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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CNX might deleted this but if you can stretch to $21.38
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33015259170.html?
H6 2gb
It’s even US $20.69 here, and they offer a $3 coupon to new users.
I have the TX6 4Gb (not mini). Its a good basic budget box but it uses nearly 70 % of that 4gb memory. Even deleting every application I could and optimizing the memory only improved it to 60%. Might be Android 9 I dont know.. I also have a MeeCool BB Pro 3Gb ( Android 6) and it only uses 25% with all my apps loaded. This 2Gb TX6 mini might not have enough memory.
Also you cannot replace the ALICE bootloader with one of your own choice and there is no on/off switch so its always on and runs quite warm.
Worth reading this thread
https://forum.freaktab.com/forum/tv-player-support/allwinner-tv-players/751595-tanix-tx6-tv-box-allwinner-h6-4-32gb-dual-wifi-bt4-1-or-5
no on/off switch does not necessarily mean it is “always on” (although in this case it might be). It is quite possible to use the remote control to put the box in a standby mode with only a very small part of the box operational (just like happens with a TV).
Still looking for a affordable TV box bu tdon’t think this TX6 is going to be it (at the moment leaning towards mi box s)
How about RK3229 1gb $15.48 inc p&p to USA
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33025164549.html?
Good price, but note that’s a pretty new store (March 2019) with little feedback so far.
1GB RAM/ 8GB flash RK3229 STB boxes are going for under $10 wholesale so these prices are reasonable.
Random example, there are dozens more.
https://detail.1688.com/offer/598838735354.html?spm=b26110380.sw1688.mof001/.1.2c8471d8rumPLE