Alright so i ordered one and what got delivered was a bit unexpected. It's not just a bare sbc but comes assembled in a case, in fact its this device
https://www.reconsentinel.com/ and looks to be some kind of honeypot network appliance. The sd card it comes with is a fake sandisk(can tell from the low res printing) and it has arch preinstalled with the networksentinel software already setup. Do not plug this into your network, its a complete unknown and so far i haven't found anyone whos heard of the device or the service provider. It does look like a well build if not very generic SBC and it has a IR port and emmc port. The price keeps jumping up likely due to the article here. It's completely irresponsible of Tom's Hardware to promote a device they clearly have not investigated in the slightest.