Enlarge / The $50 Chromecast with Google TV. It comes in colors. (credit: Google )

The base-model $30 Chromecast is 4 years old at this point, so it's probably time for an upgrade. The usually reliable WinFuture has gotten wind that a new Chromecast launch should be happening any day, saying that a new device is already landing in dealer inventory systems.

The report says that the "Google G454V," which hit the Federal Communications Commission a few months ago, is a 1080p streaming device that runs Google TV. In Europe, the device has a price of "around 40 euro" which would slot it in below the existing "Chromecast with Google TV," which is 69.99 euro.

A new Chromecast makes a ton of sense. Besides being pretty old for a piece of technology, Google upended the Chromecast formula when it launched the high-end, 4K " Chromecast with Google TV " in 2020. The Chromecast changed from a dead-simple, zero-interface media receiver to having a full-blown TV OS with a remote control, an app store, and onboard storage. With that big shift came a change in operating systems: "Google TV" means it's running Android, while the current entry-level Chromecast runs the cast OS.