My father wants a device to attach to his desktop monitor where he can browse the internet. He's got a PC but is tired of the less-than-snappy performance, and long boot times. I thought of buying a Xiaomi Box S for him, but I'm concerned about the CPU/GPU specs... Do you think he'll get a good browsing experience? We already have a good bluetooth mouse / keyboard combo, and will connect an ethernet hub to it.
In his own words: "I want the browser to be as fast as it is on my phone"
I would say your use case is not answered by a mi box s. Browser support is puffin browser and an old version of a Firefox browser for android TV OS.
I doubt neither will be good as desktop browsers - they are just OK on a TV.
But is your budget a mi box s?
A new high ram raspberry pi might be a good option? Or just wiping and reinstalling the OS on the existing pc (what spec is it - perhaps justs needs a cheap SSD and more RAM?).
Also moving to a light weight Linux OS might help.
Check out neverware cloudready as well - which is basically chrome OS : https://www.neverware.com/freedownload
This Xiaomi has Android TV OS, it's bringing a many restrictions to applications that you could use.
Also, don't use RPI. Now existing a much more efficient and fast SBCs. Take a look at ODROID , as an example. With a comparable price, it is many times better. You can easily install Android OS and enjoy a complete world of applications from Google Play.
I'm using C2 and XU4 for many years and still not faced up with Chinese boxes that would fulfillment me and forced me to replace these SBCs. Usually, I'm buying a new issued Android box at Amazon, trying one, return it back to Amazon due to various reasons and still use old ones.
Forget about a “good browsing experience” on cheap Android TV media players. That is the worst option you could use.
It will not be anywhere near as fast vs using a modern smartphone or tablet.
Look into getting a cheap Chromebook if you want a decent web browsing setup. That is exactly what that type of hardware is for.
PS: the ODROID N2 is much faster vs even the RPi4
PPS: SSD’s can breathe new life into old PC hardware.
Can't you side load chrome on to it though?
The MiBox S isn't really the best idea for this. It's designed pretty much exclusively for viewing media on a TV. It doesn't even come with a built in web browser.
If you're just looking for something in that price range that he could use to browse the web, grab a Raspberry Pi, a case, and an SD card, and set him up with a basic Raspbian install. You mentioned he already has a PC, though, and if it's of anything resembling a recent vintage, I doubt a Pi, or anything else in that price range, will outdo it. A better idea might be to try to figure out why his browsing is slow on his PC.
If his PC doesn't already have an SSD, I'd invest in one of those and set it up as his boot/application drive before I'd do anything like trying to replace his PC with a low-power Android/Linux box.