Exclusive: This is the chipset used in the new Google TV Streamer

Google just killed the Chromecast and, in its place, launched the new Google TV Streamer. The Google TV Streamer is a sleek set-top box that sits on your table instead of behind your TV, and it features numerous upgrades over the Chromecast with Google TV (4K) that it’s replacing. One of those upgrades is a new processor that offers 22% faster CPU performance, which is a welcome change. However, Google didn’t specify which processor it’s using, leading many to speculate (or rather, hope) that the TV Streamer is using Amlogic’s latest chipset. Android Authority has seen evidence that’s not the case, though.

Following the announcement of the Google TV Streamer, I obtained a copy of the device’s build properties, which reveals that the device (code-named “kirkwood”) is powered by the MT8696 MediaTek chip. This is notably the exact same chipset found in the 2021 Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max and very similar to the one in the 2nd generation model from 2023.

Although the specifications for the MT8696 haven’t been published by MediaTek anywhere online, Amazon says that the MT8696(T) variant of the chipset in the 2nd Gen model features a quad-core CPU clocked at up to 2.0GHz. The core design is ARM’s Cortex-A55, and it’s said the GPU is Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR GE9215 with cores clocked at up to 850MHz. Lastly, it’s mentioned that the chipset offers support for decoding Dolby Vision, HDR 10, HDR10+, HLG, H.265, H.264, VP9, and AV1 content, which are all to be expected.

The Google TV Streamer, however, has double the RAM and storage of the 2nd Gen Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max. The latter only has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, whereas the former ships with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. The 1st Gen Amazon device from 2021 features Wi-Fi 6 support, whereas the 2024 Google device only supports Wi-Fi 5. The reason for this is that Google chose to use the MT7663e2 Wi-Fi module from MediaTek, which is a Wi-Fi 5 module. Google likely chose this module to cut down on costs, but it’s worth mentioning that the 2021 Fire TV Stick 4K Max retailed for almost half the price of the TV Streamer.

In any case, this news might disappoint some users who were expecting Google to use Amlogic’s new 6nm S905X5 chipset. The 2020 Chromecast with Google TV (4K) utilized Amlogic’s S905X3 SoC with four ARM Cortex-A55 cores clocked at up to 1.9GHz, so many assumed that Google would continue to use Amlogic chipsets for its future Google TV devices. We were surprised when we discovered that Google had switched to MediaTek, but users won’t be missing out on much. After all, many reviewers praised the Amazon devices for having good performance, so the new Google TV Streamer likely won’t be a slouch when it comes to loading apps or scrolling through the homescreen.