CubieTruck Metal Case Unboxing and Disassembly

CubieTruck Metal Case is a kit comprised of CubieTruck (aka CubieBoard 3), a 128GB SSD, a 5,300 mAh battery, a power adapter, and various cables. In case you are not familiar with CubieTruck, it’s a development board by CubieTech, based on Allwinner A20 dual core ARM Cortex A7 processor with 2GB RAM, 8GB NAND flash, a SATA connector, HDMI & VGA outputs, Gigabit Ethernet, 2 USB host ports, and a mini USB OTG port. CubieTech decided to sent me a kit, as it was featured on CNX Software, and today, I’ll show what’s exactly is inside the kit since the product description is not 100% clear. I’ve been told it’s pre-installed with Lubuntu, so in a separate post next week, I’ll try Linux, report on the SSD performance, and check the battery UPS function, and possibly life on a charge. CubieTruck Metal Case Unboxing I’ve received the kit in a […]

Nokia N1 is a 7.9″ Quad Core Intel Tablet Running Android 5.0 Lollipop

Since Microsoft bought Nokia’s smartphone division, the company is not allowed to sell smartphones until after the end of 2015, but that does not mean Nokia is standing still, and they’ve just unveiled Nokia N1 tablet based on Intel Atom Z3580 quad core processor, with a 7.9″ display, 2GB LPDDR3, and 32GB eMMC. The tablet runs Android 5.0 Lollipop, and it’s also the first device I’ve seen with a micro USB 2.0 type C reversible connector. Nokia N1 specifications: SoC – Intel Atom Z3580 (Bay Trail-T) quad core processor up to 2.33 GHz (burst frequency) with PowerVR GC6430 GPU up to 533 MHz System Memory – 2GB LPDDR3L @ 800 MHz Storage – 32 GB eMMC 5.0 flash (no micro SD slot) Display – 7.9″ IPS display, 2048×1536 resolution, 4:3 aspect ratio, Gorilla Glass 3. Audio – 3.5mm audio port, 2x 0.5W speakers, digital MIC, Wolfson WM8958E audio codec Connectivity […]

MINIX NEO X6 Media Hub Review

Last week-end, I took a few pictures of MINIX NEO X6 media hub, and had a look at the company’s firmware and forum support which indeed seems to be good. Today, I’ve completed the full review of MINIX NEO X6, and I will compare it to two of its lower priced competitors: MXQ S85 and EM6Q-MXQ. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions The IR remote control works fine, including continuous up ad down pressing, but I switched to using Mele F10 Deluxe air mouse for convenience. I’ve connected an Ethernet cable, an HDMI cable, a micro SD card, a USB hard drive, and a USB hub with two RF dongles for my air mouse and gamepad, a USB flash drive, and a UVC webcam. I’ve connected the power, pressed the power button on the side of the box, but nothing happened at first… You have to press the button one […]

Unboxing of Eny M8S H.265 / 4K Android Media Player Powered by Amlogic S812 Processor

M8S and M8C Android TV boxes are updates of M8 / TM8 box, replacing Amlogic S802 quad core processor with Amlogic S812 processor which has about the same feature except it bring HEVC/H.265 hardware video decoding. M8S comes with 2GB RAM, whereas M8C features only 1GB RAM. Eny Technology decided to send me M8S for review. As usual, I’ll start with some pictures of the package, box, and board, and will do the full review in the next few days. M8S Unboxing Pictures The company send me the parcel via DHL which I promptly received with the product in the package below marked “4K OTT TV BOX” and a predominant “HEVC”. The back of the package list the main specifications: quad core processor, octo core Mali 450 GPU, Android Kitkat. and so on. There’s also a sticker showing the MAC address, which starts with C4:4E:AC for those interested. The box […]

Android 5.0 Lollipop Coming to Allwinner A33 & A80, Rockchip RK3288, and More…

I can often see questions requesting whether SoC XYZ will support Android 5.0 Lollipop. The good news is that last week, I’ve read lots of news about Android 5.0 support on various devices including Nvidia Shield tablet, Motorola G & X smartphones, and of course the Google Nexus devices. A developer (Nanik T.) also ported Android Lollipop to ODROID U3 development board based on Exynos 4412, and he mentioned that “porting was pretty straight forward as KK and 5.0 does not have a lot of differences in terms of HAL”, which means there’s hope for more recent devices and SoCs getting the update. Chinese SoC vendors are also getting the word out that they are working on Android 5.0. Rockchip announced Lollipop support for RK3288 processor (original news in Chinese) probably coming to tablets first, and Android TV boxes later. They used their reference platforms in the provided pictures, and […]

Unboxing of MINIX NEO X6 Android Media Hub

MINIX is a Hong Kong company known for its NEO series Android media players, which are a bit more expensive that the company, but the hardware and especially support is supposed to be better, justifying the higher price. I had never tried it a MINIX device, but thanks to Tinydeal I now have MINIX NEO X6 powered by Amlogic S805 quad core processor, with 1GB RAM, and 8GB eMMC, so I’ll soon be able to find out if the praises for the company are justified, or simply hyped. Today, I’ll take some pictures of the devices, and try to open it to check out the hardware, before writing a full review in a few days, and compare it a much cheaper device like MXQ S85. MINIX NEO X6 Unboxing Photos The parcel was sent by Singapore Posts so it took a couple of weeks to be delivered. The device is […]

Linux based BPI D1 HD Camera Module Features Anyka AK3918 ARM9 Processor

SinoVoIP BPI-D1 is a tiny 720p30 camera module running Linux, and powered by Anyka AK3918 ARM9 processor. It’s a standalone module that can be powered by micro USB (5V), or an external Lithium battery, and it also includes various GPIOs, a micro USB interface, a micro SD slot to boot Linux, optional Wi-Fi connectivity, and more.. BPI D1 specifications: Processor – Anyka AK3918 ARM926EJ processor @ 400 MHz System Memory –  64MB DDR2 Storage – 16 MB SPI Flash + micro SD flash up to 32GB. Camera: CMOS Image Sensor 720p @ 30fps, visible light with 940 nm two-way infrared lens filter, with infrared night vision function Lens – M7*P0.35 EFL=3.0mm/F.NO=2.8/View Angle=60° Video Recording –  H.264 / AVI hardware encoding at 720p 30fps for up to 120 hours of video data on a 32GB micro SD card Audio Formats – MP3/WMA/AAC Audio Input – Microphone Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n (AP […]

Unboxing of ODROID-XU3 Lite Exynos 5422 Development Board

Hardkernel recently unveiled a low cost version of ODROID-XU3 board powered by Exynos 5422 SoC, and selling for $99 instead of $179 with the original version that adds a DisplayPort connector, current and voltage sensors, as well as a faster CPU frequency (2+ GHz vs 1.8 GHz).  The company sent me a sample for evaluation, so today I’ll take some pictures of the ODROID-XU3 Lite kit, and I also planned to show a Linux demo, but unfortunately my board appears to have an hardware glitch with HDMI output not working, so I’ll still show some info from the first boot, but that’s just an headless system. Anyway, I’ll soon receive a replacement unit, and I’ll be able to test Lubuntu and Android in more details later. ODROID-XU3 Lite Unboxing Hardkernel sent the parcel on Thursday by UPS, and I received the board on Monday in an ODROID branded cardboard box. […]

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