TL;DR: certain android tv boxes can replace a raspberry pi for a fraction of the price and come with 8-128GB emmc flash memory depending on the model.
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i was looking for a device that allows me to run a light weight linux and a netbird client and some extras like socat and ufw. It should be very low on power consumption since it would run 24/7. And it should have at least one 100mbit/s LAN port and USB Ports.

So a typical device like that would be a Raspberry PI 3B+ or above.
When i look at my local SBC dealer. That would cost round about 60EUR + shipping for the Raspberry PI 3B+ board, case and power supply.

So i thought what else could replace a raspberry pi to become this single purpose device. i first tried a small travel router, but the memory was to small on this one to even run a netbird client. And other models with more ram would be to expensive to make sense.

But then i thought why not try if there are older android tv boxes that can be repurposed into an armbian (custom debian linux version for arm cpu's) linux device.

End of story, i now have a nexbox A95X (former android TV box)
with 2GB DDR3 RAM / 16GB emmc drive, running an Armbian Linux.
Ports: 100mbit/s LAN, 2x USB2, SDcard slot, HDMI (full size), AV, SPDIF, Wifi/BT4
CPU: Arm, Amlogic S905X Quad Core
It comes in a slim case, the size of your palm, with a remote (don't need that) and including a plug-in power supply.
This device takes round about 2-5W power depending on the load.

So after replacing the android it had on it with Armbian Linux, the nexbox A95X (former android tv box) runs as a netbird bridge here now. I am testing it first in my homelab now. Later it is supposed to be connected to someones router to act as a netbird bridge, from that remote place, over the internet, to my media server.

For now, it works quite well as far as i can say. Exactly what i was looking for. Low power, low cost, running a netbird client 24/7

Oh, and i got this tv box on ebay for 15,-EUR plus shipping only!

Do you have a similar or completely different android tv box running on linux? I think the guy i bought it from had used it as a media center and to emulate some retro consoles on it.


Mindsurfer

PS: if you are ok with usb2 for some external storage, it would also make a quite decent bbs server! =)

https://github.com/ophub/amlogic-s9xxx-armbian https://z.telnetbbs.de/s/nexbox-a95x-review https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird
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Re: Android TV Boxes
By: Mindsurfer to All on Tue Nov 03 2026 06:03 pm

TL;DR: certain android tv boxes can replace a raspberry pi
for a fraction of the price and come with 8-128GB emmc flash memory depending on the model.

i think a lot of those android tv boxes are locked down.
you can't do much with them and they reboot and put the original software
back on in some cases. i also have some android picture frames that are
locked down that way. i was connecting to them via adb and they'd reboot or fight it another way. it was disappointing because i could really do something with if i could change the software.

that being said i did have my computer die years ago and i used an android tv as a desktop computer until my shipment came.


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