The rumored successor to the Chromecast Ultra looks imminent, now that it's been further teased in a developer preview for Android 11.
From some digging around in the Android 11 for Android TV preview files, 9to5Google discovered a video that showed off the upcoming media dongle codenamed Sabrina. Apparently this Chromecast Ultra successor will be part of the Made By Google range and will be the first Google-made Android TV device since the Nexus Player, the publication reported.
- Google Chromecast 4 Sabrina release date, price and more
- What is the Google Chromecast?
- Just in: Xbox Series X will be a 'dramatic step up' from Xbox One
The uncovered video doesn’t give a great deal of insight into the specs and capabilities of the Sabrina dongle. Rather it simply details the reset process, which involves unplugging the streaming device from its power connection for three seconds.
However, the video does go some way to showing that the device will look like some of the previously leaked marketing material that we’ve seen for Sabrina. It will sport an oval shape with an imprinted ‘G’ logo, making it look a bit like a smooth stone you might find on a beach. And it’s likely to come in the white, black and soft pink-orange, as we’ve seen in leaked images.
From what we’ve seen so far, the Sabrina Chromecast will come with a neat remote with a circular navigation dial and suite of simple buttons, clearly in keeping with the simple utilitarian aesthetic we’ve seen with the likes of the Pixel 4. The Apple TV has a similar remote with a touch-sensitive circular panel, but we hope Google’s remote has smoother digit input recognition than the Apple TV remote.
We’re assuming that the Sabrina will support 4K resolutions, as well as play nice with Google Stadia, and other streaming services. But so far we’ve not got much else to go off.
The fact that Sabrina has been mentioned in an Android 11 developer preview would suggest that the new Chromecast device may release alongside the full launch of Google’s new operating system. We expect Android 11 to make its debut sometime in August or early September. But it could also launch with the Pixel 5, which is currently looking like it’ll arrive in October.
