Nexbox A95X media player based on Amlogic S905X

Not long ago, there was an "unprecedented generosity" sale, with Amlogic S905X TV boxes featuring 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of flash storage. I couldn't resist either and picked up a few.

I hadn't originally planned to write this review, but after a few people asked in the comments when I would review the Nexbox A95X, I decided to put together a short one after all.
I'll focus mainly on the hardware, with a few tests—in other words, an extended photo gallery. Quite a lot of people bought this box, so I'm sure mine won't be the last review.

As always, let's start with the specifications listed by the manufacturer.
CPU — Amlogic S905X
Number of cores — 4
Graphics — Mali-450
RAM — 2 GB
Flash storage — 16 GB
Wi-Fi: 2.4/5 GHz
Bluetooth: Yes
LAN — 100 Mb Ethernet
Ports: 2x USB 2.0, SPDIF, HDMI, RJ45, micro SD card
H.265 support
4K resolution support
Operating system — Android 6
Dimensions — 93 x 93 x 11 mm

I received the package just yesterday (October 5)—or, more precisely, the first part of it.
Everything was packed in a regular black Banggood bag with foam polyethylene. The boxes arrived almost intact: one was slightly dented on top, the other on the bottom.
They threw in two decent power adapter plugs.

Yes, I think everyone remembers that the TV box cost about $32 at the time of the sale, so I suspect I wasn't the only one who bought more than one :)


The packaging is completely standard; the vast majority of TV boxes come in boxes like this.


The package includes:
1. TV box
2. IR remote control
3. Power supply
4. HDMI cable
5. Manual
6. Power adapter plug.


As usual, the manual is just there for show, and the cable is predictably cheap.
But the power supply surprised me. I even had to stop and think for a moment when I realized what was wrong.
They included an adapter plug even though the power supply already has a European plug. A small touch, but a nice one. You could even say the Chinese sellers managed to outsmart themselves :)


Naturally, I took the power supply apart, and was very surprised to find almost the same internals as the PSU in this review.




The cost-cutting is immediately apparent. That would be understandable in a genuinely cheap TV box, but the store is selling these for $55 now.
1. The input capacitor is 4.7 µF rather than 10 µF, which is bad.
2. They used the same chip as last time, so at least they didn't cut costs there.
3. The interwinding noise-suppression capacitor is a regular high-voltage capacitor, not a safety-rated one—that's unsafe.
4. There's one capacitor on the output instead of two plus an inductor, which means more interference.


The assembly itself is fine, though; everything is neat.


The remote they included is actually pretty good—exactly the same as the one that came with the box in this review.


Unlike more common remotes, this one can be taught to partially replace the TV's original remote.


When I took the TV box out of the package, my first thought wasn't even “how small it is,” but rather “how tiny it is.”
Naturally, I hadn't checked its dimensions beforehand. I thought it would be about the same size as the Mini 8S, but it's noticeably smaller.


For comparison, here are the dimensions of the TV box from the previous review and the one I'm reviewing here.


There are two USB 2.0 ports and a memory card slot on the side of the case.
Everything else is on the back: the power connector, HDMI output, analog audio and video output, Ethernet port, and an SPDIF output in the form of a 3.5 mm jack.
Naturally, no adapters are included.


There's nothing special on the bottom, except that the feet are plastic, so it slides around on the table quite merrily.


Since taking it apart was the plan from the start, let's not put it off.
It's very easy to open. There's even a special spot at the back underneath where you can insert a screwdriver and pry off the bottom of the case.


A fairly large part of the bottom cover is taken up by a heat spreader plate, with heat transferred to it through a thermal pad.
It's a reasonable solution, especially given how thin the heatsink is. The downside is that the plate is on the bottom, so all the heat transferred to it eventually rises upward. That's why I recommend standing the box on its side or turning it upside down.


The board is secured with four small screws at the corners. Overall, everything looks pretty good.


I didn't like the antenna right away. Printed antennas are used in most TV boxes, but they're usually larger.


The board looks very neat, but I was disappointed by the tiny heatsink on the processor. It even looks as if it was overheated during cutting.
The heatsink is probably the only thing I can fault.


There's nothing particularly noteworthy on the back of the board. Two of the four RAM chips are mounted there, along with a handful of other small components.


Since the antenna is glued in place and all the connections are permanent, this is as far as we can take it apart. The connection isn't great, so be careful not to pull the cable off.


Let's see what's on the board.
1. Four SK Hynix RAM chips, which is good.
2. Samsung flash memory, also not bad.
3. AP6330 2.4/5 GHz WiFi module—they weren't lying.
4. Analog audio output chip dio2133 (thanks for the tip).
5. The power supply circuitry is the same as on the vast majority of TV boxes: lots of small converters based on chips from a single series.
6. But they cut corners on protection for the HDMI output. Usually there are a couple of small chips here, but in this case they're missing—just jumpers.

Since the box only has a 100 Mbps network interface, this is handled by the processor itself, with no external network chip.


There's room on the board for a heatsink about twice as long as the one currently installed.


The reset button is in the usual spot, behind the analog audio output connector.
The PCB design date is early August 2016, so it's quite recent.


A brief overview of the installed software.
When I turned on the box, I was very surprised to find that it uses exactly the same launcher as this model. And it's not just similar—it's the very same one.




Even the list of installed apps is practically identical.


General technical information about the box.


When I tried to update the software, I was basically told to get lost: the update program couldn't see the server at all.


Installed apps take up 1.27 GB, but most of them can be removed without any trouble. I think that would only make things better.


The settings menu is no different from those on other boxes.


There's also a setting for how the power button works.


As always, the first thing I check is WiFi.
And, as I expected, there are some problems. Right from the start, I could see my access point and entered the password, but that was as far as I got. It connected a couple of times, then started showing a connection error: signal too weak.


Don't let the slightly wonky screenshot put you off. The thing is, the box displays the SpeedTest window in portrait orientation, and the screenshot then gets squashed down to 831x1080.

Here's what you're looking at:
1. The router is about 5 meters away, in the same room as the box.
2. The router is 1 meter from the box.
3. Wired connection. My internet speed is 50 Mbps, but the upload shaper is disabled, so it's 100 Mbps.


The first two tests, but in the iPerf app.


Screenshot from WiFi Analyzer. Yes, I have the 40 MHz channel width enabled; I need to switch it to 20 MHz. I left it that way after some experiments.


Information from CPU-Z




And from AIDA64.


This is the check that puzzled me while preparing the previous review: it says the 5 GHz band isn't supported, even though the board has a module that supports it.


For some reason, AnTuTu 4 displayed the test in portrait orientation, with a “running” cursor, and then the test froze completely, so I'll move straight on to 5.2.0.
By the way, the score is higher than the one for Mini M8S II; that one scored 27406.


AnTuTu 6xx also gives a pretty good result, about 1500 points higher than the Mini M8S II, which is based on the same processor.


AnTuTu Video gave exactly the same result as the Mini M8S II, and a higher score than boxes with the 912 processor.


The 3DMark and PCMark synthetic benchmark results are also identical to those of the Mini M8S II.


The Epic Citadel test is a little worse, though: 49.3 versus 50.7, and 25.6 versus 27.1 for the Mini M8S II.
But polygon rendering is excellent here, so this is definitely a problem with the 912 processor.


I only started running GeekBench tests recently, so I don't have any results to compare with the Mini M8S II. But I can compare it with a box based on the S912, which is even more interesting.
So, we can see three tests in the screenshot: one in version 3 and two in version 4, for four results in total.
S905X____S912
629_____624
1852____2331
594_____441
1673____1940
877_____1440

As you can see, the 912 is faster in some tests, while the 905X is faster in others, which is very strange.


The standard performance test for the card reader, flash memory and RAM. Since this test is only weakly dependent on the processor (in this comparison), the results are practically identical.


As I mentioned above, almost all the apps installed on this TV box are identical to those on the YUNDOO Y2, so I won't go into detail about them. I'll just say that I liked the YouTube app the most.


This app is included with the box under review, but not with the YUNDOO Y2.
It probably would be very useful and interesting, except it doesn't work :)
When you launch it, it says there's no connection, even though the cable is plugged in and there's internet access :)


The video playback test results are identical to those for the TV box:
1024x768_h265_AC3.mkv (no sound)
2560x1600_AAC .mp4
3840x2160_AAC .mp4
4096x2160_AAC .mp4
gopro-hero-3-be-avc-high@l5.1-4096x2160-12p-aac-2ch.mp4
GraysPeak8HDR_Dolby AC3.mp4 (no sound)
LG 4K Paris_AAC.mp4
LG 4K Story-of-Earth_AAC.mp4
LG_Chess_HDR.mp4
Philips_UHD_supershopdemo_1.mp4
samsung-note-3-3840x2160-high@l5.1-AAC-2ch-2.mp4
4K HD.Club Changhong-Furano-100mbps.mp4

I was also able to play the Sony_4K_HDR_Camp.mp4 test file, but only in MX_Player_Pro_1.8.3. Interestingly, with the built-in players the sound is fine, but there's no video. Install MXPlayer, and you get video, but only at 2 fps, with the sound stuttering.


I also checked whether the video output was correct.
Unfortunately, Kodi couldn't display the image correctly: it was shifted horizontally, while the pixels lined up perfectly vertically.


Everything was displayed correctly in the other installed players.


Since I don't have a TV with an HDMI input, I tried automatic refresh-rate switching on a monitor.
In manual mode, you can easily select 50 Hz. But if you select automatic mode, the monitor switches to 60 Hz and stays there even when playing video at 50 Hz.


Surprisingly, the box doesn't get very hot during operation. I ran tests on it for about 20 minutes, then measured the temperatures of the top and bottom covers; they were around 48 degrees.
Of course, measuring the temperature this way isn't very accurate. I could also see for myself that the heatsink isn't very large and is mounted underneath, but that's how it is.
All I can say is that I'd recommend placing the box upside down—or better yet, standing it on its side. That should improve cooling, since the bottom cover has ventilation holes and air will be able to circulate.


That’s all. Let me sum things up.
Pros
Very neat construction
2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi
Analog video output
2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of flash storage
Convenient remote control

Cons
Weak Wi-Fi
Small heatsink; it may overheat under heavy load.
A budget power supply.
The current price is too high for this device.
100 Mbps network connection.

My take: it’s clear that some corners have been cut: a weak Wi-Fi antenna, a simplified power supply, a small heatsink, and only a 100 Mbps network connection. On the other hand, I bought this box for $32, which is a very good price for a device like this.
There are also some software shortcomings, such as the lack of out-of-the-box AC3 audio decoding, as well as a bunch of unnecessary software that just takes up space.

But if it goes on sale again, it’s a great deal for a box with these specs—even with these drawbacks. At its current price, though, it’s far too expensive, and I’d rather get a box with a 912 processor.

I hope my mini-review was useful. As always, I look forward to well-reasoned criticism in the comments.