Beelink GT-King (Amlogic S922X) TV Box Review

Beelink GT-King YouTube App

Rant Karl here. I have been playing around with Android boxes for several years. Unfortunately, some fundamental issues from when I first started playing around with these boxes are still there. They have come a long way since the MK808 with Rockchip RK3066 processor. The MK808 was my first endeavor into Android on the TV in 2013.  I can’t believe it’s been nearly 6 years. In 2014 Google introduced Android TV and the Nexus Player. It was designed for a TV and controller. The first boxes/sticks adapted the stock Android experience to run on a TV, but without a touch interface the experience was/is not optimal. Sure you get thousands and thousands of apps but a lot of them don’t work. Unfortunately, this hasn’t changed much. If these boxes came with Linux and Android I don’t think I would complain as much. I would consider it a tinkering box. But […]

Amlogic S912 vs Amlogic A311D/S922X-B Benchmarks Comparison

S922X-B vs S912

A few days ago we compared Amlogic A311D to Rockchip RK3399 since both the top-of-the-line processors from Amlogic and Rockchip are currently available. Rockchip RK3588 will even be faster, but we need to wait until Q1 2020 at least before it becomes available, and delays are not unheard of, so I’d expect it may take about one year before I can get my hands on a sample. Another comparison is against Amlogic S912, the previous high-end processor from the company. Amlogic A311D and S922X-B are newer and will be faster but it’s interesting to find out just how much. Note the Amlogic S922X found in ODROID-N2 is clocked at a lower speed compare to A311D/S922X-B, so performance will be somewhat lower. Since I recently benchmarked Khadas VIM3 with Amlogic A311D processor, I decided to dust off my old Khadas VIM2 Amlogic S912 development board, fit it a large heatsink, install […]

Amlogic A311D vs Rockchip RK3399 Benchmarks Comparison

A311D vs RK3399

I’ve run some benchmarks on Khadas VIM3 SBC earlier this morning. The board is powered by the latest Amlogic A311D hexa-core Cortex-A73/A53 processor, and I’ve found results to be impressive. But let’s see how it compares to another hexa-core processor, namely the popular Rockchip RK3399 Cortex-A72/A53 processor released in 2016 and found in several Chromebooks, TV boxes, and development boards. To do so, I’ve compared Antutu 7.x, PCMark 10 Work 2.0, and 3Dmark benchmark results in Khadas VIM3 board running Android 9, against an actively-cooled Rockchip RK3399 SBC running Android 8.1. The results for A311D should be the same as for Amlogic S922X-B processor, so this post could also serve as an Amlogic S922X-B vs RK3399 comparison. Amlogic A311D vs Rockchip RK3399 – Key features Amlogic A311D Rockchip RK3399 CPU Quad-core Cortex-A73 @ 2.21 GHz Dual-core Cortex-A53 @ 1.8 GHz Dual-core Cortex-A72 @ 1.8 GHz Quad-core Cortex A53 @ 1.416 […]

Khadas VIM3 (Amlogic A311D) Benchmarks & System Info in Android 9

Khadas VIM3 Amlogic A311D CPU-Z

I received Khadas VIM3 kit at the very beginning of this month, and showed the content of the kit, and how to assemble it. Now after clearing some other items for review, I’ve started to play with the Amlogic A311D board which ships with Android 9.0 by default.  I’ll focus my efforts on Ubuntu as most people will run Linux distributions on the board, but before doing so I’ve upgraded Android to the latest version, and checked out system information and ran some benchmarks in Android. Installing the latest Android firmware on VIM3 Instructions to upgrade the firmware over USB-C are available for Windows and Ubuntu, but since my laptop runs Ubuntu 18.04 I’ll focus on the latter. We can install the burn-tool for Linux as follows:

We can now download and extract the latest Android image:

Once it’s done you can connect your VIM3 board to your […]

Chuwi HiPAD LTE Tablet Review – Part 2: Android 8.0

CHUWI HiPad LTE Tablet Review

Last month, I received HiPad LTE tablet, and in the first part of the review I checked out the specifications of the 10″ tablet with a MediaTek Helio X27 deca-core processor, 3GB RAM, 32 GB storage, and had a look at the accessories including the keyboard dock. I’ve now had more time to actually play with the device, so I’ll report my experience with Android 8.0, and the pros and cons of the latest Chuwi tablet. General Impressions My previous tablet was Onda V18 Pro, and Chuwi HiPad LTE is clearly an upgrade thanks to the faster Heliox X27 deca-core processor coupled with 3GB of RAM. The 10.1″ display has a 1920×1200 resolution, not quite as good as the 2560×1600 resolution of the Onda tablet, but I still found the screen to be crispy and sharp. I found the tablet to be great for browsing the web and watching YouTube […]

Beelink GT1 Mini 2 TV Box Gets an Amlogic S905X3 Processor

Amlogic S905X3 TV Box

Beelink GT1 Mini TV Box powered by Amlogic S905X2 was launched with Android 8.1 in October 2018, and the company informed us they have an upcoming upgrade, the Beelink GT1 Mini 2, with the same form factor by an upgraded Amlogic S905X3 quad-core Cortex-A55 processor. GT1 Mini 2 is not the first TV box announced with S905X3, as we previously covered Elebao X3 that was supposed to launch at the end of May. So there clearly has been delays, but this time the launch should be closer as Beelink also shared benchmarks and system information from Android 9.0. Beelink GT1 Mini 2 Beelink GT1 Mini 2 preliminary specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X3 quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 processor @ 1.9 GHz with Arm Mali-G31MP2 GPU System Memory – 4GB DDR4 RAM Storage – 64GB eMMC flash, Micro SD slot Video & Audio Output HDMI 2.1 up to 4K @ 60 Hz with […]

Xiaomi Mi A2 Review with Android 9.0 Pie

Mi A2 Review Android 9.0

I had been using Xiaomi Mi A1 Android One smartphone since the end of 2017,  and was mostly satisfied with it thanks to regular (monthly) firmware update, although I was a bit disappointed by the camera overtime. Eventually I had a serious issue with Mi A1’s eMMC flash, and stopped using it at the end of last year, or roughly after one year of service, since the phone became unusable, unbearably slow. Xiaomi Mi A2 and A2 Lite where released last summer, and having seen Mi A2 was getting an Android 9.0 firmware in Q4 2018, I asked GearBest whether they could send a sample to review the latest Xiaomi Android One phone. They accepted, and I posted the first part of the review in early December. However, at this time, I did not get the update, since it was not released in Thailand, but soon enough Xiaomi Mi A2 […]

Khadas Edge Review – Part 3: Android 7.0 Preview

Khadas Edge Android 7.0

Hey Karl here with a look at a preview of Android on the Khadas edge. Jean-luc has done 2 parts already. The first one looking at the hardware side, and a second looking at Ubuntu. A third img is available that for LibreELEC. The initial release was very barebones, and the 2nd version is much more polished with the Play Store installed now and overall feels snappier. Khadas is supposed to be sending an Edge over to Super Celeron, and I hope they follow through. DHL DHL really messed up my board. Here are some pics. I will only be testing with Ethernet because the WiFi antenna got damaged badly and even bent the heatsink. I think the board is slightly damaged as well. I can only flash using the buttons on the board and not the carrier board. Everything else seems OK. Due to the damage, I am using […]

EDATEC Raspberry Pi 5 fanless case