Remix Mini PC hits Kickstarter July 15th for $20 and up

The Jide Remix Mini is a tiny box that you can plug into a TV or monitor to run a custom version of Android called Remix OS. First unveiled a few weeks ago, Jide plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign for the Remix Mini on July 15th.

The campaign should go live at 9:00AM Eastern, and early backers will be able to reserve a Remix Mini device for a pledge of $20 or more. After that the price goes up to $30… which is still pretty cheap for a box that’s designed to work like a PC.

The Remix Mini is relatively low-power for a PC, featuring a 1.5 GHz Allwinner 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, a microSD card slot, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI output. But did I mention that it’ll sell for $30 or less?

If you’re looking for something a little more powerful, Jide will also be offering a model with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.

Update: Jide has clarified how the early bird specials will work: The first 500 people to pledge $20 or more will be able to get a 1GB Remix Mini. During the first 2 hours of the campaign, the company will also offer a special $40 price for the 2GB model.

After the early bird specials end, the basic model will sell for $30, while the higher-priced model will sell for… a higher price. 

It’s also worth noting that Jide will be shipping the Remix Mini from China, so while the box itself is pretty cheap, shipping is not: it’ll cost between $15 and $30 to have the Remix Mini shipped, depending on your location.

While most Android boxes are made to let you watch videos, surf the web, or maybe play games on your TV, the whole point of Remix OS is to make Android feel more like a desktop operating system.

Google Android was originally developed for smartphones and tablets, and most Android apps are designed to be touched with your fingers. But you can also connect a keyboard, mouse, gamepad, or other peripherals to play games, create or edit documents, or perform other tasks that you’d normally do on a Windows, Mac, Linux, or Chrome OS computer.

Jide takes things a step further with Remix OS by adding a taskbar and support for running apps in either full-screen or “phone mode” windows so that you can view multiple apps at once or move windows around the screen.

Remix OS is currently available on a handful of tablets including the Jide Remix Ultra and the Cube i7 Remix. But the Remix Mini will be the first desktop system to feature the software.

Sure, Remix OS can’t run all the same apps you’d run on a Windows computer. but at that price you could pick up 5 Remix Mini computers for the price of one Intel Compute Stick mini PC with Windows software.