I'm darn impressed with my ONN UHD streamer. So much so it completely replaced my Intel 4th Gen LGA 1150 HTPC I was using. I like the layout, the speed, the interface, the silence, the ease of use, pretty much everything about this little dongle.
That got me to thinking, how long before these cheap sub $100 SoCs really start eating into Intel/AMD's entry level desktop space? Probably only a matter of time right?
I think between ipads and Chromebooks everyone who doesn't need windows has mostly fled the low level space, and everyone left needs a full OS to run some intensive bit of code
Add a $15 air mouse and you DO have a (almost) full blown computer............
Yes, but no, while you certainly can get cheap socs that can replace a desktop for a lot of people, it is often more work than it is worth for the end user. unless you are fairly tech savvy it's not really a viable option.
in the future however, it could be quite possible, however I would not hold my breath
It's a matter of time, as the Raspberry Pi has shown, but in order to get a full desktop experience you need to spend at least $150 in order to get hardware fast enough to run a full desktop reasonably well and the software has yet to catch up to x86 in terms of desktop support. I think the Mac M1 is more likely to spur the advance of ARM desktop PCs and laptops on the high end before we see anything like a $50 desktop PC box that can do what an entry level laptop can do today.