When you first hold a CuBox-i, it’s almost impossible to keep your balance. The cube is about the size of a large die and weighs about the same as a deck of cards. However, it uses less than three watts of power to run a full Linux desktop, stream 1080p video, and handle Android. Take a moment to think about that last part. Three watts. A regular incandescent bulb has a pull of sixty.
SolidRun, the Israeli company that makes the CuBox series, first talked about the first CuBox in December 2011. When it first came out in January 2012, it was advertised as an open-source platform for developers working on embedded systems. It’s hard to say if that way of framing was done on purpose to be modest or because it was true. But soon after, developers, tinkerers, and media fans quietly became loyal to the device because they liked what it stood for: serious computing stripped down to its most basic parts.
The first CuBox was based on the Marvell Armada 510 SoC, an ARM-based chip that SolidRun said made it the first desktop computer of its kind that could be bought in stores and, at the time, the world’s smallest desktop computer. The company stood by that big claim. The chip came with the Vivante GPU, which supported OpenGL 3.0, hardware video decoding, and TrustZone security add-ons. That is a really interesting package for a cube that’s about the size of a sugar packet.
SolidRun had moved on by November 2013. There are now four models in the CuBox-i line: the i1, the i2, the i2eX, and the i4Pro. They are all based on Freescale’s i.MX6 processors. It wasn’t just a marketing refresh; it was a real improvement. People who want to build things with their devices rather than just admiring their shape were more interested in the i.MX6 family because it had better performance and more software compatibility.
There is a CuBox-i 4X4 at the top of the list, which costs $169.99. It comes with an i.MX6 SoC with four cores, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, eSATA, and an optical audio output. It can decode full HD video at speeds of over 100 Mbps. That’s a pretty impressive list of credentials for something you could lose behind a TV. SolidRun’s CTO, Rabeeh Khoury, said it met the needs of developers and makers who want to “expand the performance envelope.” At first glance, that phrase sounds like standard PR speak, but in this case, it’s pretty much right—the community around these devices does push them into some creative corners.
The CuBoxTV, which came out in late 2014, is also aimed straight at people who have media centers. It is a simplified version of the i-series that runs Kodi on OpenELEC. It’s a bit heavier and a bit bigger than the i-series, but it was made to fit in the living room. From a developer’s point of view, it’s not as interesting, but it probably shows more about what most people want from a device this size.
It’s easy to forget how early SolidRun got to this point. Most people think of the Raspberry Pi as the start of the small-board computer trend, but CuBox was already out there in early 2012 making similar claims with different silicon. There is an open question about whether it deserved more attention than it got. This kind of question affects fan communities more than the general market.
It’s still not clear if SolidRun plans to make a big change to the CuBox-i line. There are more options for developers now than ever before, but the market is getting more crowded. It’s harder to make a big splash with hardware, but the CuBox-i has built a reputation for reliably and quietly working in places where most people don’t even notice it.
