Tronsmart MK908 is one of the many Rockchip RK3188 Android mini PCs hitting the market this month. Beside the quad core Cortex A9 processor, this Android 4.1 HDMI TV stick comes with 2GB RAM, 8GB flash, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module, 3 USB ports, and a micro SD card slot. Geekbuying is selling the device for $89.99 including shipping, and the company sent me a unit for review. Today I’ll just show somes unboxing pictures, boot the device, and I’ll write a full review tomorrow.
I received the device in the box below.
But let’s move on to more interesting things, and see what’s inside the package.
We’ve got a 5V/2A power adapter, MK908 itself, a short mini HDMI to HDMI cable, a mini UBS to USB cable for power, and a short mini USB to USB female adapter. I eventually found a manual user manual in English which hid itself somewhere in the package, and mainly explains how to use Android, after a short description of the accessories and quick connexion guide.
Let’s have a closer look at the device.
The casing has ventilation holes both at the top and bottom. I’m not quite sure why they used a Android Honeycomb logo, but that’s just a distraction… On the length of the device you’ve got a mini USB OTG port and microSD slot, and on the tips of the device a mini HDMI female connector on one side, as a mini USB for power and full USB port on the other side. From the outside, it just looks like MK808, but instead of RK3066 it feature RK3188.
Since I’m a confident man, I decided to open the device before trying it out, and see what’s inside.
There’s a black sheet on top, that can easily be removed and replaced, just like a sticker.
Left to right, we’ll find the power LED, micro HDMI, recovery? button, HDMI 1.4 transmitter (ITE IT66121FN), 2 GEIL RAM chipset, the microSD slot, the 2 mini USB and the USB port. The board name is MK908 V1.0, apparently manufactured on March 2013 by a company called Netxeon.
On the other side, we’ve got an heatsink (that does not come off) covering RK3188 SoC, 2 more RAM chip, and the NAND flash. There’s also the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module (AP6210), and on the middle of right edge of the board a small metallic “push button” that touch a metallic part on the casing, and is probably the Bluetooth antenna.
It might be feasible to remove the heatsink, and access UART pads in the same manner in order to access the serial console like for MK808. I may try that another time.
Let’s connect a USB keyboard and mouse to the device, no USB hub needed, connect it to the TV with the HDMI cable, and connect the power to get started. That’s quite a lot of cables, but it’s just like the popular MK808, so it does not seem to bother people, as they just hide it behind the TV. The device will boot to the Home Screen below in about 30 seconds.
We’ve got Vol +/- buttons, but there’s currently no power, nor full screen buttons. However, there’s a new firmware available, and I’ll upgrade the device before full testing. I’ve just tried MK908 a few minutes, and I have to admit I was surprised at how snappy it felt during my first clicks, but we’ll find out more about the performance and stability of the device in the full review, hopefully tomorrow.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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The HDMI port appears to be Mini. You referenced it as a Micro HDMI. Can you please confirm?
Are you really sure about those 2 “mini” USB ports (power and OTG) and “mini” connection/adapter cables?
After all, the mini connector got deprecated in Q2 of 2007 in favor of the smaller and more durable “micro” connectors, not to mention, that OTG requires one, and only one USB connector: a Micro-AB receptacle.
@Kevin T
Yes, you’re right it’s a mini HDMI. Sorry
@Wolfi
Yes, 2 mini USB ports. I don’t think this type of connector is deprecated, because I bought a camera last year which has one, and few development boards and mini PCs have those.
I have to chime in on the whole mini vs micro connectors. I’ve had many micro usb connectors fail, but only 1 mini usb connector has ever broken on me. So I don’t believe the micro usb to be more durable.
I think it’s mostly because micro usb cables fit so snugly that they just cause that much more wear than the mini.
I was quite pleased to see the MK908 with the mini connector.
What I haven’t been so happy about with the MK908 is Android 4.1.1 seems to be lacking compared to the Android 4.2.2 on the T428. That’ll only last until the 4.2.2 update comes out for the MK908.
I’ve got reviews of both devices up on armtvtech.
@cnxsoft
Well, I snatched my bit of wisdom partially from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usb#Mini_and_Micro_connectors
which admittedly I should have indicated the last part of my last sentence as being quoted as well as the source.
But it also is my understanding, that the CE industry last year agreed, being pressured from the EU, to use the µUSB connector as the standard for power/charging of mobile devices. So this then again comes as a surprise.
@Wolfi
In Wikipedia “Mini-A connector and the Mini-AB receptacle connector were deprecated on 23 May 2007”. If you look the picture on the right on this sentence in Wikipedia, you’ll see a mini B plug which is still in use today.
What is the temperature if the SoC operating at full capacity (nativeboinc?) Will be properly dissipated by the heat these films?
My RK3188 can under full load over 70 ° C can be hot!! http://www.planet3dnow.de/vbulletin/blog.php?b=257
http://translate.google.de/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.planet3dnow.de%2Fvbulletin%2Fblog.php%3Fb%3D257&act=url
Why there is only a single heatsink and a single wifi antenna? This stick is advertised with dual heatsink / dual wifi!
Best regards
akapuma
@akapuma
I don’t know about those claims, where did you read them?
You can find it here:
Tronsmart: http://www.tronsmart.com/tronmart/item/46
sztomato: http://sztomato.en.alibaba.com/product/868523600-218655389/Tronsmart_MK908_Google_Android_4_1_Mini_PC_TV_Box_RK3188_Quad_Core_2G_8G_BT_Black.html
geekbuying: http://www.geekbuying.com/item/Tronsmart-MK908-Google-Android-4-1-Mini-PC-TV-Box-RK3188-Quad-Core-2G-8G-BT-Black-315155.html
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Tronsmart-MK908-Google-Android-RK3188/dp/B00CGYAGL6
All links above are for Tronsmart MK908. In in very link, there is written “Dual Heatsink, Dual Wifi Antenna”.
Therefore, I expected something like in the following link (this is a MK808). There is a dual Heatsink, and a dual Wifi Antenna:
http://www.sztomato.cn/product/704625597-218383128/Cheapest_MK808_with_android4_2_2.html
Best regards
akapuma
@akapuma
OK, I can see why they have written this, and it might not be an error.
There a proper heatsink on one side, and on the other side there’s some black sheet that serve a heatsink.
For Wi-Fi you’ve got a standard antenna, AND metallic “push button” that touches the casing and acts as an antenna (the one I though might be for Bluetooth).
i bought two mk908 and it arrived two days ago then i found out that they where v3 ‘s i looked every where even on freaktab and i cannot find any info as to why networking with the mk908 v3 is soo bad i tried a couple of different roms and its all the same i tried to copy over an xbmc.apk file from my nas drive by a wifi and the maximum transfer speed was 350kb per second also i cannot find info as to what the difference is between mk908 v1 and v3 there are two app i use to watch video content one is live turkish channels (uyaniktv)and the other is more like netflix where i can watch turkish and english tv shows (dizitvhd) its the app that has the big blue cube box picture and these apps work very well on the mk808 and struggle with the mk908 i think there is a problem with the networking also i tried with an Ethernet to usb adapter and the live channels were still freezing on and off the thing i had several hdmi dongles a had about 3 or 4 mk808 also i had mk808 clone called ippazport with external antenna i had 3 original mk908 also have a cs868 (alwinner a31) and none of them were this slow when transferring files from my nas box or watching content from my nas box iam currently using firmware (update_mk908_11.07_overseas–V3.0.img) because the finless 1.6a had extreemly bad wifi also i used bot devices to download torrents and both never went past 380kbps also i transfered the same file with a much older device witch has aml8726-m1 single core 512mb ram 2gig nand and this device achived 1.7mbps on average
encase any one gets the mk908 v5 and bricks it you http://pan.baidu.com/share/link?shareid=3600366860&uk=2584558827can download the latestt rom from here
or from here http://pan.baidu.com/s/1EdGqM
password is cpau