If you’re planning to buy an Android TV device this year, you might want to hold out a little while longer for this new product from Anker. They have posted a teaser of the upcoming Nebula 4K Streaming Dongle on Twitter, or at least their Anker Japan account. We now know what it looks like design-wise although as well as confirmation about some of the details we can expect from it, like support for 4K, HDMI connection, and Android 10 out of the box.
Design-wise, the Nebula 4K Streaming Dongle seems to be made from aluminum based on the image they tweeted out. It may also come with a Google-designed remote although we don’t know yet if it’s an add-on only or it comes with the Android TV dongle already. The remote seems to be the G10 design as per 9 to 5 Google and both the dongle and remote come in black. We don’t know if there are other color variants but this seems to be the default color.
TV等にHDMI接続できるストリーミングデバイス「Nebula 4K Streaming Dongle」を9月頃に販売開始予定！最新のAndroid TV 10.0を搭載し、YouTubeやNetflixを始めとした7,000以上のアプリに対応。最大4K出力の高解像度に加え、Dolby Digital Plus対応の高音質な映像がお楽しみいただけます。#APC21Spring pic.twitter.com/RqEbAUyBzQ
— Anker Japan (@Anker_JP) May 25, 2021
The tweet also revealed a few details about the dongle. It comes with Android 10 out of the box and not the latest Android 11 that started rolling out late last year. Most likely you’ll be able to upgrade it to 11 anyway. It supports 4K output with Dolby Digital Plus but of course the quality that you’ll get depends on what your TV supports. It is powered through a microUSB port and can connect to your TV through HDMI.
It’s unclear if the Android TV dongle will have Google TV or still stick with the Android TV platform. The new Google Chromecast already uses the Google TV interface and it seems to emphasize features like Google Cast with Cast Connect, MediaSession, Watch Next, Media Actions Feed, Google Account Linking, Entitlement Sync, Voice Casting, Google Play Billing, Frictionless Subs, and Home Screen Channels.
Anker Japan says that the Nebula 4K Streaming Dongle will arrive around September of this year. We’re not sure which countries this will be available in but for sure, Japan is one of them.