The Android TV Box are an increasingly popular product, and it is the fastest and most effective way to turn your television into a truly intelligent system, thus making the Android TV Box your global home entertainment center. My experience with Android TV Box is extensive, a technological concept that I adopted from its first releases.
Experience has made me know that it is not necessary to adopt the most expensive models to meet my needs in the world of audiovisual entertainment. Today I bring you the S-BOX, a white-label Android TV Box that will be able to allow you to consume content everywhere, let's go there.
As always we are going to analyze all aspects of the device, from accessories to materials going through the most important, how it shows in day-to-day performance. However, I recommend that you go directly through the index if you do not want to waste time reading information that you may not need, such as the more technical concepts of the device. Without further delay, we will proceed with the analysis of the device, S-BOX is an unpretentious Android TV Box for absolutely all audiences.
Materials and design of the TV Box
Wanting to go unnoticed, this is how I would define the design of this S-BOX. We start with the construction, a rubbery plastic material that, although it has a predilection for fingerprints, is easily cleanable. It will not shine or accumulate too much dirt, that means that it will fulfill its function without attracting attention in any room. Further, we find a fairly slim and compact design, the reality is that at first glance it gives a very good impressionIt's not big or ugly, and design is the first thing they tend to save on when it comes to devices at these prices. It is extremely similar to the Xiaomi device.
On the other hand we have a plastic material accompanied by a silicone base that will keep it well attached to the place surrounded by aerators. This is how they ensure that the device does not get too hot despite being compact. On other Android TV I have noticed that the device is overheating (and ends up shutting down) when we demand performance, like a good 1080p movie through a streaming playback system. With the S-BOX we have not yet encountered such problems, the hardware content and the design go hand in hand in that regard.
On the front we have the infrared receiver, while on the right side the only thing we see is a slot for a microSD card, something to keep in mind, since most usually include holes for more basic (and cheap) SD cards. The left side is totally clean, and absolutely everything important is left behind, something to be thankful for when including accessories. We have only two USB 2.0s that will be enough for keyboard and mouse, as well as the HDMI output, the analog audio jack and the power input.
Hardware and connections
We start with the raw power, we are faced with a device with a very low-end processor, a Amlogic S905X, but that nevertheless reaches 2.0 GHz, by this we mean that under normal conditions it defends itself without problem with all applications dedicated to consuming content. For this it is accompanied by 2 GB of RAM, also a sufficient quantity and the minimum acceptable according to my experience if what we want is to enjoy without problems. This is how using Android 6.0 will run most of the applications from the Google Play Store without any problem, although the use of the GPU Mali-450 It will leave us with a bittersweet taste, we cannot ask too much of it beyond consuming audio / video.
It has the main video codecs such as VP8, VP9, H.265 and H.264, as well as the most widespread at the audio level. In terms of connectivity we will have Bluetooth 4.0 and WiFi in the 2,4 GHz band. The most gourmets of sound will miss an optical output, to get the most possible performance from our sound bars, for example, a shame, but we can get to understand it for the price it is offering us in general terms. We do not forget about storage 16 GB of ROM that can be expanded up to 64 GB more through the microSD slot.
An interesting aspect is that has a remote, which also works by infrared. However, it is the worst thing about the device, the remote tends to be confused with the TV (at least with mine) and the S-BOX does not receive the signal well. Perhaps more buttons are missing although it has a "mouse" system through the remote. It is difficult to find well-optimized applications for it, so has become a useless junk in my house, I still opt for the wireless mouse / keyboard.
User experience and editor's opinion
In my case I have not found myself limited in any way by the S-BOX, although the reality is that the Launcher that comes standard is very (very) improvable. I have solved it taking advantage of the fact that the device is shipped with ROOT made as standard and we can eliminate all the applications, native or not, that we want. I got rid of the standard Launcher and opted for a more popular one. That said, I haven't found no problem with the most common applications such as Netflix, Movistar +, Spotify and even the browser, despite the fact that if we do not choose to optimize it by putting our knowledge to the test, we could find some other problem.
Pros
- Design and materials
- Bring ROOT done
- Price
Cons
- The command is fatal
- The Launcher is very heavy
My edition arrived in a version with Spanish activated, something to be thankful for. It also has reinstalled applications like Miracast that can get us out of more than one trouble. This device can be found at THIS LINK from just over € 40, and honestly my experience is that it is more than enough for the vast majority of users. In the box you will also find the power supply, something to be thankful for because there are not few who are powered through USB and it is a total hassle to lose a USB on our television. It is definitely a product that I recommend if it does not have too many pretensions and you only want to consume content, taking into account its limitations of course, it is not designed by any means to play, despite the fact that it includes an automatic connection system with Bluetooth controls that I have decided not to try to save me stress. You can see it in this LINK
UPDATE: Numerous software problems as well as the absence of the original firmware on the internet have completely prevented me from using it further.