The Chromecast with Google TV launched in 2020 and, for $30, turned any TV into a true smart TV with a remote control and a real interface. It was the first Chromecast that didn’t require you to stream everything from your phone, and for a while, it was the budget streaming device to beat. Google removed it in February 2025 and Google TV Streamer, its official replacement, costs $99.99.
When it came time to replace my Chromecast, I didn’t spend $100 on an upgrade. Instead, I bought the Xiaomi TV Box S 3rd Generation for the equivalent of about $50 while I was in Taiwan, and after a month of using it, I can’t think of any reason why I’d go back. To be clear, $50 isn’t a cost most people will find it for, but it’s expected to be between $70 and $90, and that’s still cheaper than what Google has available.
Is it perfect? No, but it solves all the real frustrations I had with the Google dongle and costs a good chunk cheaper than the official tracking, never mind. where you buy it.
The Bluetooth was the first thing to break
And I mean that literally, every time.
I don’t use television and haven’t for years. In Ireland, a TV license is required for any device that can process broadcast television signals, so instead I use a 32-inch monitor with an HDMI input. The monitor has no speakers or audio output, which means my entire setup relies on a Bluetooth speaker. To be honest, it’s a bit of a dodgy setup, but it works. Or at least it worked pretty well with the Chromecast, despite some frustrations.
The problem was Bluetooth. Every time I turned on my Chromecast, I had to manually reconnect it. The Chromecast would forget it exists or pretend it couldn’t see a device from two feet away. Sometimes the audio was out of sync with the video mid-show and the only solution was to unplug and pair again. It was the kind of problem that seems minor until you face it practically every day. It had even become something that a reliable trigger I discovered was that pausing a program for just a few seconds would cause it to go out of sync, so we had to do it completely. exit the streaming application if we wanted to pause for whatever reason.
There was also the general slowness. The Chromecast was powered by an Amlogic S905X3, a 2019 chip with a 12nm process, with four 1.9GHz Cortex-A55 cores and a Mali-G31 GPU. It was fine at launch, but as Google added more features and incorporated things like recommendations on the home screen, the hardware tried harder to keep up. If you woke it up, you had to wait a few seconds for the interface to recover before the remote would register. If I started an app, I had to wait again. It wasn’t broken, but it was notably slow. And using it was painful.
Oh, and don’t get me started on storage. It had 8GB total, a little less than 5GB actually usable after the OS took its cut. I was constantly playing the game of “which app should I delete?” Do you want Kodi? Something is coming out. A couple of streaming apps, a media player and you were full. I eventually settled into the routine of using very few apps, because the juggling, combined with the lag, was exhausting.
Between Bluetooth, lag, and constant storage juggling, it seemed like the Chromecast was running out of time. When I saw the Xiaomi TV Box for the price, I jumped on it immediately.
The Xiaomi fixed everything, and I didn’t expect it to
A month later and nothing has gone wrong.
One of the best improvements I have found is that the Xiaomi fair It connects to my Bluetooth speaker. I paired it once, a month ago, and it has stayed paired ever since. I turn on the speaker, the audio plays. There are no audio dropouts or reconnection issues, which means less time spent going through settings trying to reconnect the speaker every time I turn it on. I almost didn’t include this because it sounds so small, but it’s really what made me realize I don’t. want to return to the previous Chromecast.
The speed difference is equally notable. The Xiaomi uses a newer Amlogic S905X5M in 6nm, the same Cortex-A55 architecture but clocked at 2.5GHz, with a Mali-G310 V2 GPU. The spec sheet claims it has a 25% faster CPU and 130% faster GPU than the previous generation, and we’re two generations ahead of the Chromecast with Google TV here. While I haven’t done any benchmark testing or anything like that, the difference is immediately obvious in everyday use. It wakes up from sleep and responds immediately, and navigating the home screen, launching YouTube, Netflix, or Jellyfin all happens without the pause I’ve been accustomed to for years.
The Xiaomi TV box is No to Shield TV, which still reigns almost a decade after its launch, but I don’t pretend it does either. However, for what it’s meant to do – that is, stream 4K content from all the major services, run Jellyfin, handle launching apps, and generally act as a smart TV – it’s fluid in a way that the Chromecast stopped being fluid a long time ago. The interface plays in 4K natively, automatic frame rate switching works, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are supported, and there’s even an AI upscaling option for HD content, although I don’t think it does much. I don’t use it.
Upgrading storage also fundamentally changes the way you use the device. With 32GB of built-in storage and about 24GB usable, I have everything I want installed and still have room left. I haven’t had to think about it or remember the juggling act I had to perform in the past.
Plus, it’s nice to have a USB-A port on the back, which the Chromecast never had. You can connect a flash drive for local media or an Ethernet adapter if you want a wired connection. I’ve been on Wi-Fi the entire time (and been on Chromecast too) and haven’t needed it, but it’s nice that the option exists. For streaming in 4K resolution, Wi-Fi 6 also helps here. The Chromecast peaked with Wi-Fi 5, and while neither device gave me connection issues, Xiaomi’s newest radio is better prepared for the future.
The remote is worse, the rest is better and the Chromecast is dead anyway
You were going to need a replacement sooner or later.
I’ll be honest, the Chromecast remote feels better in the hand. There’s some weight to it, the buttons are quiet, and Google has clearly put some thought into the design and how it feels. The Xiaomi controller is lighter, it feels like plastic, and the buttons have a sound that makes it look cheaper too. There is no way around that.
But the Xiaomi remote does more. It has dedicated buttons for Netflix, YouTube, and Prime Video, plus a programmable hotkey and IR blaster that can control the power and volume of your TV directly. In my case, those buttons on the TV aren’t really useful, but for most people, that’s the difference between one remote control instead of two. In practice, that matters more than how pleasant the plastic feels; It may be less premium, but I bet it’s more useful for most people, and I’d personally take that trade.
Additionally, there’s no built-in Ethernet port and the previous generation’s 3.5mm audio jack is gone. It would have been nice to have the latter instead of using Bluetooth, but in the end it hasn’t been a problem for me anyway. On top of that, its 2 GB of RAM is still the bare minimum for Google TV. I would have loved 3GB or 4GB, but for streaming applications and other light uses it hasn’t been a problem. The compromises are definitely there, but they don’t interfere with what the device is supposed to do. I can’t say much about Chromecast and its commitments.
Plus, Chromecast with Google TV isn’t even an option anymore. Both models are no longer on the Google Store and you can’t find them new anywhere else. Security updates ended in September 2025 and the official replacement is the Google TV Streamer at $99.99. It’s a good device, with more RAM, more storage, and Thread Border router support, but it also costs more than twice what the original Chromecast with Google TV costs and about twice what the Xiaomi costs today.
For $50, or between $70 and $90 if you buy it online, the Xiaomi TV Box S 3rd Gen is the streaming device I would buy at a higher price now that I’ve used it. It’s been on my radar for a while, but I didn’t know if it would be worth updating so I put it off. For $50, I figured I was willing to take a chance and try it. It turns out it’s significantly faster, has more storage, its Bluetooth doesn’t make me want to drop things, and it runs Google TV on hardware that actually has room to breathe. That has been the factor that made the big difference.
