powered by Google TV, it provides access to pre-installed streaming apps such as Netflix, YouTube, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, and it supports 4K resolution at up to 60 frames per second. HDR10 is supported too, as is Dolby Atmos surround sound, but there’s no mention of Dolby Vision.
The Thomson Cast 150 comes with a quad-core A35 chipset and 2 gigabytes of RAM, but there’s confusion over the amount of storage, with the product specifications listing 8GB and Thomson reportedly saying at the event that it has 16GB. It’s likely that the latter claim is correct, given that Google has mandated that new Google TV devices have at least 16GB of storage space.
Just as the device looks and feels like the old Chromecast, the supplied remote control also has a very familiar feel, with similar colours and form. However, it has more buttons than the Chromecast remote, with one of the extras being a “Live TV” button, added at the insistence of Google in its quest to boost the visibility of its free, ad-supported TV (FAST) channels.
Thomson seems determined to expand its presence in the European market for TV streaming devices. Last month it announced a new, more powerful Streaming Box Plus 270, which appears to be modeled on the popular Walmart Onn Pro device that’s sold exclusively in the U.S.
Thomson told Flatpanels HD it’s expecting to price the Cast 150 at between 60 and 75 euros when it launches in Europe in the second half of the year.
