This thing just became the first Chinese startup ever to break $1M on Kickstarter

If you’re a fan of tiny computers, you’re probably already familiar with the various flavors of Raspberry Pi. But there’s a new cheap and tiny computer in town, and its name is the Remix Mini.

The Remix Mini is the brainchild of Beijing-based startup Jide Tech, which launched its first Kickstarter – an Android-based tablet called the Remix – back in March. That project did well, raising more than US$200,000.

But things really exploded when Jide launched the Remix Mini project in mid-July. The company set a modest $10,000 goal for the project. So far, it has raised more than US$1.1 million. Jide says it is the first Chinese company to break the US$1M barrier on Kickstarter, and that seems to be true.

(That said, it’s worth pointing out that other Chinese startups may have raised more than US$1M in crowdfunding on other platforms, although popular Chinese crowdfunding platform Demohour doesn’t have any projects that can beat the Remix Mini’s record.)

Shrinking waste

The idea behind the Remix Mini is that a lot about our average computer use is wasteful. We waste power running beefy computers with high-end processors that are totally unnecessary for watching Youtube videos and sending email. We waste space with massive desktop towers when our tiny phones are capable of doing most of the processing needed for our daily tasks. And we waste money buying thousand-dollar PCs when a functional machine can be made for much, much less.

The Remix Mini is aimed at reducing all that waste. It uses just ten watts of power – compare that to the 60-250 watts used by most computers – and it’s about the size of your hand. It’ll cost you US$50 or less (it depends on the specs you pick), but it can still do an awful lot with its up to 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB storage. The Remix Mini has ethernet, bluetooth, and USB connections (it supports wifi too, obviously), and runs a custom Android-based OS that definitely doesn’t look like just another smartphone-focused reskin. It’ll run any Android app you can find, but includes lots of non-Android-y features like support for a mouse and keyboard, window resizing, and much more.

Of course, we’ve not yet gotten our hands on the Remix Mini, so it may not live up to its promise. Its China-based team (pictured above) will likely have its hands full producing and shipping units quickly enough to satisfy its backers across the globe – there are already nearly 16,000 and the project still has 17 days of fundraising left.

It’s also worth pointing out that the Remix Mini isn’t quite as cheap as it first appears. The high-end Remix Mini 2G is priced at US$50, but with international shipping you’ll be paying US$10-US$30 more on top of that, and that’s before you’ve bought the monitor, mouse, and keyboard you’ll want to actually be able to use the device properly.

Still, there’s no denying that even with those added expenses, Remix Mini looks like a very cool computer that’s capable of doing most of your everyday computing tasks while using a fraction of the energy – and costing a fraction of the money – that a traditional computer would. It’s no wonder this project is breaking records.