List of RK3188 mini PCs / HDMI TV Dongles

The first HDMI TV stick based on Rockchip RK3188 that I noticed was CloudnetGo CR9, and since then many more similar products have hit the market. I did not write about most of them as “it’s just more of the same” most of the time, but listed some in CloudnetGo CR9 post’s comment section. Today, I’ll provide a (non-exhaustive) list of devices, in no particular order, with a summary of the hardware specifications. I won’t mention Android versions since all of them already run Jelly Bean (Android 4.1 or 4.2). Retail price information, which I got from Aliexpress, Geekbuying, W2COMP, and some other sites, is provided for reference, and includes shipping unless otherwise stated. CloudnetGo CR9 – 2GB RAM, 8/16 GB Flash, HDMI male, 1x USB, 1x microUSB – Price Unknown  – See review Tronsmart T428 – 2GB RAM, 8GB Flash, HDMI male,  1x USB, 1x microUSB – $99 Rikomagic MK802 […]

Jesurun A19 and Mele M5 Android STBs Powered by AllWinner A20

After Cloudsto A20 Media PC, and GV-17, we’ve now got more choices for AllWinner A20 based Android set-top boxes with Jesurun A19 and Mele M5, both featuring 1GB RAM, and running Android 4.2, with the former fitted with 4GB NAND flash and the latter 8GB. Those are ones of the few devices featuring SATA support, and optical SPDIF. Jerusun A19 also comes with VGA output. Jesurun A19 Specifications: SoC – Allwinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 up to 1.2 GHz + Mali-400 MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash + SD card slot (up to 128GB) + SATA interface Video Output – HDMI up to 3840 X 2160 (UHD), VGA and AV Video Decoding – Up to 1080P@60fps Audio Output – HDMI + SPDIF (Optical) Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet + Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n USB – 4x USB ports IR sensor Power Adapter – 5V/2A Weight […]

AllWinner A31 Mele Media Player Pictures, Screenshots and Antutu Benchmark

Mele A1000G Quad is an Android set-top box featuring AllWinner A31 quad core Cortex A7 processor with 2GB RAM and 8GB Flash. You can check the full specifications in my previous post. Eddy Lab got hold of an engineering sample with a similar model but without SATA that looks like A3700 [Update: Model name is apparently G39A04], and he, or they, took a few pictures, and tested the device (Link in Korean). I’ll re-post some of their unboxing pictures, and share some of their screenshots and benchmarks in this post. The device comes with a 5V/2.4A power adapter, an HDMI cable, and an IR remote. The device features an Audio out jack, a micro USB socket, a power jack, and HDMI connector, an RJ45 Ethernet connectors, 3x USB host ports, SPDIF output (Optical), and an SD card slot. It’s very similar to the original Mele A1000 except VGA and AV […]

Earl Rugged E-ink Tablet for the Outdoors

Earl is a rugged Android 4.1 Android Tablet with all you need for the outdoors including a 6″ E-ink display to be readable in all light conditions, GPS capability, and 20 hours of battery life. And if it’s not enough, you can also recharge this water-proof device with the built-in solar panel on your way to the mountain top. Here are the specifications of this device: SoC – Freescale i.MX 6 DualLight Cortex A9 @ 1GHz + Vivante GC880 GPU System Memory – 1GB Storage – 16GB flash + microSD slot Display – Flexible 6″ E-ink screen (1024×768),  with glove friendly IR touchscreen Connectivity – Wifi b/g/n, BT 4.0, ANT+, NFC, FRS/GMRS/MURS, and GPS + GLONASS Sensors – Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, Temperature, Barometer, Humidity, and Anemometer Misc – Radio AM/FM/SW/LW + IR blaster Battery – 3000 mAh (20+ hour) rechargeable with solar panel or via the provided 20″ USB lanyard. […]

Review of Bluetimes MX5 Android 4.2.2 Set-top Box

Bluetimes MX5 is an Android 4.2.2 set-top box powered by AMLogic AML8726-MX that costs around $70, or about $30 less than devices with similar hardware such as G-Box Midnight MX2 or Tronsmart Prometheus. AndroidPC.es got hold of one sample, also called 10moons D6, took some pictures and reviewed the devices for us. Bluetimes MX5 Unboxing The package contains the media player, an RF remote control and a power adapter, but no cables, which is one way to save on costs. Looking at the rear panel of the device front left to right, we can see an external Wi-Fi antenna, the 5V power jack, one USB port,  a composite RCA connector and stereo RCA output, an Ethernet RJ45 port, HDMI output, and SPDIF output. An SD card slot and another USB host port are located on the front panel. So Bluetimes MX5 just has 2 USB ports, which is a bit […]

Intel Takes on ARM with Silvermont Microarchitecture for Low Power SoCs

Intel has launched Silvermont, a new microarchitecture for low power SoC targeting smartphones, tablets, and servers in data centers. Silvermont SoC will be manufactured using 22nm Tri-Gate SoC process, and the company claims 3x times more peak performance than current generation Atom processors, or 5 times less power consumption at the same performance level. Silvermont will be used in Bay Trail, Avoton,  and Merrifield processors: Intel’s quad-core “Bay Trail” SoC is scheduled for Q4 2013 tablets, and variants of the “Bay Trail” platform will also be used in market segments including entry laptop and desktop computers. Intel’s “Merrifield” is scheduled to ship to customers by the end of this year, and actual smartphones will show up in 2014. Intel’s “Avoton” will be used in low power microservers, and provide full server product capability that customers require including 64-bit, integrated fabric, error code correction, Intel virtualization technologies and software compatibility. Intel […]

Vivante GC4000 is The Best Mobile GPU… When It Comes to Accuracy

Most of the time, mobile GPU comparisons involve benchmarks such as Antutu, Nenamark 2, etc…, or people may consider which games will be able to run smoothly with a particular device, but we seldom compare image quality, for the simple reason it’s usually more difficult to achieve. YOUi Labs has just done that, however, by running the shader code below on several hardware platforms, mainly Android tablets, with the most common mobile GPUs, and used the results obtained with a  Desktop PC GPU, Nvidia Geforce GT 630M, has a reference.

Here are the results: The worst GPUs are Mali-400 MP4 in Exynos 4412 and Geforce ULP in Tegra 3, which can respectively only show 5 and 8 lines before degradation, and the top two GPUs are Qualcomm Adreno 225 in MSM8660A, and Vivante GC4000 in HiSilicon K3V2 processor. Imagination Technologies SGX544 and ARM Mali-T604 also provide decent results, but […]

Matricom G-Box Midnight MX2 Android TV Box Review

Matricom sent me one of their latest G-Box Midnight MX2 media player based on AMLogic AML8726-M6, with 1GB RAM, 8 GB flash, running Android 4.2, and with full support for XBMC. This is an update of the G-Box Midnight based on AML8726-M3 which supports XBMC in Android, as well as XBMC Linux thanks to community builds. Specifications: SoC – Amlogic AML8726-MX Dual Core Cortex A9 CPU + dual core Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 8GB Flash + SD card slot (Up to 32GB) Video Output – HDMI v1.4, composite (CVBS) and component (YUV) Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and SPDIF Connectivity – 802.11b/g/n internal Wifi + 10/100 Ethernet Port USB – 4x USB 2.0 Ports (1 might be OTG) IR sensor Power Supply – 5V/2A The hardware and software is very similar to Tronsmart Prometheus (See review), as both are based on AML8726-MX, run Android […]