Teardown 2-pack: iFixit cracks open Google’s 2015 Chromecast + Chromecast Audio

Zac Hall | Oct 7 2015 - 8:14 am PT

iFixit’s 2015 Chromecast + Chromecast Audio teardown

Two years after the original Chromecast HDMI streaming stick, Google decided it was ready last week to unveil the sequel with a redesigned and more capable 2nd-gen Chromecast as well as an entirely new product for streaming audio to old speakers called Chromecast Audio. Readily standing by, the folks over at iFixit have already picked up and torn apart both new streamers. Both look remarkably similar on the inside at first glance, and iFixit has some praise for how Chromecast handles HDMI this year…

At the start, iFixit notes that the redesigned model is trickier to take apart than the original 2013 model. “Surprisingly stubborn adhesive” holds the top and bottom pieces together which is good for durability and bad for repairability. iFixit managed their way in still to find blue thermal paste, two EMI shields, and described the rubber HDMI cable as especially durable but able to be removed. iFixit didn’t rate the original Chromecast for repairability and it’s sticking to that here too, but they did praise the fact that the HDMI cable portion can be swapped out if needed. As for the actual hardware this year, iFixit discovered:

Marvell Avastar 88W8887 VHT WLAN, Bluetooth, NFC and FM Receiver
Samsung K4B4G1646D-BY 4 Gb DDR3L SDRAM
Marvell Armada 88DE3006 1500 Mini Plus dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 media processor
Toshiba TC58NVG1S3H 2 Gb NAND Flash Memory
MRVL 21AA3 521GDT—likely Marvell Semiconductor DC-DC regulator

And over on the Chromecast Audio side, it’s a similar story with a familiar casing and that blue thermal paste. Both go for the same $35 price, and even internally they’re very similar, iFixit discovered aside from a few audio-related components.