You may have heard about Android TV boxes, but may not know exactly what they are. The first thing you need to understand is what exactly is Android? Well...here goes...Android is a very popular operating system for more than one billion devices, such as smartphones, tablets, HDMI sticks and Android Mini PCs.
There are also "smart" cameras that work on Android. This OS was originally developed by Android Inc. However, Google took over the company in 2005 and since then, Android is bundled with comprehensive software applications.
With Android, you can use all the Google Apps from the Google Play Store. Android devices are all smart, and will only get smarter by adding more and more features. The biggest advantage of Android is that you can download and use the thousands of apps in the Google Play Store.
With Android being an open platform, everyone has the opportunity to customize and install Android on devices. This is also the basis for the development of the increasingly popular Android TV box. This is part of a new wave of Android options that have hit the market.
There is no standard definition of what an Android device must do to be considered a "TV box". The term is not official and is used for a simple reason: the devices are in the shape of a small box. Most of these boxes are 5 inches wide and 2 inches tall and some are much smaller than that.
The hardware inside these boxes is Android-compatible, but most of these products use the dual-core ARM processors based off the Cortex A9 core. The GPU is very often the Mali 400, a standard GPU from ARM to accompany its Cortex cores. This part can handle 1080p video without much trouble and can also decode a wide variety of video formats.
Most of these devices offer 1 GB of RAM and between 4 and 8 GB of ROM storage. This means that you are not going to be storing much HD video content on the TV box itself. These products tend to run on Android 4.2 or higher.
A lot of TV boxes come with additional AV cables. These boxes can run Android apps including a web browser and many games. You can also install media players or just download the streaming apps normally available from your provider of choice, like Netflix.
You can connect your Android TV Box to the HDMI input of the LCD or LED TV and make it a Smart TV. The possibilities are endless with the Android operating system. Some Android boxes are similar to the Apple TV box, but most are even better!
In the near future, there will be more and more Android boxes on the market with a Quadcore processor. So, now you know more about Android TV boxes than you did before reading this guide. Do check these out online and buy what you need for an immersive viewing and gaming experience. Here's to a superb home theater experience!
