Another Android TV box has landed on my desk for review, but this time it’s powered by the new Amlogic S905 processor. I’m curious to see how it compares with its predecessor.
Let’s take a look, get our hands on it, take it apart, and put it through its paces.
Initially, I was offered three TV box options with this processor to review.
The one I’m reviewing was the cheapest and had no brand name.
I ruled out the other two, more well-known boxes (the first had too few ports, and the second was noticeably more expensive) and wanted to check out the cheapest option.
As I mentioned above, this TV box uses Amlogic’s new S905 processor.
This processor replaces the fairly well-known S805. Likewise, the S912 replaces the S812.
The manufacturer promises
mountains of gold more performance for the same price and with lower power consumption.
CPU – Quad Core ARM Cortex A53 CPU @ 2.0 GHz with 512KB unified cache.
GPU – S905: 5 core Mali-450MP to 750MHz with OpenGL ES 11./2.0 and OpenVG 1.1 support, unnamed 2.5D
GPU — S912: TBD
Video – 4K@60 Hz video decoding 10-bit HEVC and AVS+ codec support; H.264 up to 4K 30 Hz; 1080p60 H.264 encoding
Video Output – HDMI 2.0 + HDCP 2.2
Audio – DTS & Dolby support
Crypto engine for AES-128/192/256, SHA-1/SHA-2 engine
TrustZone support
Manufacturing Process – 28 nm
And a brief explanation in Russian.
The S905 has four Cortex A53 cores (64-bit) running at 2.02 GHz, while the S805 has four Cortex A5 cores (32-bit) running at 1.5 GHz.
It also uses Mali-450 graphics with a new video decoder, running at up to 750 MHz.
The new video decoder can hardware-decode all modern codecs, including 10-bit H.265, H.264, and AVS+, and can play video at 4K resolution and 60 fps.
In addition, the new processor supports HDMI 2.0, allowing it to output true 3D video. It also optionally supports hardware decoding of multichannel audio formats: Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS Digital Surround, DTS HD, DTS Express, Real, and DivX HD.
TV box specifications:CPU — Amlogic S905
Number of cores — 4
Graphics — Mali-450
RAM — 1 GB
Flash memory — 8 GB
WiFi: 2.4 GHz
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0 (incorrect; this device has no Bluetooth)
LAN — 100 Mb Ethernet
Ports: 4x USB 2.0, SPDIF, HDMI, AV, RJ45, TF Card
H.265 support
4K resolution support
Operating system — Android 5.1.1
Dimensions — 130 x 100 x 30 mm
A little about the packaging.
The TV box arrived in a neat little white box. There’s not much else to say about it.
A TV box with the new S905—let’s see how it performsWhenever I get a new device, instrument, or whatever, I start looking for anything unusual or noteworthy as soon as I unpack it.
In this case, though, one thought kept going through my head as I unpacked it: just an ordinary device.
I think if there were a contest for the most ordinary device, this TV box would take first place.
For some reason, it even reminded me of the opening of the movie “Joe Versus the Volcano.”
Just looking at the packaging, you can tell there’s nothing unusual about it: a square box with no special graphics, no girls, birds, or kittens—just a standard box.
A TV box with the new S905—let’s see how it performsThe same goes for the contents of the box:
1. TV box
2. Power adapter
3. HDMI cable
4. IR remote control.
5. Manual.
A TV box with the new S905—let’s see how it performsThe contents are standard, but I’ll still take a little time, as usual, to go over what’s included.
First up: the standard manual.
Well, I can’t say anything good or bad about it. It’s just a manual, with text and pictures.
A TV box with the new S905—let’s see how it performsThe box comes with an HDMI cable with white connectors—the most ordinary stock HDMI cable. As it turned out later, it didn't work either. O_o.
They also included an equally ordinary, unremarkable power supply.
Specs: 12 V, 1 A. I was glad to see the familiar power plug, though.
It connects to the box via the familiar 5.5 × 2.1 mm connector.
TV box with the new S905—let's see how it performsThe remote. It looks ordinary too; probably 90% of devices like this come with remotes just like it.
TV box with the new S905—let's see how it performsThe remote takes a couple of AAA batteries.
The remote's shape is quite nice, it sits very comfortably in your hand, and it's very light.
The little sticker on the bottom was a bit of a surprise. It was the first thing that made this otherwise completely ordinary device stand out from the ones I've reviewed.
TV box with the new S905—let's see how it performsAfter reading the sticker carefully, I realized that this remote is actually programmable. You can teach the TV box remote to copy any four buttons from another remote, such as your TV remote.
A rough translation of the instructions:
1. Get your TV remote and the TV box remote.
2. Hold down the SET button for 3–5 seconds. The right-hand power button should light up.
3. Press any of the four programmable buttons (for example, the power button). The backlight should start flashing.
4. Place the remotes facing each other and press the button on the original remote whose code you want to “clone.” The button's backlight will stay on, flash quickly a couple of times, then light up again.
5. Press SET again. The backlight goes out, and the process is complete. You can repeat the same steps for the other buttons.
Why is this useful? This feature lets you program a few basic buttons (for example, power, volume, and video input selection) on the TV box remote, so you only need one remote.
This is the only thing that sets this ordinary TV box apart from the others so far—and I genuinely liked it.
TV box with the new S905—let's see how it performsThat's the accessories covered. Let's move on to the box itself.
I'd say it's on the larger side. There's nothing unusual about the exterior either; the designers clearly didn't go out of their way to add any flourishes.
TV box with the new S905—let's see how it performsThe USB ports are on the left, along with perhaps the only decorative feature: the power button, made as a transparent insert.
TV box with the new S905—let's see how it performsThere's nothing on the right side. By the way, manufacturers usually put the ports on the right, but for some reason they decided to do the opposite here.
TV box with the new S905—let's see how it performsA little about the connectors and what they’re for.
As I mentioned above, there are four USB ports on the left side. That’s what sets this box apart from one of its better-known siblings, which had only two.
Just to the left is a slot for a microSD memory card. The manufacturer specifies a maximum capacity of 32 GB; unfortunately, I can’t test a larger card.
The connectors on the back are probably all very familiar.
1. A 3.5 mm jack carrying video and stereo audio output. This connector will come in handy if you have an older TV with neither HDMI nor VGA.
2. Ethernet port. Also the standard 100 Mbps—everything here is budget-oriented.
3. HDMI (for some reason labeled HDTV). Well, that’s for those of you whose TV has this port :)
4. S/PDIF, an optical digital output for sending audio to a receiver.
5. Power connector.
The power button is backlit: blue when running and red in standby. The brightness is moderate, mostly because the light is diffused by the button’s plastic, although you can see that the LEDs themselves are bright.
And when you plug the box in, it starts up straight into operating mode rather than standby, as is usually the case. That can be useful sometimes.
TV box with the new S905—let’s see how it performsThe bottom. There’s not much to note here, except the holes for mounting the box on a wall.
I’ll also mention that the bottom of the case is plastic, as is the rear panel. It only looks like metal; it’s actually just paint.
There’s a small round hole halfway along the right side, with a reset button underneath.
TV box with the new S905—let’s see how it performsThe feet are pretty good, but since the device is very light, it can still slide around.
Still, it’s nice that the feet have a tread pattern; smooth feet often slide even more.
TV box with the new S905—let’s see how it performsSince I can’t think of anything else to inspect on the outside, I decided to take a look inside.
As usual, I’ve hidden the teardown under a spoiler.
When I started taking it apart, I was a little stumped because I couldn’t see any screws holding it together.
First I peeled off a couple of the feet on the right; nothing underneath. Then I spotted a warranty seal (the first time I’ve seen one on a device like this), with a screw underneath it.
As expected, the second screw was under the left foot.
After that, it was straightforward, although I wouldn’t say it’s particularly easy to take apart—quite the opposite, really.
TV box with the new S905—let’s see how it performsOnce you remove the two screws, you can lift off the bottom cover, which is one piece with the rear panel. There are four clips at the back, so open it carefully.
TV box with the new S905—let’s see how it performsNothing unusual inside at first glance—or at least, almost nothing.
A plastic case, gray on the bottom and made of dark red plastic on top, which looks almost black.
This red-plastic trick is familiar from many TV boxes. There’s an IR receiver inside, and rather than cut a window into the case, they simply make the case itself into a “window” :)
TV box with the new S905—let’s see how it performsA closer look at the circuit board. All the photos are clickable. If you need higher-resolution photos (you never know), just ask.
No complaints about the board’s assembly quality: simple, but neat and clean.
TV box with the new S905—let’s see how it performsSince I'm used to larger processors, this little guy really surprised me.
On the outside, it's an ordinary small chip with a tiny heatsink.
To get an idea of its size, look at the mounting screw just above and to the left.
TV box with the new S905—curious to see how it performsLet's take a closer look at the rest of the hardware.
1. RAM:
DDR3L-1866 made by Nanya. I haven't come across it in a long time; it's decent memory.
Two chips, for a total of 1 GB.
2. Flash memory:
H27UCG8T2ETR made by SKhynix, formerly Hynix, which was formerly Hyundai.
I can't say how it is now, but it used to be pretty good—at least their RAM was.
The flash memory capacity is 8 GB. It's worth noting that when I was choosing a box to review, one well-known brand had the same box, but it cost more and came with 4 GB of flash. In my opinion, 1-8 is already cutting it close, while 1-4 is just :(
3. Wi-Fi is handled by a
RTL8189ETV made by Realtek. Unfortunately, this chip only supports the 2.4 GHz band.
4. Ethernet. Here I found a chip that was new to me; I hadn't come across one like this before:
www.icplus.com.tw/Data/Datasheet/IP101%20LF-DS-R08-07042005.pdf, made by IC+.
This chip provides a wired connection at 100 Mbps.
TV box with the new S905—curious to see how it performsMoving on.
1. USB 2.0 hub. They didn't reinvent the wheel here, and went with the classic
GL852G.
2. Power. The designers didn't bother much with this. No special controllers or other nanotechnology. Five DC-DC converters generate the required voltages from 12 V. On the one hand, that's good—it's easier to replace them. On the other hand, if one of these chips fails when supplied with 12 V (though it doesn't really matter; it could happen at 5 V too), there's nothing left to repair anyway, just as with more sophisticated converters.
3. Near the power connector, there's a footprint for protection against reverse polarity and overvoltage (presumably). I think it was intended for a 5 V power option, but they apparently decided that 12 V was hard to exceed and left the components unpopulated.
4. There's also a 1.2 V linear regulator on the board. I don't know what it powers, but there's room for another one next to it.
TV box with the new S905—curious to see how it performsYou can also see the IR receiver for the remote, and to its left there's a footprint for some kind of module, perhaps a position sensor or something else. It's not clear.
TV box with the new S905—curious to see how it performsOne thing I didn't see on the board was the microUSB connector that's common on TV boxes and usually used to update the firmware.
TV box with the new S905—curious to see how it performsBut there are three connectors whose purpose is unclear. Knowing how cost-conscious Chinese (and not only Chinese) designers are, seeing three connectors on the board struck me as very odd.
TV box with the new S905—curious to see how it performsI suspect these connectors (at least the larger one) bring out some of the microprocessor's I/O ports. But that's just a guess.
TV box with the new S905—curious to see how it performsThe Wi-Fi antenna is implemented very simply. In previous boxes, it was a printed antenna, custom-made for each box model.
Here, it's just a short piece of wire—or, more precisely, the center conductor of a coaxial cable.
By the way, I had no complaints about the Wi-Fi; it works pretty well.
But I always recommend a wired connection as the more reliable option.
TV box with the new S905—curious to see how it performsThe underside of the board is almost empty. Most of the components here are passive.
TV box with the new S905—interesting to see how it performsThere are a few active components too.
1. Audio chip. Analog audio is handled by the
ES7134LV DAC, made by Everest.
2. A few small components and the reset button. The reset button is usually placed behind the 3.5 mm jack, but here it’s on the underside. If you look closely at the bottom cover, you’ll see a small hole. You’ll need something sharp to press it, since the hole is tiny.
TV box with the new S905—interesting to see how it performsThat’s it for the TV box’s internals. I think it’s simple and tasteful.
The designers tried to simplify the design and cut costs, but overall I have no complaints. Everything is neat and thoughtfully laid out.
Next up in the review is testing, especially since this box has a new processor.
Unfortunately, the video input on my TV tuner has failed (or at least I suspect it has), so there won’t be any video of the testing process :(
I’ll probably hide the test results under a spoiler too.
First, a little information about the processor installed in the box.
The processor has fairly sophisticated power management and changes its clock speed depending on the load.
At close to maximum load, it runs at 2016 MHz with all cores active.
TV box with the new S905—interesting to see how it performsWhen idle, unused cores are disabled and the clock speed drops to 100 MHz (I haven’t seen it go any lower).
TV box with the new S905—interesting to see how it performsAccording to CPU-Z, the box has root access enabled out of the box, which is nice :)
That’s probably the most interesting thing in this screenshot.
TV box with the new S905—interesting to see how it performsThe desktop interface is very basic: plain and simple, in gray and black, with large “buttons.”
TV box with the new S905—interesting to see how it performsOpening Settings takes us to this menu, where you can change most of the settings you’re likely to use.
TV box with the new S905—interesting to see how it performsThere’s also an option I’m often asked about in reviews: control via HDMI CEC.
TV box with the new S905—interesting to see how it performsUnfortunately, I can’t test this feature because I simply don’t have a way to do so :(
I’ll have to take the manufacturer’s word for it that the feature is there—and might even work.
TV box with the new S905—interesting to see how it performsThe Settings menu also lets you open the classic menu for this version of Android.
There are more settings here, and they’re often different from the ones in the main menu.
For example, the Display menu has one set of options in the first menu and a completely different set in the second, so be careful.
TV box with the new S905—interesting to see how it performsThis is how this TV box «sees» itself. Android version 5.1.1, model KI Plus, kernel version dated 23 11 2015—pretty recent :)
TV box with the new S905, interesting to see how it performsOf the 8 GB of flash memory, just over 4 GB is available to the user.
TV box with the new S905, interesting to see how it performs«Out of the box», not many apps are installed. It's nice that there are no Chinese-language apps, which can sometimes be a pain to remove later.
Let's just say it has all the essentials: a browser, media players, an image viewer, and a file manager.
TV box with the new S905, interesting to see how it performsThe first thing I ran was the Antutu Video test. It gives me at least some idea of the box's multimedia capabilities.
Unfortunately, the test didn't complete.
It scored 905 points and failed to play 3 formats.
The box with the 805 chip scores 488 points, while the one with the 812 scores 1099. Not bad.
TV box with the new S905, interesting to see how it performsThe box couldn't play 3 file types.
TV box with the new S905, interesting to see how it performsAnTuTu version 5.2 scored 21525 points.
The box with the 805 chip scores around 16655 in this test; I didn't run this test on the 812.
TV box with the new S905, interesting to see how it performsAnTuTu version 5.7 returned a score of 29174 points.
I didn't test the 805 chip with version 5.7, while the 812 scored 41842.
TV box with the new S905, interesting to see how it performsPCMark scored 3232 points. The 805 chip wasn't tested, while the 812 scored 8053. The Beelink i68 scored 3983 points in this test.
TV box with the new S905, interesting to see how it performs3DMark scored 4260 points; the 812 chip scored 8053, and the Beelink i68 scored 5096.
TV box with the new S905, interesting to see how it performs
TV box with the new S905, interesting to see how it performsOne website ran its own comparative tests of this chip against the S805.
I'll include the table and a short quote from the article.
Link to the original article.
A ratio greater than 1 means the S905 is faster than the S805. As we can see, the new chip came out ahead in every test. This is especially true of the boot-speed test, which combines processor speed with the improved ART runtime. So if you're planning to upgrade from an Amlogic S805 mini PC to an Amlogic S905, you'll notice a clear performance boost with the new processor.
A little more about the preinstalled software.
KODI version 15.2 is preinstalled. I ran into no problems during testing—in fact, quite the opposite: thanks to KODI, I was able to complete one of the tests successfully, but more on that later.
TV box with the new S905, interesting to see how it performs
TV box with the new S905, interesting to see how it performsSince TV boxes sometimes output video at the wrong resolution instead of pixel-for-pixel, scaling a lower resolution up to 1920x1080, I now make a point of checking whether a box can output video correctly.
At first, I was a little disappointed. When I tried playing the test file with the two included players, the result was a mess.
In the center of the frame, the image didn't line up with the pixels, and it just looked out of focus.
Around the edges, though, the image was displayed perfectly.
I was already getting discouraged, but the problem went away when I tried playing the same file with KODI. With that player, the image was displayed perfectly across the entire frame.
TV box with the new S905—let's see how it performsThe installed apps caught my attention.
The first one asked me to register (the code was already entered), pay money, and do something else
TV box with the new S905—let's see how it performsThe second one launched, updated, and worked without any problems.
In the app, you can choose from various TV channels and watch what was shown during the day (as far as I could tell).
For some reason, one channel wouldn't work, but the others were fine.
Of course, I didn't check all 100500 channels, but the ones I tried at random worked without a hitch. All in all, a must-have.
TV box with the new S905—let's see how it performs.
Finally, I played a video in the box's YouTube app.
As in my other reviews, I used the now-standard 4K video —
COSTA RICA IN 4K 60fps (ULTRA HD)At first, there were a few minor problems with the app itself, but they went away. Video playback was excellent: no stuttering or freezing, just smooth and beautiful.
TV box with the new S905—let's see how it performsI also tried playing a 4K video from a flash drive at a bitrate of 100 Mbps. There was some stuttering during the first few seconds while it buffered (I even thought it would be like the Beelink), but after 2–3 seconds it played perfectly.
When I tried playing a 6K video, the box said the format wasn't supported.
Since I couldn't get the TV tuner's video input to work, I checked whether it could output analog video by connecting it to the first TV I came across. The aspect ratio wasn't quite right, but the video displayed and everything worked :)
TV box with the new S905—let's see how it performsFirst, here's what we got in the end. The processor is clearly more powerful than its predecessor, and I think we can expect to see more TV boxes based on it.
In my view, the logical next step is to test TV boxes with the S912 processor, which should also be faster than the S812.
In short, I think this processor is a success. And since it consumes less power, we can probably expect versions in the form of a stick that plugs into an HDMI port.
Now, on to the TV box itself.
ProsNew processor
Four USB ports
Analog video and audio output
S/PDIF output
Convenient remote control
Good price-to-performance ratio
Root access
No “extra” preinstalled software
ConsProblems with pixel-perfect video output using the standard players; this can be fixed by playing videos in KODI.
1 GB of RAM is a bit on the low side these days. I’d like to see 2 GB; I think that will happen, but not at this price.
The HDMI cable didn’t work, though perhaps I was just “lucky.”
Overheating is still possible in games; they were too quick to reduce the heatsink size.
Added: no Bluetooth. It’s not often needed, but for some users it could be a deal-breaker.
My take: the developers clearly followed the principle that “beauty lies in simplicity.”
Since this is a budget device, that approach is quite reasonable—as long as it doesn’t compromise the device’s technical capabilities. I can live with an unremarkable design, a bad cable, and a plastic case, but I wouldn’t forgive poor-quality components or unstable operation.
Some of my reviews show examples of developers making attractive devices with impressive specs on paper that turned out to be noticeably worse in reality. In this case, they’ve struck a reasonable compromise.
But now I’m really keen to test a device based on the S912 and compare it with a good
option based on the S812. If the new processor can also outperform it at the same price, that would be excellent.
What I haven’t tested yet, but should be fairly important: HDMI CEC. I don’t have any compatible devices. I also haven’t tested video files with a frame rate of 23.976. Suggest a good way to test this and I’ll give it a try.
That’s all for now. I’m looking forward to your questions, test suggestions, and feedback in the comments.
The product was provided by the store for review.
