The Remix Mini is a tiny computer with an ARM-based processor and an Android-based operating system. The developers at Chinese startup Jide are launching a Kickstarter campaign for the computer today, and the first 500 people to pledge $20 can reserve a Remix Mini for that price.
While you could use the Remix Mini as a cheap Android device to stream videos from Netflix and YouTube to your TV, Jide is positioning the device as more of an inexpensive PC.
That’s because, like the Remix Ultra tablet I reviewed earlier this year, the Remix Mini runs Jide’s Remix OS, which is a custom version of Android designed to work more like Windows: there’s a taskbar and support for viewing multiple apps on the screen at once.
The basic Remix Mini is a small box with a 1.2 GHz Allwinner ARM Cortex-A53 quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, HDMI output, 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and Bluetooth 4.0.
There’s also a capacitive touch power button on top of the device, two USB 2.0 ports, a headphone jack, and a microSD card slot. The box measures about 4.9″ x 3.5″ x 1″.
Jide is also offering a model with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. Early backers of the campaign will be able to reserve a 2GB model for $40.
If you miss the early bird specials, the 1GB model will cost $30 and the 2GB model will cost $50. But the company also plans to offer combo deals for folks that want to request multiple units.
Jide hopes to begin shipping its Remix Mini devices in October… but before making a pledge, you might want to check out the shipping charges. Depending on where you live, shipping could run anywhere from $15 to $30… which means you might end up paying more for shipping than you do for the product itself. Unfortunately it isn’t cheap to ship goods around the globe from China.
I decided against buying one of these.
Unfortunately the Allwinner A64 SOC it uses is very poorly supported, in regards to Video decoding APIs. Allwinner has been known to offer terrible API support. The SOC claims to offer h265 hardware decoding. But with poor API support, it renders the feature useless.
For example, Kodi (XBMC) doesnt support their h265 decoding. Ontop of that Kodi doesnt even support their h264 decoding. I wouldn’t even spend a penny on this device.
I went in for 2 of the 2gb models. shipping combined was $25. I think it was a good deal as replacements to my pc in a pinch. With cloud storage available all over the place I don’t think its a bad deal at all.
I bought the basic one…. They get you with $15 shipping but about same cost as chromecast and if it can function like a chromebox it will be worth the money
The shipping is unfortunate but can’t be helped. Logistics costs money. I am more pleasantly surprised on the proposed delivery date of October 2015 considering that the Kickstarter campaign ends August 29th.
It has ethernet so I could use this like a roku and play YouTube on my TV.
I wonder if I can disable WiFi and only use Ethernet
It’s running a variation of Android so the answer is yes you can turn off the Wifi. Not that it matters while ethernet is connected it takes priority over Wifi.