Cheap Android TV boxes, and what you are actually buying

This is the category where the gap between the listing and the object is widest, so it is worth being blunt about what these are.

An Android TV box is a small computer that runs apps on your television. That is genuinely useful if your TV is old, slow, or its built-in apps have stopped updating. It is not useful if you already have a recent smart TV, because you would be adding a slower computer to a faster one.

Everything below is about telling the honest listings from the rest.

The same box, at four different prices

Search this category and you will find the identical unit, the same moulding and the same board, sold between about seven pounds and twenty five.

That is not a mistake and neither price is a scam. It is a commodity board that dozens of sellers buy and rebadge. The cheaper listing is usually a seller working on volume with a thinner margin. The expensive one may include a better power supply and a seller who answers messages, which is worth something, but it is rarely worth three times the price.

Practical rule: identify the chip, then sort by price. The chip is the product. The name on the box is not.

Read the chip, ignore the headline

The specification that decides how the box feels is the processor, and it is usually stated somewhere in the listing even when the headline is about something else.

• Allwinner H313, H616, H618. These are the sub ten pound boxes. They are fine for streaming apps at 1080p and they will feel slow moving round a menu. Adequate, and priced correctly at the bottom of the range.
• Amlogic S905 family. A meaningful step up in responsiveness, and the chip most of the better cheap boxes use.
• RK3318, RK3328. Rockchip, in between, and the family most often misdescribed in listings.

“8K” on a box at this price means the chip can decode one specific 8K codec in a laboratory sense. It does not mean anything you will watch will play at 8K. Treat 8K in a title as decoration. 4K is real and worth having.

The Android version claim

Listings in this category routinely state a much newer Android version than the device runs. It is common enough that it should be your default assumption rather than a surprise, and buyer reviews mentioning the version in Settings are worth more than anything in the description.

What this actually costs you: newer apps eventually stop supporting old Android versions, so a box sold as Android 13 that is really running something years older has a shorter useful life than the listing implies. It does not stop it working today.

If it matters to you, buy a device with a real certification behind it rather than a generic box. If it does not, buy the cheap one knowing it is a two or three year device.

RAM is the number that changes daily use

2GB is the floor. It works, and you will see apps reload when you switch between them.

4GB is noticeably better and usually only a few pounds more. If you are choosing between more storage and more RAM at the same price, take the RAM. Storage on these can be extended with a memory card, and RAM cannot be extended at all.

The remote is the part that breaks

This is the single most common complaint on cheap boxes, and it is almost never the box.

The bundled infrared remotes are the cheapest component in the package. Buttons stop responding, usually the ones you press most, and the battery contacts corrode. A replacement universal remote for these boxes costs a couple of pounds and it is worth ordering at the same time, because the box outlives its remote by years.

A Bluetooth air-mouse remote is the upgrade worth considering if you will be typing anything, because typing on a directional pad and an on-screen keyboard is genuinely awful.

Sticks versus boxes

A stick plugs into the HDMI port and disappears behind the television. A box sits on a shelf and needs a cable.

Sticks win on tidiness and lose on heat. There is less room for airflow, so they run hotter and throttle sooner, and thermal throttling is what makes a streaming device stutter halfway through something. If your TV’s HDMI ports are tight against a wall, a stick may not physically fit at all.

Boxes win on ports. An ethernet socket is the reason to choose one. Wifi on cheap devices is the weakest part of them, and a wired connection removes the most common cause of buffering in one move. If your router is anywhere near the television, this alone is worth choosing a box for.

Power supply, which nobody thinks about

Underpowered supplies are behind a surprising share of the random reboots people blame on the box. If a device restarts when something demanding starts playing, suspect the supply before the box.

They ship with the plug for the seller’s market, so expect to need a UK adapter or a spare 5V supply. Check the barrel size and polarity before you buy a replacement.

What I would actually do

• Old TV that still has a good picture: the cheapest H313 box you can find from a seller with real reviews, plus a spare remote. It is the least you can spend here, and it buys the television a few more years.
• You will use it every day: spend the extra on 4GB of RAM and an ethernet port, and wire it in.
• Tidiness matters more than performance: a stick, and accept it will be warmer and slower.
• You already have a recent smart TV: buy nothing. You would be adding a slower computer to a faster one.

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This is a buying guide built from what the listings publish and from prices I read and date myself. I have not used any of the devices listed. When I buy and use one, this page becomes a hands-on review with my own photographs and it will say so at the top.