Good On You and your $500 Buzz 6 Unlimited. I’ve got several Certified ($45) ONN Pro devices 3gb/32gb and I’m well satisfied. Is there an equivalent AOSP (non certified) box less than $75 (less would be even better) for us budget minded streamers?
I mean no offense to those insiders who buy the latest/greatest Formuler, Ugoos or Buzz. However, I’m not alone in wanting freedom to download on the budget rack.
Anyone with experience on the downlow price side, please share that experience, Thanx
Before getting my ONN Pro’s I used the T95Z Plus boxes for several years with no issues. Still have them Android 7 or 8
Played the “streaming box” game for a few years and hundreds of dollars wasted. Went to the firestick, and now the ONN pro. Simply put, the ONN stuff works and is simple!!! The most frustrating were the streaming boxes. What a waste of money for simple streaming.
There is a ton of them on Aliexpress, Amazon and Ebay, even some Ugoos in the $50 range if you are good with lower specs/features. Just browse around and if you find one you like ask on here if anyone has experience with it. Aliexpress is a bit of a crapshoot with tariffs if you are in the US, but they should be having sales with the holidays coming up. Always buy on sale.
As @SoloWarrior stated the T95 boxes were very popular, I know several people that have/had them.
Yep the T95 boxes get mentioned a lot.
Anyone have any of the H96 boxes?
@TXRon had Ugoos X4Q boxes, but haven’t seen him in a while. Anyone else?
Not sure who to trust, Cheap Chinese boxes or Google or just pay more for AOSP.
I bought a T95ZPlus of ebay it was to be a 4bg/64bg and is only 4/32, I found a Rupa 4/64 and bought it to play with until the Sk1 got here.The T95 was 40 delivered and the Rupa 50.
I would ship the T95 for 35, message me if you are interested, i can send you pictures, I did not use it I am using the Rupa.
The Sk1 and Sk2 arrived yesterday so this one will not get any use.
This article still sticks in my mind when thinking about the cheap Chinese boxes. You can call me a worry-wort but I wouldn’t touch one of those boxes with a 10 foot pole.
The x96 m200 is decent specs running the new s905x5m and 4gb ram. Stock launcher is bad but you can load peojectivy on it. Supports frame rate matching which is a must for me.
The Cheap Chinese boxes are good I used my T95 for almost 10 years. I wouldn’t worry about any malware IMO. While there are quite a few articles/references about Malware being on these boxes (even from this site) you never hear about the end users having issues. There is a ton of click bait on these forums. Just saying
If you go the Cheap China box (recommended) rout for your non-certified, you want to make sure of the configuration: Chipset, RAM, ROM, ETC cuz there’s so many different ones out there. Get Amlogic over Allwinner if you can and 100% use Amazon vs Alliexpress for 2 reasons: 1. Amazon is quicker shipping (possible Tariff avoidance as well) and 2. You can walk into your local Whole Foods and drop the box on the counter if for whatever reason you don’t like it. And get some grocery shopping done at the same time !!! 
I think this is the key. Almost every case I have ever read of was on an Allwinner chip.
wassup Biggy..
hope yor well, I have 5- H96’s
3 of the Max Pros (since '20) & 2 of the H96 M9’s (since '23) that have AI (similar to the Shield), & luv all of them cuz theyr hassle free.. turn’em on & off no ‘maintaining’ or clearing caches.. plenty of storage, read/write to externl, no system updates,no restrictions or ads (& zero MALWARE for those hoping its included)
All have native 3840 x 2160 at 60hz output with killer color & pic
Rockchip 3566 & 3576.. 8g Ram-128G stor.. octo‐core.. Wi6, 1k lan.. blah blah
(the M9 has an npu chip for the AI)
The M9’s have AI picture & motion settings, they upscale whatever you play thru it & gives the picture extra pop & clarity (everything looks 3D‐ish), but it can get lag in sum instances
Theyr all fast, dont over heat (well vented) & have a decent power key so it will turn yor TV on/off & go dormant
The Pros can handle larger storage (2T-5T), but the M9’s can’t, all of them record & dwnload great, Tivimate runs quik no matter how much you put in it
they all have Google Playstore so everything updates thru googl & other stores
the remotes that come with the pros are basic android, the M9 has a pretty good air-mouse which are good so you can use the box as a full media hub
Bought all of them from LightintheBox, brand new i paid $70ea for the pros & $85ea for the M9’s
if i were to buy eithr 1 again I’d go Max Pro & a good air mouse remote
whatever u get, buy it from a returnable source if u can, so if yor not happy yor not stuk
i kno Tex had a Max Pro & think he liked it, but i think he uses a Ugoos set up with a server or sumthin
anyway hope this helps, ifu need more info or if I dont make sense, hit me up
L8er
Great response from @Sketch. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Buyer’s Remorse: The direction of certified devices is scary. Bot a new SAMSUNG Tablet with Android 14 and it allowed very limited 3rd party apps, it updated to Android 15 and got even worse. The fear of buying a Chinese box pales to the remorse of $200+ tablet that is restricted.
Hi @SoloWarrior I’m not technically smart and I’m totally confused regarding Certified & Non-Certified boxes. I have both the onn 4k pro & onn 4k plus android tv boxes and a Samsung google tv. Do you know if these boxes are certified or not ? I’m sorry to ask about it but I don’t know if those boxes are certified so I don’t have to search and purchase any other boxes. Thanks for “listening”
@Patachou , hello, I am certainly not an expert on this but yes the ONN boxes are certified. I use the ONN boxes but not because they are certified. I use them because they work great for my needs which is KODI and IPTV. I think if you want to use NetFlix and some other apps you need a certified box for HD. Stock Android (non certified) has less restrictions and is more flexible. If Google goes the route of Amazon we will probably need to move off of the ONN boxes. But that has not happened yet
@JerryJ Yes, there are risks that must be weighed. Roku and Vega OS Firestick are very low risk.
If you use a Kodi build or add-ons, Stremio, or any other free streaming app…there is risk.
IPTV app … risk
I download apps from sources I trust, but what the developer may have programmed is a mystery to me. Flix Vision had issues but got fixed? I use Virus Scan to inspect downloads, but there is risk always. The article you reference suggests the greater risk is in the pre-loaded boxes.
There is a looming greater threat IMHO and that is encroaching restrictions limiting what users can download, access, or view. Google Android certification is the central engine for this control.
Without Google certification, control over content is reduced. I hope there are non-criminal device manufacturers so we can Boldly Go Where Only Streamers Can Go !
This may help
no problm Dave..
i agree buying something & finding out they updated out the good stuff sux
I too have a Samsung, an 11", its droid 15, just curious as to what you cant dload? the regular stuff (tivi,smartube) or sumthin older? if its an old apk yor probly out of luck.. I remember i thot the same when i got it, but played around & got it to open up a little.. hope is not lost.. yet
Samsung A9 plus
Many apps fail. Example: SportsFire will download and visible in the Apps list but no choice to Open and no icon on home page. It’s just there. There are many apps just like that. Downloaded with no icon or way to open them. Anything to help is much appreciated
Can you add Sideload launcher and see if the app icons show and start from that app?
I do get a kick out of people saying that I’ve had this cheap Chinese box for 6 or more years with no issues so the new boxes should be just fine.
I trust Troy and that is why I’ve followed this site for as long as I have. I’m certain that Troy posted that information as a warning “buyer beware” which I take seriously.