MINIX has been providing Rockchip based Android TV boxes for a couple of years notably with their NEO X5 and NEO X7. They will now also offer devices powered by Amlogic with NEO X8 and NEO X8s respectively powered by S802 and S802-H quad core SoC. The advantage of the former is that it fully supports DTS and Dolby decoding and pass-through. Let go through the hardware specs of both devices: SoC NEO X8 – Amlogic S802 quad core cortex A9r4 @ 2 GHz with Mali-450MP6 GPU NEO X8s – Amlogic S802-H quad core cortex A9r4 @ 2 GHz with Mali-450MP6 GPU including Dolby and DTS support. System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB (X8) / 16GB (X8s) eMMC + SD/MMC card reader Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, dual band support for X8s, Bluetooth 4.0 Video Output – HDMI 1.4b up to 4K @ 30 fps, with […]
Review of Tronsmart Vega S89 Elite Amlogic S802 TV Box
Tronsmart Vega S89 is an Android TV Box based on Amlogic quad-core Cortex A9 processor. You can refer to Tronsmart Vega S89 specs for more technical details, and check out my Tronsmart Vega S89 Unboxing post for pictures of the device and the board. As a reminder, there are two models of the device: Tronsmart Vega S89 with 16GB flash and dual-band Wi-Fi (AP6330 module), and Tronsmart Vega S89 Elite with 8GB flash and 2.4 WiFi (AP6220 module). I’ve been sent the Elite version, but both versions should have similar performance. I’ll start by giving my first impressions, going through the user interface and settings, then I’ll switch to video and audio tests, Wi-Fi performance, and perform some other tests for Bluetooth, gaming, external storage, USB webcam, etc.. trying to cover most of the hardware features available on this device. First Boot, Settings, and First Impressions Vega S89 (Elite) comes […]
Ugoos UT3 Rockchip RK3288 based Android TV Box (Board Pictures and Specs)
We’ve already seen RK3288 based Android TV boxes and sticks started to be advertised on Alibaba, and today Ugoos contacted me and shared some pictures and specs of their PCBA for Ugoos UT3 Android 4.4 TV box based on Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 + Mali-T764 GPU SoC. Here are the specs of the board and product: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad core CortexA17 @ 1.8GHz + Mali-T764 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 /3.0, and OpenCL 1.1 System Memory –Â 2GB DDR3Â (Option: 4GB) Storage – 8GB NAND Flash (Options: 16, 32 or 64GB) + micro SD card slot (up to 32 GB) Connectivity – 100M/1000M Ethernet, dual band WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz) and 802.11 a/c using external Wi-Fi antenna, Bluetooth 4.0 (option?) Video I/F HDMI 1.4a output (female) up to 4k2k @ 30 fps, 1080p60 AV output (3.5mm jack) HDMI input (female) up to 1080p Audio I/F […]
Samsung Gear 2 Smartwatches are Powered by Exynos 3250 SoC
When Samsung announced their Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo smartwatches running Tizen, they only vaguely mentioned a dual core processor running at 1 GHz powered the devices. SamMobile reports the two watches should be powered by a new processor called Exynos 3250 with two cores and clocked at 1 GHz as initially announced. Ifixit also made a tear down of the Gear 2 watch, and at first, it seems Exynos 3250 is nowhere to be seen, but it turns out it’s probably combined with a DRAM (and Flash?) package named KMF5X0005M, and shown inside a red square in the picture above. Samsung Galaxy Gear, the company’s first smartwatch, was a modified version of Exynos 4212 dual core processor, but using only one core and downclocked to 800 MHz. SamMobile thinks the Gear 2 can use a dual core processor @ 1 GHz, due to battery life gains achieved by […]
Tronsmart Vega S89 (Elite) Android 4.4 Media Player Unboxing
Last review, I wrote an unboxing post about M8, an Android TV Box powered by Amlogic S802 quad core Cortex A9r4 processor with a Mali-450MP6 GPU. I’m still waiting for the firmware to test this device. In the meantime, Geekbuying sent me Tronsmart Vega S89 (Click for full specs), another Android Kitkat TV box powered by S802. There are actually two versions: Tronsmart Vega S89 (16 GB Flash, dual band Wi-Fi), and Tronsmart Vega S89 Elite (8GB Flash, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi) which is the model I received. I’ll write an unboxing post today with the device and the board, and test the firmware in the next few days. Tronsmart Vega S89 (Elite) Unboxing Geekbuying sent me the sample via DHL which I received in the package below. There are quite a few accessories included with the board. From left to right: IR remote control (2x AAA batteries not included), HDMI […]
Rockchip RK3288 based Android Mini PCs and TV Boxes Are Starting to Show Up (Wholesale)
Rockchip RK3288 based devices should be available soon. At the end of last month, I read Pipo was about to introduce RK3288 Tablets at the Hong Kong electronics fair this month, and yesterday I’ve been informed some RK3288 mini PCs and TV Boxes had started to appear on Alibaba. RK3288 HDMI TV Dongle (D368) D368 mini PC is said to come with the following specs according to a product page on Alibaba: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad core ARM Cortex-A17 with Mali-T7xx 3D GPU (OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 /3.0,and OpenCL 1.1) System Memory –Â 2GB DDR3Â (Optional:1GB) Storage – 8GB NAND Flash (Options: 4GB and 16GB), micro SD card (up to 32GB) Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4a (Resolution 4K and 1080p60 support) Connectivity – Dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and 802.11ac, optional Bluetooth 4.0. Video Codecs Decode – H.265, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4,H.263, H.264, AVS, VC-1, RV, VP6/VP8, Sorenson Spark, MVC […]
$249 Nitrogen6 MAX Development Board Features Freescale i.MX6 Quad, 4GB RAM, mPCIe Connector, and More
There are now many low cost development boards based on Freescale i.MX6 ARM Cortex A9 processors with Wandboard, Sabre Lite, UDOO, Nitrogen6X among others, all selling for less than $200. Boundary devices, the company behind Nitrogen6X board, has made a new version called Nitrogen6 MAX that maxes out the RAM to 4GB, adds a full mPCIE slot, a dual channel LVDS connector, and 4GB on-board eMMC. Nitrogen6 MAX specifications: SoC – Freescale i.MX 6Q quad core ARM Cortex A9 processor at 1GHz with Vivante GC2000 3D GPU System Memory – 4GB 64-bit DDR3 @ 532MHz Storage – 4GB eMMC, SATA connector, two micro SDHC card slots, 2MB Serial Flash Connectivity – 10/100/1G Ethernet, TiWi 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth BLE module Display Output – HDMI, 2x LVDS, Parallell RGB Audio I/O – HDMI, Analog (headphone/mic) audio and 2W amplified audio Camera I/F – Parallel camera port with OV5642 Interface, MIPI […]
Raspberry Pi Compute Module is a $30 Raspberry Pi Compatible System-on-Module
Albeit the initial goal of the Raspberry Pi board was to address computer science education, it has become extremely popular with hobbyists, has made its way in many different kinds of hardware, and is now clearly the number 1 low cost ARM Linux development board. The Raspberry Pi foundation has then decided to design and sell a system-on-module called Raspberry Pi Compute that people can use in actual products. Since the module will be mostly software compatible with the original Raspberry Pi board, the specs are similar: SoC – Broadcom BCM2835 ARM 11 processor @ 700 MHz with Videocore IV GPU System Memory – 512MB RAM Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash SoM Connector – DDR2 200-pins SODIMM Dimensions – 67.6x30mm board which fits into a standard DDR2 SODIMM connector The main difference is they’ve replaced the SD card slot found in the board, by an eMMC module which is more […]