Remix OS Gains New Devices And Partners, Even As Google Moves To Integrate Android Into Chrome OS

Jide Technology, the company known for creating the Android for PCs that Google should’ve made years ago, announced a new 2-in-1 tablet called the Remix Pro that comes with the Android “Marshmallow”-based Remix OS 3.0.

For many years, Android failed on PCs and notebooks because it didn’t have an interface for the larger display format. Google also didn’t seem to give this idea too much attention, possibly because it knew that if it did, it would’ve made Android a director competitor to Chrome OS.  

Jide redesigned Android to have a better user interface for the desktop environment and to allow Android applications, whether optimized for phones or tablets, to work naturally in the Remix OS windows. This made Android, perhaps for the first time, an appealing solution for PCs. Earlier this year, Jide also partnered with the Android-x86 project so it could significantly expand the compatibility with other existing PCs.

Google recently announced that it has found a way to put the Android framework inside a container so that all Android applications can work inside Chrome OS, without any performance penalty and without developers having to significantly modify their apps to work on Chrome OS.

This makes the case for Remix OS more difficult going forward. However, so far the Chrome OS/Android integration is just a promise, and it remains to be seen how well Google executes on that idea.

In the meantime, Jide continues to launch new devices and create partnerships with other device makers to support Remix OS.

Remix Pro 2-in-1

The Remix Pro is Jide’s second-generation productivity tablet, as well as the first device to support the Android Marshmallow-based Remix OS 3.0. The Remix Pro is a high-resolution tablet with an eight-core Snapdragon processor, 3GB of RAM and dual-band Wi-Fi. It will be released on the Chinese market first, while its international availability will be confirmed at a later date.

Acer Aspire ES1-131

Acer is one of Jide’s first major partners, and together they will be working on porting Remix OS to the Intel-based Acer Aspire ES1-131 notebook. Jide believes that the work the two companies will do on porting the OS to this notebook will also improve Remix OS for other computers.

Remix OS PC Box OEM Solution

Jide also launched the second generation Remix OS PC box, which targets PC OEMs interested in selling their own Remix OS PCs. The key specifications can be seen in the table below:

AOC Mars All-In-One

There will be three all-in-one PCs running Remix OS, with screen sizes of 22-, 24-, and 32 inches, respectively. The company had already unveiled the 24" version at CES Asia 2016.

Android-x86 Founder Joins Jide

Because the Remix OS and Android-x86 projects got so close recently, it seems Android-x86 project’s founder will be moving to work in-house at Jide Technologies as its x86 Technology Lead.

“2016 has been an incredibly exciting year for Jide Technology, highlighted by the launch of Remix OS for PC and the several quality partners that we have been fortunate to announce,” said Jide Technology CEO and co-founder Jeremy Chau. “When we first started out more than 2 years ago, no one quite got what we were trying to achieve. Now, companies and brands that we have always admired are reaching out to us. It’s a win-win situation as we continue to push the capabilities of Android PCs,” he added.

Lucian Armasu is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware. You can follow him at @lucian_armasu. 

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