A few years ago, it was pretty easy to buy ultra-cheap under $20 TV boxes, but with the RAM and flash memory prices increase, companies were unable to provide such good deals.
Prices have now come down to earth, so deals may pop-up from time to time, and one of those is for Rockchip RK3229 based Q96 Smart TV box running Android 9.0 with 1GB RAM and 8GB flash that currently goes for $19.99 on GearBest with coupon GBCNQ9601. [Update: GBCNQ962 coupon can be used for the 2GB version bringing down the price to $25.99]
Q96 Smart specifications:
- SoC – Rockchip RK3229 quad core Arm Cortex-A7 processor up to 1.5GHz with Arm Mali-400 MP2 GPU
- System Memory – 1 or 2GB DDR3
- Storage – 8GB or 16GB flash, microSD card slot
- Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60 Hz + AV port with composite and stereo audio output
- Video – 4K 10-bit H.265, 4K 10-bit H.264
- Conectivity – 100Mbps Etherent, dual band WiFi (Note: one illustration shows 2.4 GHz WiFi only); No Bluetooth
- USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports
- Misc – IR receiver
- Power Supply – 5V/2A
- Dimensions – 9.20 x 9.20 x 1.70 cm
- Weight – 75 grams
The Android 9.0 TV box ships with a remote control, a HDMI cable, a power adapter, and a user’s manual in English. YouTube and Netflix are supposedly supported, but don’t expect to play video at HD or greater resolutions for the latter. Depending on your use case, 1GB of RAM may be a limiting factor, so this type of box may be better suited for testing, or other simple applications rather streaming online videos. Linux does not appear to be well support on RK3229, and the processor is not part of the Rockchip Linux Wiki.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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