I would expect thermals to be significantly better in a set top box form factor compared to a dongle. My Chromecast with Google TV is often hot to the touch, so

I would expect thermals to be significantly better in a set top box form factor compared to a dongle. My Chromecast with Google TV is often hot to the touch, so I would expect that it spends a lot of time thermally-limited, and not operating at peak frequency. A larger heat sink could make a big difference there. At the same time, the current generation Apple TV will absolutely smoke this thing in performance, even though the Apple TV is at the end of its refresh cycle.