#even if the RJ resolution is a bit problematic for it

[dropswisdom]

Mele PCG03 Plus review unit was sent to me courtesy of Mele, so many thanks and especially to Isaac, for the kindness and support!

This review unit was sent to me courtesy of Mele, so many thanks and especially to Isaac, for the kindness and support!

Mele has been around since 2004, and have a nice range of Android, Windows and other Media TV boxes/Mini PCs and Streamers.

The PCG03 Plus, or “StarCloud”, is the newest iteration of Mini PC by Mele. It is a second generation to the previous PCG03, with some updated hardware.

What’s in the box?

PCG03 Plus, or “StarCloud” is Mele’s first Cherry Trail based Mini-PC/Intel Kodi box. So what do we get? The Mini-PC, a power adapter, multiple power plug adapters, a Quick guide, and… that’s it!. No HDMI cable included. Mele did everything it could to walk the delicate balance between an all out Mini PC system (which ideally would include said HDMI cable, and maybe a Air mouse, or even a wireless mouse/keyboard combo), and a bone basic PC box.. well, actually it is pretty much a bone basic box.

Looks

PCG03 Plus does show an elegant facade. constructed inside a box that’s half Matte and half reflective, with “Intel Atom” sticker, printed name logo on top, and model name in front. Inside, there is a fully working Windows 10 PC.

It runs off a brand new 14 nm Intel Atom based chipset, just like the latest crop of Mini PCs (same as Tronsmart’s Ara X5/Plus). The pre-installed operating system is Microsoft Windows 10 Home, and it runs quite smoothly as long as you don’t burden it with too much crap.

The system arrives completely clean. Kodi had to be installed from scratch.

No remote, mouse, or any other control device is included with the package. As mentioned before, it’s meant for keeping the cost down. However, you can use various windows-android remote control programs that rely on a server part installed on the device, and a client part installed on your smartphone or tablet. Those use WiFi or Bluetooth communication in order to allow mouse/keyboard interaction with the device.

Specifications

CPU Intel Atom x5-Z8300 “Bay Trail” quad core processor @ 1.44 GHz (Burst up to: 1.84 GHz) GPU Intel HD Gen8 graphics Memory / Storage 2 GB DDR3L / 32 GB eMMC Wireless Connectivity 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 OS Windows 10 Home (activated) Video Output HDMI 1.4, and VGA Audio Output HDMI, 3.5mm earphone jack Power DC 12V/1A Peripheral Interface

1  x RJ-45 Ethernet Port (10/100Mbps)

2 x USB 2.0 Ports

1 x USB 3.0 Host Port

1 x SD/SDHC Card Reader (Up to 512 GB)

1 x HDMI 1.4 Port

1 x VGA Port

1 x 3.5 mm headphone jack

1 x Kensington security lock

Packing Included

Mele PCG03 Plus

DC Power Adapter

Four (4) plug adapters (GS,UK,SAA,UL)

Quick Guide

Dimensions / Weight 150 mm * 120 mm * 40 mm / 360 grams

Benchmarks and Testing

All benchmarks have been repeated 3 times and results have been averaged to give a more accurate reading:

Novabench

Novabench offers a marinade of tests ranging between CPU and memory to GPU abilities.The rating PCG03 Plus gets is lower than that of the cheaper Tronsmart Ara X5 (especially in regard to RAM speed), but I suspect this is due to usage of slower RAM chips or memory controller.

PC Mark 8

PC Mark 8 Basic tests go for 20-45 minutes in GPU-accelerated or standard mode and they test regular office tasks as well as memory and video performance. Again, the performance is similar but slower than that of the Tronsmart Ara X5 which is based on the same CPU.

3D Mark

3D Mark does what the name says – it tests a device’s ability to handle 3d animation and simulation. As the PCG03 Plus is based on the same GPU as the one in the Tronsmart Ara X5 the similar performance is to be expected.

Video Playback testing (Using KODI)

Resolution Video Format Local Playback Network (Wi-Fi/LAN) Playback 720p (1280*720) AVC (High@L4.1) Playing correctly Playing correctly 1080P (1920*1080) AVC (High@L4) Playing correctly Playing correctly 4K/UHD (4096*2304) AVC (High@L5.1) Playing correctly Playing correctly (mixed results) 2160P (3840*2160) HEVC (H.265) Playing correctly Playing correctly 4K TS HEVC files HEVC (H.265) 10Bit Artifacts & stutter Artifacts & stutter

System arrived with a clean installation of Windows 10. Tests were conducted after installing Kodi 16 RC1 from Kodi website, and later repeated with the (more) standard Kodi 15.2.

The issue mentioned before makes the box unpredictable. Video playback may stop after 10-30 minutes and seem to pause forever (no audio or video, but subtitles keep running. The only way to resume is to manually stop playback, wait a while till Kodi returns to the playlist, and resume playback. Again and again.

Local (SD card) Playback: Most of the files played correctly locally.

Local Network Playback: As can be seen on both tables, the results are mixed. Performance is inconsistent on wireless connection, 10 bit TS files do not play correctly and push the CPU cores to their max (100%). Most of the playback issues in the tests (aside from the TS files) came due to bandwidth bottleneck, as videos encoded in higher than 30 mb/s begun stuttering when their cache ran out too fast. In any case, it is recommended to use a wired connection when available.

Issues and bugs

The first and most disturbing issue I noticed with PCG03 Plus was that in many videos (not all), after 10-25 minutes of playback, the video and audio would stop as if “pause” was pressed, but pressing pause and play again would make no difference (although subtitles, if any were present continue to roll as usual). Only stopping the video playback completely and resuming it would continue proper video/audio playback. This happened both in Kodi 16 RC1 and Kodi 15.2, and been reported to the manufacturer for repair.

In the games Asphalt 8 Airborne and World of Tanks Blitz, Arrows (Minix A2 Lite air mouse directional buttons, or unified remote control keyboard arrows) do not respond.

TS files (10 Bit) do not play correctly. Artifacts and stutter abound.

Device goes to sleep when screen (TV) is turned off, unless Kodi is left on. When turning back on, can be accessed only by clicking the power button first to wake it up.

WiFi disconnects when PC goes to sleep. Takes a while to reconnect when awoken.

Flickering noticed in 4K video.

Network performance

Network performance has been tested using Speedtest.net Internet speed measuring website, in WiFi and in Wired mode. My Internet connection is 200 Mbit Symmetric Fibre connection. Performance is average-low for WiFi (only N standard is supported), but quite good for Wired connection:

WiFi 2.4GHz

Wired over power lines

Gaming performance

Two games were tested:

Asphalt 8 Airborne – Run mostly fine, but control via arrows just would not work. I had to switch to mouse control which is quite uncomfortable. Performance-wise, The game run smoothly in a window, but less so in full screen (FullHD resolution).

World of Tanks Blitz – Aside from not responding to arrow movements (it did acknowledge that the directional ASDW keys were pressed, but did not move the tank), the game run quite smoothly.. as much as that helps if you cannot play the game.

In conclusion, unless you play mouse only (or mostly) games, you’ll find this PC problematic. However, I did not try a physical keyboard, only a wireless Air Mouse/Keyboard Minix A2 Lite, and a android based remote client-server combo. It may work properly with a wired USB keyboard.

PCG03 Plus Conclusions

Did I like it? Not especially. I find it quite buggy for the time being – In Kodi. On the bright side, an issue encountered with another (Tronsmart Ara X5) Atom Z8300 based box did not manifest in this one – no problems installing apps/games from the Store. (the same issue has been resolved in the Tronsmart Ara X5 by reinstalling the OS and drivers from scratch)

Would I recommend it? Not at the moment..

So you’d like to buy this box? Currently, it is only available at Aliexpress, for 148.57 USD (including free shipping): AliExpress.com Product – Fanless Intel Mini PC StarCloud PCG03 Plus Windows 10 Quad Core Cherry Trail Atom Z8300 2GB DDR3 32GB eMMC HDMI VGA LAN WiFi BT

Let shareasale.com find sales leads for you. Only pay when it works!

Review | Mele PCG03 Plus Mini PC Mele PCG03 Plus review unit was sent to me courtesy of Mele, so many thanks and especially to Isaac, for the kindness and support!

[dropswisdom]

Introduction

On the second review, after Probox2’s EX+ TV Box, I’m reviewing a brand new TV Box from Open Hour, named Gecko

This is the first TV Box I’ve had the pleasure reviewing that includes the HiSilicon 3798M chipset.

This review unit was sent to me courtesy of the good people at Open Hour (Syabas), so thank you all, and especially Jane and Elynn, for the swift and great communication.

What’s in the Box?

Gecko from Open Hour is an attempt at producing a high performance TV Box while keeping the cost under 90 USD.

So what do we get? The player – Gecko (keeping the naming method after the previous “Chameleon” model), AC power adapter, High speed HDMI cable, AV breakout cable, Infrared remote control, 2 x AAA batteries, Quick Start guide, and a One year limited warranty card.

Did Open Hour succeed in their attempt? The answer is Yes, and No.

Gecko is a 4K capable Android (customized Kitkat 4.4.2 variation) based on the less familiar Hisilicon 3798M chipset, with 3d BDISO, Samba server, USB 3.0, HD Audio pass-through , and Framerate Sync support out of the box.

Looks

The Gecko is a small and elegant box. Unlike the previous reviewed box, the Antenna is not incorporated into the body of the Gecko, but it is also not detachable. The box’s dimensions are smaller than most other boxes, by 10%-25%. I suspect that’s partly due to smart design, and partly due to hardware compromises.

On the front side of the box, you can see the IR sensor, and a small hole. No information was found on the quick start guide or the product page regarding it, but it may be the factory reset / safe boot internal button.

On the left side of the box, we can find the antenna, a Micro SD card slot, a USB 2.0 and a USB 3.0 slots.

On the back side of the box, the AV jack, LAN jack, Optical SPDIF, HDMI, and power jack can all be found.

The top of the Gecko shows a printed “Open Hour” logo, but not the name of the player.

The bottom is perforated to allow for air cooling, and include some information regarding the model, power input and standards.

Specifications

Chipset HiSilicon 3798M CPU Quad Core Arm Cortex A7 CPU, 1.5Ghz GPU Quad Core Mali-450 GPU Memory / Storage 1GB DDR3 / 8GB NAND Flash Wireless Connectivity 802.11b/g/n WIFI With External Antenna OS Android Kitkat 4.4.2 (with Special Launcher) Video Output HDMI 1.4a, 2160P30Hz, H.265 Main Profile@L5.0 High-tie up to 30FPS Audio Output Via HDMI, optical SPDIF Power DC 5V 2A adapter (CE, FCC, CCC Certified) Peripheral Interface RJ-45 Ethernet Port (10/100 Mbps), USB 2.0 Port x 1, USB 3.0 Port x 1, MicroSD/TF Card Slot, AV Port, IR Sensor (Remote included) Packing Included Open Hour Gecko, AC Adapter, Dual-Band Antenna, AV Breakout Cable, High Speed HDMI Cable, Remote Control, 2 x AAA Batteries, Quick Start Guide, Warranty Card Dimensions / Weight 115mm * 115mm * 26mm / 200g

Benchmarks and Testing

Antutu Benchmark

Antutu is another popular benchmark testing performance, multitasking and battery

The Antutu benchmark tests single core performance over multi-core as it is a better indication of the performance of one device over others in most situations.

The single core performance stands at about half of its competitors. This is not a good number for heavy or intensive tasks.

GPU Mark Benchmark

GPU Mark tests 3d gaming performance and also provides a normalized score according to the used screen resolution (for a more accurate result). The test is quite short and should be taken as a supporting result to that of the more serious 3D Mark benchmark.

Gecko keeps showing low figures in this 3d animation benchmark. It is not targeted at 3d gaming, or may even not for gaming altogether, unless it’s a light 2d game.

A1 SD Benchmark

 A1 SD Benchmark tests RAM and flash memory speeds. As can be seen in the provided graphs, RAM is much faster (by a factor of about 40) than flash memory – that is why it’s in smaller amount and is also volatile (does not keep its contents after a reboot).

Again, the Gecko box shows low marks both in RAM and Internal SD read/write speeds. It does look a bit better when reading an external SD card, but overall SD read/write is between 12-17 MB/s while RAM copy speed hovers around 700 MB/s. This is a bottleneck that may limit the bandwidth required for some tasks.

* PC Mark Benchmark

PC Mark tests real world functions – Web browsing, Writing/Editing, Photo Editing and Video performance

* The PC Mark benchmark tests are lacking, because out of the three boxes tested, only the Minix X8-H was able to complete the video test portion of the test fully. It seems that both the EX+ and the Gecko require the use of specialized codecs in order to play some encoded video files. However, video testing with the included Kodi media center seems to produce great results.

As can be seen from the graphs, the performance of the Gecko is nothing to write home about. It would not be the optimal choice for the office related tasks that android may be used for.

3D Mark Benchmark

3D Mark is the “De-facto” 3d and gaming performance benchmark for the android & PC world

3D mark, one of the heaviest and demanding benchmark of the lot, shows an even greater distance between the Gecko and current (as well as last year’s) boxes. Remember: this pertains to gaming solely, and does not affect video performance in Kodi.

Video Playback testing (Using KODI)

Resolution Video Format Local Playback Network (Wi-Fi/LAN) Playback 720p (1280*720) AVC (High@L4.1) Playing correctly Playing correctly 1080P (1920*1080) AVC (High@L4) Playing correctly Playing correctly  2160P (3840*2160) HEVC (H.265) / 8Bit Playing correctly Playing correctly 4K (4096*2304) AVC (High@L5.1) Playing correctly Buffering  and stutter 4K TS/MKV 10Bit HEVC files HEVC (H.265) Does not play / play with artifacts and stutter Does not play / play with artifacts and stutter

Gecko has great video quality, and when it plays local content, it’s one of the best out there for almost (not 10 Bit TS files) any type of video file. But, due to slow network performance both via wired LAN and via wireless (up to 802N 2.4GHz only) connection – it simply pose a problem with higher bandwidth (mostly 4K content, but also heavy or large rips of bluray FHD content) network playback.

Open Hour updated me, that even though Gecko does not support 10 Bit HEVC TS files, it does support 8 Bit HEVC TS files.

Gaming performance

[easy-image-collage id=915]

 Frames Per Second Minix Neo X8-H (Amlogic S802) Probox2 EX+ (Amlogic S812) OpenHour Gecko (HiSilicon 3798M) Asphalt 8 Airborne 23 33 N/A * Angry Birds 2 30 31 N/A * Walking War Robots 25 29 N/A *

 Resource Usage Minix Neo X8-H (Amlogic S802) Probox2 EX+ (Amlogic S812) OpenHour Gecko (HiSilicon 3798M) Asphalt 8 Airborne 8%, 169MB 12%, 326MB N/A * Angry Birds 2 9%, 201MB 13%, 315MB N/A * Walking War Robots 10%, 99MB 13%, 275MB N/A *

* The Gecko is not pre-rooted, and currently only a tentative and possible solution may be found for it (http://forum.openhourlab.com/showthread.php?tid=1100). That means that Gamebench, the app I use for measuring frame rate and resources usage could not be used with it. I did run the games regardless, and can say that Angry Birds 2 did run, though not too fluidly, Asphalt 8 Airborne would not start at all, and Walking War Robots worked fine (not smoothly but playable) though control was an issue. Air mouse is supported and may be ordered separately.

Price Comparison 

 * Price for Minix was taken from Geekbuying website, Price for Probox2 was taken from W2Comp website, and Open Hour Gecko price was taken from product website.  Prices are as found, without any current discounts.

Gecko is a powerful video streaming solution with a slick interface and a stable (unrooted) operating system. But…

It uses a special player (hiplayer) inside Kodi to make the most out of the chipset’s hardware supported codecs (and allows support of HD Audio passthrough as well as 3DBDISO support), but also detracts from Kodi’s abilities: you will not be able to see extra info about films and tv episodes as you would if you right click and play using Kodi’s (usually) default DVDplayer internal application

The special player also causes issues with volume control and leaves you only with your TV\Receiver volume control (changing the volume through android with the remote does not do anything)

The usage of an external player (hiplayer) causes a short delay of a few seconds between pressing the play button and the actual beginning of playback

Reverting to the original internal kodi player hurts performance and picture quality

Gecko does not go into sleep mode when you press the power button, but actually turns itself off each time

Gecko performs great on the video performance (inside Kodi) and  image quality fronts thanks to the video processing capabilities of the HiSilicon 3798M chipset. But the price is the required use of specialized codecs and/or proprietary player to achieve it

It seems that HiSilicon (the chipset manufacturer) did not work closely with Kodi as AMLogic and others did, and so there is no specialized codec included within Kodi to handle the hardware decoding. It also did not work on integrating the video codecs into android – which is what Minix seem to have done, which allows for good video playback with almost any application

Open Hour did a good job providing a cheaper (than its predecessor) solution for the Kodi only users. But at a certain cost, which may not appeal to some. It also does not take into account the flood of Chinese brands and re-brands of cheaper (half priced or even less sometimes) options.

Pros

Cons

Excellent video performance Corruption in (10 Bit) TS file playback Great image quality Customized Kodi is lacking (Uses external, problematic player) Good responsive soft-button remote No Air mouse included Slick user interface (launcher) No pre-rooting and issues with certain games and applications Stable Slow network performance

Did I like it? Yes, but only for Kodi usage.

Would I recommend it? Yes, but with reservations. Gecko is more suitable for people who are interested in mostly or exclusively a TV box, and not a more versatile android mini-PC, and that is due to its poor performance outside of the KODI ecosystem.

So you like the Gecko and want to buy it? For online purchase, there is only one official place to go for this slick combo: Open Hour (click on the name to get to the product page, but be aware that they are currently out of stock and you can only as for notification when the product is back on sale) I did also find the product on eBay, but the costs are higher due to high shipping + import charges added during purchase.

I hope you like the review, and you can expect more to come soon!

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Review | OpenHour Gecko TV Box Introduction On the second review, after Probox2’s EX+ TV Box, I'm reviewing a brand new TV Box from Open Hour, named 

[dropswisdom]

Introduction

The third review, after Open Hour Gecko, and Probox2’s EX+ TV Box, is about the new Mini-PC/TV Box from one of the leading TV Boxes manufacturers:

Tronsmart Ara X5

This is a brand new, Windows 10, Intel Atom (14nm Cherry Trail chipset) based TV Box and Mini-PC from Tronsmart.

The “Mini-PC” description means it’s an actual windows running computer engineered to fit in (quite) a small box, and is designed to run Kodi, but also most everyday PC related functions.

I must note, that this device is more difficult to compare to the more common android based Kodi/TV boxes, because of the difference in Operating systems (Microsoft Windows vs. Android), but I will do my best to give a fair comparison as to the abilities of the device – mostly inside Kodi.

This review unit was sent to me courtesy of the good people at Tronsmart, so thank you all, and especially Jim, for the helpful and great communication.

What’s in the Box?

The Ara X5 is Tronsmart’s first Cherry Trail based Mini-PC/Intel Kodi box. So what do we get? The Mini-PC, a power adapter, and a HDMI cable. It seems a bit sparse, but this is not a full system PC, and building a Mini-PC for use with televisions (HDMI port, but no DVI/VGA ports) while keeping the costs low (around 150 USD) requires keeping the package as basic as possible.

Looks

The Ara X5 is an unassuming small black box. And it hides its secrets well. There is a fully working PC inside a box the size of your palm, or a little bit bigger.

It runs off a brand new 14 nm Intel Atom based chipset. The pre-installed operating system is Microsoft Windows 10 Home, and it’s surprisingly fast… as long as you don’t try to bog it down with heavy duty programs.

It also includes Kodi 15 RC3 which is one of the latest versions of Kodi, excluding the new 16 Alpha versions. (Which I also tested, but was quite problematic during playback) SPMC and the new Kodi Jarvis Beta 2 works quite well.

No remote, mouse, or any other control device is included with the package. As mentioned before, it’s meant for keeping the cost down. However, you can use various windows-android remote control programs that rely on a server part installed on the device, and a client part installed on your smartphone or tablet. They use WiFi or Bluetooth communication in order to allow mouse/keyboard interaction with the device.

Specifications

CPU Cherry Trail Intel Atom x5-Z8300 GPU Gen 8 HD Graphics Memory / Storage 2GB DDR3L / 32GB eMMC LAN RJ-45 Ethernet jack (100 Mbps) Wireless Broadcomm AP6330 802.11 b/g/n Dual Band (2.4Ghz / 5.8Ghz) WIFI Bluetooth v4.0 OS Pre-installed and Pre-activated Windows 10 Home Video Output HDMI 1.4, up to 4K** @ 30fps Audio Output Via HDMI 1.4b, 3.5mm Audio-out/Microphone-in Port Power DC 5V 2A adapter (CE, FCC, CCC Certified) Peripheral Interface USB 2.0 Port x 2, USB 3.0 Port x 1, TF Card Reader, 3.5mm Audio-out/Microphone-in Port Packing Included Tronsmart Ara X5 Mini-PC, Power Adapter, HDMI Cable, User Manual

Benchmarks and Testing

Novabench

Novabench offers a marinade of tests ranging between CPU and memory to GPU abilities. As you can see, An above standard 3 years old PC leaves the Ara X5 in the dust due to a much more powerful CPU and GPU. But.. the X5 is not targeted at the same tasks as your work/home PC is. It is meant to be an HTPC that can also be used for casual gaming. As such, it surpasses a standard PC since it’s Kodi performance is very good.

The memory (RAM) copy speed is also lower (by about 23%) but by a smaller margin. The RAM used is fast DDR3L and shows good performance.

PC Mark 8 Benchmark

PC Mark 8 Basic tests go for 20-45 minutes in GPU-accelerated or standard mode and they test regular office tasks as well as memory and video performance. The X5 managed to go through the test a few times, but it also froze after being used for video testing in Kodi followed by a PC Mark 8 session. The box seemed to get quite hot, and left no option but a hard reboot by pressing and holding the power button for 30 seconds. This may not happen in an air conditioned/cooler environment.

Tronsmart updated me that the overheating issue which sometimes manifests itself, is dealt with in new batches that are coming out after September. The new batches includes a new and improved heat sink. 

Results show that the X5 is at about half the performance of the test Home PC. The subjective usage experience, however, is a good one. The results are just to show that a more basic HTPC cannot keep up with a home/gaming PC.

3D Mark Benchmark

3D Mark does what the name says – it tests a device’s ability to handle 3d animation and simulation. The Ara X5 is definitely not a gaming machine, and it wasn’t designed to be one. It can handle 2d (mostly casual) gaming using its Intel HD graphics GPU, but don’t try giving it anything too heavy, or it will choke.

Video Playback testing (Using KODI)

Resolution Video Format Local Playback Network (Wi-Fi/LAN) Playback 720p (1280*720) AVC (High@L4.1) Playing correctly Playing correctly 1080P (1920*1080) AVC (High@L4) Playing correctly Playing correctly  2160P (3840*2160) HEVC (H.265) / 8Bit Playing correctly Buffering  and stutter 4K (4096*2304) AVC (High@L5.1) Playing correctly Buffering  and stutter 4K (4096*2304) 4K TS 10Bit HEVC (H.265) Does not play Does not play

Issues with 4K playback with green bar on top, and Microsoft store applications installations have been resolved after a clean re-installation of Windows 10, and Kodi Jarvis Beta 2.

Gaming performance

I’ve tried four games:

“Worms world party remastered“ would not load properly, and forced me to use task manager to close it.

“Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons“ is a pretty looking unreal engine based puzzle game. It’s not the best choice for this machine since it’s limited to keyboard control. But it did work. Not smoothly.

“Tinertia“ is a cute 3d action platformer. It did not run well at the beginning, even though it tops out at 720p resolution (!). But after reducing the visual settings to low, the game run quite smoothly at around 30 frames per second.

“Volume“ is a nice looking stealth game. Its graphics are not top notch, but it gave the X5 a run for its money, keeping around 6-9 frames per second most of the time/

I imagine if I used a lower resolution TV, the performance would be better, but as it is I would say it’s playable, but not enjoyable.

Price Comparison

Unlike previous reviews, I will not compare it to other android kodi boxes, but also not to home PCs. I will compare it to similar devices:

  Tronsmart Ara X5 Pipo X7-Pro MEEGOPAD T04 Price (USD) 149.99 119.54 128.99

As can be seen, the X5 is the most expensive of these 3 choices. However, I haven’t reviewed these units, and cannot attest to their build quality, performance, or stability.

Pros

Cons

Windows 10 with a wide app base No (10 Bit) TS file playback Good image quality Overheating issue (may be resolved) Good performance for price Not great image/video processing Small sized PC Slower RAM/Disk performance than a Home PC Great network performance Top green bar and phase issues when playing HEVC in 4K

Did I like it? yes, but only as a basic HTPC. There is an overheating issue, and the X5 does not handle HEVC UHD well, even though that may change in the future with software updates.

Would I recommend it?  Mostly to those who like windows systems and want to keep their budget under 200 USD. The box performs well for its size and configuration and is quite stable (other than the overheating issue).

So you like the Tronsmart Ara X5 and want to buy it? Enjoy a 12$ off discount code by using this link: Geekbuying (click on the name to get to the product page)

And enter this coupon code: ISDFHMDV

I hope you like the review, and you can expect more to come soon!

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[Updated] Review | Tronsmart Ara X5 Mini-PC Review Introduction The third review, after Open Hour Gecko, and Probox2’s EX+ TV Box, is about the new Mini-PC/TV Box from one of the leading TV Boxes manufacturers: