D**R
A bargain... And an outstanding customer service!
Bit the bullet and bought a box with zero reviews. So far, no regrets.PROS:1. Price. You will not find a box with such features for less than $60.2. Speed. My primary concern was alleviated once I tried it. Excellent playback of large HD files. No jitter. No sync issues. Plays great via both USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports.3. Android 9. Very few boxes on the market right now have it.4. One USB 3.0 and three more USB 2.0 ports. A rare breed on the market these days.CONS:1. Android 9. Some older and not-so-old apps impossible to install.2. Launcher. Atrocious is an understatement. Criminally bad. Some of it's features don't even work (e.g Weather). I have no idea who might have programed it, but even its resolution is bad and looks cheap. You will definitely want to replace it with something, anything better.3. Kodi. Comes with preinstalled Kodi 18 beta which is terribly flawed, at least on this box. Several major features missing and/or not working. Had to replace it immediately with the last stable version.4. Some issues with Google Play (fixed). Would not install any apps until I deleted app cache/data. No issues after that.5. No dual band Wi-Fi. Not a huge deal, but to some people it might matter.As always with these boxes, one has to be careful about getting excited too soon. Some of them are known to die within days or weeks. I might be revisiting this review in the event things go downhill. So far, so good.UPDATE JAN 24:Due to issues with weather app, the vendor attempted firmware update which did not work, and bricked the box. They sent me a new boxv very quickly, but issue persisted. Their customer support and response times are outstanding and it was pleasure working with them, despite small issues with the box. I also appreciate their kindness letting me keep one of the two boxes that is still working and refunding the full amount for the failed box, basically giving me the second box for free. It is a very good box but with obvious software issues which should hopefully be fixed with the future firmware updates. It's still a good value for the money with excellent customer support.
W**L
It takes a little work but worth it in the end. I believe a better route than a smart tv
Ive had a lot of experience with windows computers and android phones but this was my first endevour for a android computer so to speak. I was looking to upgrade my computer which 95% percent of what i do on it is internet entertainment. Ive noticed these devices for some time but the specs of one caught my eye and checked into a little further. It having an android os was the biggest swaying point as to why i got this instead a another pc, its like a giant phone almost all the apps you can install on your phone can be on this box as well. So far im impressed with the device but im still figuring out the control. Im using a wireless keyboard and mouse that i used on my oc and the mouse is a little squirrely but im thinking it will work out. The speed is great and the picture is great too. If you dont like to monkey around with stuff i would suggest not to get one but if your like me, you get a little extra bang for the bucks by configuring it the way you want.
M**L
Pure Junk
Brought this to replace a T95x 4k HDR 1GBRAM/8GBROM unit brought 3 years back. I actually lucked into that unit as I did very little research before hand, specifically the different chipsets. The reason I purchased that was because I brought a cheapo 4k tv that didn't display the correct aspect of 1080p movies via usb unless it was perfect 16:9 scale. Figured a cheap android box would do the trick and I was right. For 4k content it was pretty good with an occasional studder especially if DTS-MA was enabled and passthough. Over the holidays I got a sweet deal on a 65 inch UHD HDR TV and figured it was time to upgrade but I was better prepared this time and knew of the differences between the chipsets that are used in these android boxes. Settled on this one because it looked the part. A newer CPU, 4GBRAM/32GBROM,USB 3.0, HDR, SPDIF, Android 9, Kodi 18 sign me up. You can imagine my disappointment the second I open up the box. The SPDIF slot is a complete fake. You physical can't fit a TOSLINK cable in the hole. I also had a old SPDIF coaxial cable laying around. I literally haven't seen a single CE device use this cable during this decade but thought what the hell. It actually slightly too small. I notice when the unit is powered on there is no red light emitting from "SPDIF" Hole. That's what carries the sound on the SPDIF slot so it's total FAKE. The unit does come with a small leaflet that gives basic instructions and shows how to uninstall/install Kodi via the calculator.My unit came with a defective HDMI cable so I had to waste farther money and time getting this thing to boot with a trip to 5 below. After the initial start-up I tried to get the weather widget on the main screen working and simply would not so I started digging in the android settings. There's noticeable lag to everything. It can take 15 seconds to bring up something like the app folder or system sounds. Uninstalling things can take MINUTES and some will just hang there forever unless you power off the unit. Which bring to another problem. The remote is pure trash. I'm use to my old units really.really crappy remote. Sometimes I would have to stand like 6 feet from the old box to get it turn on. With this one it simply refuses to work no matter what the distance is even with brand new batteries. Your then forced to yank the plug out the back which I would imagine isn't the best way to be turning this thing on/off. A positive for this unit is it does ship with Kodi 18 beta 5 (not RC5) unfortunately it's pretty laggy and lacks polish. I NEVER could add my folder to a library and have it remember it which was super annoying especially for music. The GUI (menus) was blurry on my large set but I think it has to do with being locked at 1920X1080 which apparently is very common with these newer boxes but sucks compared to my old unit which could render them at native 4k,. That isn't a deal breaker but you know what is? No HDR. There's isn't any. Tried to find it in the settings for 2 hours and it's simply not there. In my old box it had it's own setting clear as day, on this it's nonexistent. When HDR content is playing on my set it flashes a really big logo to show it's playing. This is not happening on this. With all the other problems you could maybe get around like Bitstreaming audio over HDMI, using a universal remote, doing your own fresh install of Kodi, but the lack of HDR makes this thing worthless. You would think a newer box with literally 4x the specs would be much better but after a fake Spdif I wouldn't put it pass them to include fake specs and I seriously wondering about the legitimacy of it all. Especially the claim of Android 9 as it still fairly new and android TV hasn't gotten the the PIE update yet.. All and all avoid this like the plague and find better options.
M**N
This is trash
Do not buy this thing is trash this is the worst Android TV ever I tried to open Play Store for like an hour and I not able to download anything I try to open YouTube and don't play any video also I tried open Netflix and they say that is not it's not compatible with this device this thing is not good at all with the same amount of money you can buy like two Fire Sticks that works way better than this I just bought it this thing for a present because I see the reviews if you want to buy something cheap and good get a fire stick if you want to buy something real good like Nvidia Shield this is the best thing ever
T**L
Great price and works well!
This is a great box and the price is excellent. We have been enjoying movies on this box for a few months.
Trustpilot
2 days ago
2 weeks ago
