Rockchip first showcased a tablet prototype with RK3168 dual core processor at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair in April, showing lower power consumption compared to RK3066. At the time, tablets based on this processor were still in development, but this has changed as a few RK3168 tablets are now showing up in Aliexpress. Prices for 7″ Android tablets such as Cube U25GT PRO, are now about $110 as low as $75 including shipping, but this should come down as more sellers provide the devices.
Cube U25GT PRO is an updated version of the U25GT pictured above. Here are the specifications of the PRO version:
- SoC – Rockchip RK3168 @ 1.2 GHz with PowerVR SGX540 GPU
- System Memory – 512 MB RAM
- Storage – 8GB NAND Flash + micro SD card slot
- Display – 7″ 5 point touch capacitive screen (1024×600)
- Camera – 0.3MP front camera
- Connectivity – Wifi 802.11b/g/n + 3G via external USB dongle
- Video Output – HDMI
- Audio I/O – HDMI, speaker and earphone jack
- USB – 1x USB OTG
- Battery – Built-in 2500mAh rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
- Dimensions – About 191x116x11.2mm
- Weight – About 303g
The device comes with a charger, an earphone, a USB OTG Cable, a user’s manual, and some kind of gift bag.
One of the first things I’ve noticed is the 1.2 GHz frequency, so you’ll have to expect lower CPU performance compared to RK3066 which is normally clocked at 1.6 GHz. The advantage of RK3168 over RK3066 is that it’s manufactured using 28nm process technology vs 40nm process, so it will offer better battery life. The GPU is also different as RK3168 comes with a PowerVR SGX540 compared to a Mali-400 MP4 for RK3066. I’m not sure which one has the best performance, but the benchmarks belows seem to prove the quad core Mali-400 has better performance than SGX540.
kilwatablet.com has run some benchmarks to compare Rockchip RK3168 with AllWinner A20.
The Antutu score for RK3168 is about double compared to AllWinner A20, with the biggest gaps being with RAM, CPU floating-point performance, and 3D GPU performance. They also claim A20 and RK3168 are in the same price range, but I don’t quite believe this, as A20 is about the same price as A10, and I’ve read it sells for $7.5 per unit in quantities. RK3066 usually scores between 11,000 to 12,000 in Antutu, so this confirms RK3066 should have the edge in term of performance, and the real selling point of RK3168 is its low power consumption, for decent performance.
Thanks to onebir for the links.
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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I think the RK3168 tablets start around $75, eg http://www.aliexpress.com/item//955837487.html
Shame about the drop in performance relative to RK3066. Would RK3066 tablets still get 11-12k scores with only 512MB RAM?
@onebir
For some reasons the one you point out does not show in search results for RK3168.
AFAIK, the amount of RAM has no influence on the Antutu score.
@cnxsoft
Very weird; maybe IP affects Ali’s search results..?
And strange (to me) that RAM capacity doesn’t affect Antutu scores. I guess caching is switched off? But doesn’t that give a poorer comparison of ‘whole device’ performance? Good to know anyway…
@onebir
“Aliexpress search results” mystery have been solved! Aliexpress will automatically filter out sellers that don’t ship to Thailand, so that’s why I had much less results than you. Switching to “all regions” shows many more products.
@cnxsoft
But why are there so many that won’t ship to Thailand..? Customs issues?
512 ram…….. .___.
devices with rk3168 already coming with 2gb
So I say 1gb should be bare minimum.
@manny
Yep 512MB is disappointing, but this Cube U25GT PRO seems to be the only RK3168 device available right now. & for anyone waiting, important to know the perfomance penalty the RK3168 comes with…
Im waiting for RK3168 mini PC stick… (low power consumption) will it be available?
@GIJoe
For most people, I’m not quite sure low power consumption may be very important for mini PCs as the power supply is always connected. The only advantage I could see is the possibly of powering the stick from the TV without external power supply. So I’m not sure manufacturers will make one. My take is that it mainly depends on the price. If it can’t be made significantly cheaper (e.g. $10 cheaper) than RK3066, then it will be very hard to sell.
If some people want a low powr SoC for HDMI stick because of overheating, I’ve recently found out that placement and orientation may be quite important. If the device is positioned so that the CPU face down, it’s much more likely to overheat.
Now there’s also an RK3026 :S
http://www.aliexpress.com/item//1424114670.html
@onebir
They’re about the same price as tablets based on WM8880 (http://www.cnx-software.com/2013/06/06/wm8880-mid-tablet-is-now-available-for-59/). I was sort of hoping for a lower price for a new low cost SoC. Maybe as Chinese SoCs have now become so cheap, they don’t affect the price of a tablet that much anymore.