I was researching on internet about these two boxes V1 and V2 today and found these details.
The model V1 has a Amlogic s812 processor, where as the model V2 comes with Amlogic s905 processor.
s812 is a 32 bit processor, Quad core Cortex A9 @ 1.99 GHz and has a GPU of Octa-core ARM Mali-450MP .
s905 is a 64 bit processor Quad core Cortex A53 @ 2.02 GHz and has a GPU of Penta-core ARM Mali-450MP.
In benchmarks s812 scored more than s905 and is slightly faster.
http://www.cnx-software.com/2016/01/29/amlogic-s905-vs-s812-benchmarks-comparison/
Model V1 with s812 is shipped with android 5.1.1 and this is the last android update this box ever gets. It will never get the android 6 version.
Model V2 with s905 is shipping with android 6.0 and has an opportunity for further upgrades, even-though it is slightly slower than s812.
The new Kodi 17 krypton works on android 5.0 and above. So we all can upgrade to the recently released Kodi 17, which is a major overhaul on Kodi 16.1 (what we have on our boxes). But the next upgrade of Kodi 18 "Leia" may only work with android 6.0 and above and the V1 boxes will be obsolete by then.
So my advice to all the new buyers of these boxes. Wait till you get the V2 and avoid buying V1 box.
Now hear my sad story.
I live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and I have upgraded to the Droidbox T8-s plus with twin remotes from a old defunct WDTV. Before I bought the box from Amazon, I have gone through the specs of various boxes and found that the T8-s is a good buy. It is solidly built with additional option of attaching an internal HDD. This was one of the strong reason for selecting this box. In the last week of December '16 Amazon US was selling this box for around $110-112 or so.
There is no way I can buy directly from Amazon being out of US, so I told my son in New Jersey, US to buy this box for me in first week of January '17 and send it over through one of my friend coming from California, US. For some reason the seller "Droidbox US" has hiked the price to $140 by the time my son placed the order.
I was monitoring this box on Amazon and sometime during 10th Jan '17, another seller has started selling this box for $105 which is a hugh drop of $35. By this time my friend in California has already received the box. It was complicated me being in Saudi Arabia, my son in New Jersey and my friend in California. I could not return the box.
I felt very bad about the seller "Droidbox US" exploiting me with a higher price. I received it through my friend on 22nd January '17, and have compromised and and started using it. The box is good and faster than my old WDTV. I thought I could use it for at-least 4 years before upgrading to another one.
Today I found out that Droidbox is coming out with the new V2 box with upgraded specs which I could have used it for more years. Anyway that is life...
