Mine is eleven years old and still works.

It was one of the devices I imported from the United States because it was not yet distributed in Europe, just as I did with mobile phones like the original iPhone or my beloved Kindle DX. And, like the latter, it continues to work as on the first day: this first-generation Google Chromecast is my streaming companion when I need to quickly send something to the TV from my mobile.

I remember that summer of 2013. Shortly after my birthday, Google unveiled the second generation of one of the best Android tablets ever: the 2013 Nexus 7. And it didn’t come alone, a device we knew nothing about. appeared suddenly without requiring undue attentionas if Google had developed it as a mere complement to its hardware catalog: the original Chromecast. Even if it didn’t have a revolutionary aura, this small media player was Google’s greatest innovation in the field of electronic devices. And it ended up forging the marriage between smartphone and television.

The biggest advantage was being cheap. The second, becoming immortal.

At the time, Google had set a price of $35, a cost that was maintained once the original Chromecast began to be distributed in the rest of the world. I was impatient, I decided to import it in August 2013 at a slightly more expensive price; it still seems cheap to me: this HDMI pic It has become the center of my media consumption in the living room.. First for YouTube, then for Netflix and whatever content I had on my Android.

As is often the case with products that are just arriving on the market, Chromecast started with limited compatibility. You can send YouTube videos from your phone to TV and not much else. Although it didn’t take long to extend its compatibility to the rest of the web, also to most streaming platforms: if there is one that comes out without Chromecast support, it doesn’t take long to include it. For fun, it has become something fundamental.

Thanks to the fact that Chromecast support is almost a multimedia standard, I have been sending videos, music, photos and even projecting the mobile screen for years. With the simplicity of choosing the Chromecast connected from the corner of the phone and controlling playback from said mobile: Simple, economical and almost universal, the three keys that made the Chromecast a huge success. And today he keeps the original device; with a fourth argument: how long it has lasted, lasts and will continue to last, that the connection protocols and video formats it uses are not going to expire in a few years.

Yes, Google will no longer update the legendary original Chromecast, that little HDMI key that is the basis of multimedia content shared from mobile phones, tablets and even computers. And although it has remained unsupported, my Google Chromecast 2013 still plays the same content that I have been sending you for years.

My Google Chromecast will continue to work for a few more years

Just because a device becomes officially obsolete when it loses support doesn’t mean it loses all its usefulness, especially in the area where the Google Chromecast operates: since the video and audio codecs it uses are a standard on the web, It is guaranteed to continue working for much longer. In fact, I always take mine with me when I travel when I want to check my belongings at my destination hotel, for example.

This helps me to project my mobile screen on the TV where I don’t have my Nvidia Shield with Android TV (or my Amazon Fire TV 4K Max) and it even works on my in-laws’ old Smart TV: just plug it into a free HDMI, press power from a USB port on the TV itself and set it up with my Google Home app. And not even that: if I set it up with the phone’s hotspot It starts in less than a minute wherever I go, even abroad. Let’s see what ten-year-old electronic device can say that.

I think the Google Chromecast is the best purchase I’ve ever made in my life, I can’t think of any other that has offered me such profitability throughout its useful life. That it’s not over, even if Google has turned its back on it: my Chromecast still has many years left.

Cover image | Ivan Linares

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