Most of us have gone through the experience of using our smartphone/tablet for more intensive use cases than day to day browsing, gaming, messaging, photography etc. There are scenarios where our mobile devices may be limited by their top benefit of portability leading us to wish that we had a more PC like experience with a keyboard, mouse and larger screen. What if you could get just that while still maintaining the famed Android experience rich with apps?
In comes the remix mini to answer that question. The Remix mini is touted as the world’s first Android PC. A portable pebble shaped piece of hardware running on the Android OS and with ports for PC peripherals. With the Remix mini you can create your very own PC like experience by plugging in a Keyboard, mouse, and a desktop monitor or even TV screen through the HDMI port. While incomparable to a fully-fledged PC/laptop, the Remix mini is a great piece of hardware if you work on documents and apps on the move or favor your entertainment and apps on a larger screen and with the freedom to navigate and control them with peripherals like a keyboard and mouse on a more PC like User interface.
When you first unbox the Remix Mini you are greeted with quite an interesting and inspirational message. A product of Jide technology, the Remix Mini is revolutionary in more ways than one having broken Kickstarter history by securing $1.6M in funding that helped the company get the product onto shelves and online stores globally, and to consumers with a desire to make their Android experience as PC as possible.
The Remix Mini comes with 2GB of RAM, Quad core processor clocked in at 1.2GHz and 16GB of internal storage. Thankfully though, the storage is expandable via a micro SD slot that will accommodate a card as high as 128GB. On the unit you will also find an Ethernet port (ideal if you want/need more stable connection than Wi-Fi), DC power port, 2 USB 2.0 Ports, a 3.5mm audio port (which can be used for both audio input/output) and a HDMI port (video and audio). Thankfully the package comes complete with a HDMI cable as well. For extended useability, It is advisable to source a Multi-hub USB cable if you want to connect more than two peripherals to the Remix Mini’s 2 USB ports (e.g. A Keyboard, Mouse and Flash drive combination). The Remix Mini also offers your usual wireless connectivity options including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
Given its compact size it fits easily in a pocket/bag. Its design is subtle and clean and can even be missed by an unknowing eye when placed on a table and plugged into the peripherals it supports. For those that like their electronics arranged nice and neatly on their work or home desks the Remix mini fits in well and takes up very minimal space.
The unit runs its own Remix OS that is based on Google’s Android platform, specifically Android 5.1 making it easy to use for anyone who is already familiar with Android. The Google Play store and other Google services are accessible in the same manner as you would on your smartphone/tablet so you will have access to download your apps and use your preferred Google services on the Remix mini with the same ease. There are specific applications that come pre-loaded on the remix Mini to get you started that include: the Play Store, Play Movies, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail, and Chrome from Google, plus customized versions of a calculator, download manager and file explorer. Rather conveniently there’s also the “RAR” app included that can compress or decompress files.
Once you’ve plugged in all your desired peripherals, using the Remix Mini is quite straight forward. The top of the unit with the large stylized logo acts as a capacitive touch surface allowing you to power on and off the device by a single tap. No buttons exist on the device keeping its external appearance clean and minimalistic. The quick set up takes about 5 minutes or so after which you are ready to get started on your Android PC experience. Moreover, as the unit doesn’t have a cooling fan (it doesn’t really need one) it’s also less noisy than your conventional laptop or desktop PC.
An immediately noticeable benefit of having the Android experience scaled up to a desktop like environment is the fact that you can have more multiple windows open on screen thus offering you a native multi-tasking experience that is closer to a Windows PC than any other Android device. Windows can be resized and easily moved around. Depending on the size of monitor or TV screen you are plugged into, you can choose to run apps like Google docs in full screen or in smaller sized windows adjustable to your liking. As I tested the Remix mini on both a 21 inch PC monitor and a large 50” TV I found it more practical to use a larger screen display as it allows you to maximize on your multi-tasking by having a more comfortable and workable view on multiple windows. Connecting the Remix Mini to a larger screen is highly recommended as it lets you make the most out of the Remix Mini’s desktop style User interface.
I was initially concerned about whether applications that tend to natively run in Portrait could still render well on a larger screen through the Remix Mini but was happy to find that most of my favorite apps such as Instagram could also be maximized to run in Landscape and full screen and could also be minimized and resized into a smaller window allowing me to do other things in the background. Whilst not all apps on the Play store will necessarily have this flexibility its still a better viewing, multitasking and navigation experience in most cases compared to a touchscreen environment. The Remix OS does a good job of optimizing Android apps to fit on a larger desktop screen environment.
With the Remix Mini, the Android experience becomes more intuitive than what you would get from an Android smartphone/tablet .This shows most especially when working on document apps such as Google docs or Microsoft office apps for Android that can be tedious and frustrating to work with on smartphone and tablet touchscreens. In other use cases such as web browsing through the Chrome browser, video streaming via YouTube/Netflix and light gaming, the Remix Mini also manages to deliver a more wholesome Android experience thanks to the ability to have a larger display and peripherals that enhance navigation and control.
For those without a Smart or connected TV, the Remix Mini offers a solution by serving as a handy platform for accessing popular local/international video streaming apps such as You tube, Netflix, Amazon video and more. Simply download your preferred app from the Play store, sign in/signup and you are good to go. While you can access these apps and services on your current Android smartphone or tablet, the experience is incomparable to the large screen area that a TV or monitor provides, and better yet if you have good audio hardware connected to said TV/monitor or via the 3.5mm audio port of the Remix mini, you then end up with a more complete and even more comfortable viewing experience than your smartphone or tablet. I particularly enjoyed using the Remix mini for YouTube and Netflix video streaming as this are two of my favorite entertainment apps. As the Remix mini outputs video via HDMI you also get the benefit of consistently high quality video on a computer monitor or TV screen especially on high quality display hardware.
Can the Remix mini replace your current Android device? The answer is no. Especially since it has no mobile networking capabilities and must be tethered to power. However, the Remix Mini is a brilliant companion device if you want an Android experience that is unconstrained by the limits of usable peripherals and practical screen size that plagues smartphones and tablets up to today. The Remix Mini is also a more affordable alternative to Windows for individual users and even small businesses that require the ability to work on the move and operate using cloud based solutions. Given the converged nature of mobile devices today it’s possible to sync your apps and content across your Android devices making the Remix mini a wonderful addition to your existing family of Android devices and more of a reason to minimize your over reliance on your aging laptop/desktop
PC.
In comes the remix mini to answer that question. The Remix mini is touted as the world’s first Android PC. A portable pebble shaped piece of hardware running on the Android OS and with ports for PC peripherals. With the Remix mini you can create your very own PC like experience by plugging in a Keyboard, mouse, and a desktop monitor or even TV screen through the HDMI port. While incomparable to a fully-fledged PC/laptop, the Remix mini is a great piece of hardware if you work on documents and apps on the move or favor your entertainment and apps on a larger screen and with the freedom to navigate and control them with peripherals like a keyboard and mouse on a more PC like User interface.
(Experience a new world of Opportunity Stream Movies With Remix Mini World First Android PC)
(Play your favorite Game Online and Any other Smart Device )
The unit runs its own Remix OS that is based on Google’s Android platform, specifically Android 5.1 making it easy to use for anyone who is already familiar with Android. The Google Play store and other Google services are accessible in the same manner as you would on your smartphone/tablet so you will have access to download your apps and use your preferred Google services on the Remix mini with the same ease. There are specific applications that come pre-loaded on the remix Mini to get you started that include: the Play Store, Play Movies, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Gmail, and Chrome from Google, plus customized versions of a calculator, download manager and file explorer. Rather conveniently there’s also the “RAR” app included that can compress or decompress files.
Once you’ve plugged in all your desired peripherals, using the Remix Mini is quite straight forward. The top of the unit with the large stylized logo acts as a capacitive touch surface allowing you to power on and off the device by a single tap. No buttons exist on the device keeping its external appearance clean and minimalistic. The quick set up takes about 5 minutes or so after which you are ready to get started on your Android PC experience. Moreover, as the unit doesn’t have a cooling fan (it doesn’t really need one) it’s also less noisy than your conventional laptop or desktop PC.
An immediately noticeable benefit of having the Android experience scaled up to a desktop like environment is the fact that you can have more multiple windows open on screen thus offering you a native multi-tasking experience that is closer to a Windows PC than any other Android device. Windows can be resized and easily moved around. Depending on the size of monitor or TV screen you are plugged into, you can choose to run apps like Google docs in full screen or in smaller sized windows adjustable to your liking. As I tested the Remix mini on both a 21 inch PC monitor and a large 50” TV I found it more practical to use a larger screen display as it allows you to maximize on your multi-tasking by having a more comfortable and workable view on multiple windows. Connecting the Remix Mini to a larger screen is highly recommended as it lets you make the most out of the Remix Mini’s desktop style User interface.
I was initially concerned about whether applications that tend to natively run in Portrait could still render well on a larger screen through the Remix Mini but was happy to find that most of my favorite apps such as Instagram could also be maximized to run in Landscape and full screen and could also be minimized and resized into a smaller window allowing me to do other things in the background. Whilst not all apps on the Play store will necessarily have this flexibility its still a better viewing, multitasking and navigation experience in most cases compared to a touchscreen environment. The Remix OS does a good job of optimizing Android apps to fit on a larger desktop screen environment.
With the Remix Mini, the Android experience becomes more intuitive than what you would get from an Android smartphone/tablet .This shows most especially when working on document apps such as Google docs or Microsoft office apps for Android that can be tedious and frustrating to work with on smartphone and tablet touchscreens. In other use cases such as web browsing through the Chrome browser, video streaming via YouTube/Netflix and light gaming, the Remix Mini also manages to deliver a more wholesome Android experience thanks to the ability to have a larger display and peripherals that enhance navigation and control.
(Access all your Document anywhere anytime with Remix)
For those without a Smart or connected TV, the Remix Mini offers a solution by serving as a handy platform for accessing popular local/international video streaming apps such as You tube, Netflix, Amazon video and more. Simply download your preferred app from the Play store, sign in/signup and you are good to go. While you can access these apps and services on your current Android smartphone or tablet, the experience is incomparable to the large screen area that a TV or monitor provides, and better yet if you have good audio hardware connected to said TV/monitor or via the 3.5mm audio port of the Remix mini, you then end up with a more complete and even more comfortable viewing experience than your smartphone or tablet. I particularly enjoyed using the Remix mini for YouTube and Netflix video streaming as this are two of my favorite entertainment apps. As the Remix mini outputs video via HDMI you also get the benefit of consistently high quality video on a computer monitor or TV screen especially on high quality display hardware.
(Turn your Tv into a Pc With Remix Stream Movies )
PC.
Now Available In Kenya Visit www.gosavana.com
Content Courtesy Of Gosavana
No comments:
Post a Comment