$9 CHIP Computer Review - Does the C.H.I.P Kickstarter Deliver?

So what can a $9 computer do? The answer for the C.H.I.P. computer is not much unfortunately - unless you're a maker looking for a decent microcontroller backed by a full Linux Operating system. See more cheap computers: and subscribe!
VIDEO INDEX:
00:30 - Hardware overview
01:02 - Composite display by default, $15 HDMI adapter discussion
03:22 - Boot time
05:02 - Web browsing performance
05:41 - YouTube performance
06:44 - New York Times mobile site / general web performance
07:33 - General office applications
08:20 - Retro game emulation
10:01 - HDMI adapter installed
10:24 - Media playback performance
11:06 - Conclusion and final thoughts
Links:
Find the chip at
Find the keyboard / trackpad combo here: (Amazon affiliate link)
For $9 the C.H.I.P. makers deliver an out of the box bootable computer. It has Wifi, bluetooth, 4 GB of flash storage, 512 MB of RAM and a really slow single core Allwiner R8 processor. The $9 configuration comes only with 480p composite video.
To add HD resolution requires the purchase of a $15 HDMI card called the Dip. A VGA version is available for $10.
While this computer is only $9, it's pretty much useless as a desktop computer. Web browsing is horribly slow. Game emulation, even for old 8 bit games, is a non-starter. And media playback is also not really possible on it.
What's it good for then? Coding for one. The device has a full installation of Debian Linux installed with plenty of coding options available. There's a "headless" version for it to operate in console only mode, with plenty of hardware connections for sensors and other devices.
Consumers may be more interested in the $49 Pocket CHIP configuration that comes with a handheld touch display, keyboard, and battery. The reason is that the software is better optimized for the limited hardware in that device. But there's very little to do on it.
In many ways this product represents the problem with Kickstarter. At the time it was announced over a year ago a $9 computer was easily the least expensive thing out there. Just a few weeks after the announcement Raspberry Pi SHIPPED a $5 computer that performs better than this one that's first being released in 2016.
This computer does have some utility for makers but not consumers looking for a cheap computer to play with. My advice is to spend a little bit more and look at the Raspberry Pi 3.
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