Alfawise A95X R1, an inexpensive TV box

Another TV box, but this one belongs to the very lowest price segment. That doesn't stop us from putting it through all the same tests as its more expensive “colleagues.”
So, as usual: a look around, teardown, tests, conclusions, and the final summary table.



Specifications.
OS: Android 6
CPU: RK3229 Quad-core Cortex A7 1.5GHz 32Bit
GPU: Mali-400MP2
RAM: 1GB DDR3;
ROM: 8GB EMMC Flash
TF Card: up to 64GB
Wi-Fi: IEEE.802.11 b/g/n (2.4 GHz)
Ethernet:10/100M, RJ-45
HDMI: HDMI 2.0 4K*2K 60Hz
2x USB 2.0, S/PDIF, AV
Power: DC 5V 2A
Dimensions: 93x93x15 mm


As you can already see, this TV box is in the most budget-friendly segment. That shows in both the amount of RAM and the flash storage. The SoC used here is also about two years old, so it's hard to call it new.
By the way, I've already reviewed TV boxes with the same processor from other manufacturers: Mini MXQ, A95X King, MX4, SCISHION V88 Mars II, so I doubt I'll have anything new to tell you.

The TV box comes in a small black cardboard box, with a brief list of specifications on the bottom.


The package contents are no different from the previous models:
1. TV box
2. Power adapter
3. IR remote control
4. HDMI cable
5. Manual.


As you can probably tell from the price, everything in the box is as budget as it gets: the power adapter, cable, and a basic remote with no learning function. Even the manual is just a single sheet of paper.


I opened up the power adapter out of curiosity, and it turned out to be worth the effort.




The TV box case is yet another variation on the theme of a black square box.


There is, however, a bit of a design touch on the front in the form of a translucent insert.


The case is very small—even smaller than the Mecool I reviewed recently: 93x93x15 mm versus 100x100x21.


Most of the connectors are on the back:
Power
HDMI output
Analog audio and video
Ethernet
S/PDIF

The left side has two USB 2.0 ports and a memory card slot.


The overall connector layout. In this case, the small number of ports actually makes some sense: it's a basic TV box, so it has few ports. It even has one more than the Mecool M8S, thanks to the S/PDIF port, though I think that's a little unnecessary.


The bottom is smooth, with four raised bumps that serve as “hardware-emulated” feet. But since the TV box is lightweight, it slides around on the table quite easily.


The bottom cover is held in place only by clips. Apply a little force and it comes off.





The first time you power it on, a setup wizard guides you through the initial configuration. The options are standard and straightforward, so setup is easy.
It’s strange that the scaling option was initially set to 94%, making the image smaller than the screen area (you can even see it in the screenshots). Setting it to 100% fixed everything.
At the very end, a brief guide shows where everything is on the home screen.


The home screen looks fairly familiar, with quick access to some apps and the main menu. You can set it to show the weather for your city at the top, though the text will still be in English.


The settings menu is quite simple. You can open the advanced settings, but they’re much like those on other Android devices.


There are very few video output settings: resolution and scaling.


Android 6.0.1 is preinstalled.


The wireless update feature doesn’t find any newer firmware versions and says the latest one is already installed.


The TV box has the smallest flash storage capacity available at the moment: just 8 GB, so there isn’t much room to work with. In practice, the user has about 5.5 GB available.
To be fair, though, I was able to fit all the test apps and screenshots, as well as several IPTV apps, without any trouble.
There’s only 1 GB of RAM, too, so you can’t run many apps at once; you’ll have to make some compromises.


Despite all of the above, the manufacturer installed quite a lot of apps. In my opinion, a good number of them are unnecessary, though you can read more about that in the relevant section.



General information from CPU-Z.


Since I’ve already posted four reviews of TV boxes based on this processor, I’ll hide all the tests under a spoiler. It’s easier to check the results in the summary table.


Since this is a budget device, Wi-Fi only works on the 2.4 GHz band, and the LAN speed is limited to 100 Mbps.
Testing showed average sensitivity and rather low speeds.
In one test, the router was in the opposite corner of a large room, with no direct line of sight: speeds were 8–9 Mbps. At a distance of 1–2 m from the router, they were 20–30 Mbps.
The wired connection delivers a steady 92–94 Mbps.


Bundled software
I used the file manager most often. It’s convenient and works well; I even had no trouble accessing one of my computers over the network and playing a movie.


The main screen is called Press Center. An original name, but the app is actually convenient: you can access shared files on the network and share your own files as well.


1. Browser
2. RAM cleaner. With just 1 GB installed, you’ll need to use it often.
3. Play Market. It works, no issues.
4. Game controller, software for working with joysticks and similar devices.


There’s also a TV Store app. I even used it on some previous TV boxes.
But here, the app first asked to update, and the security software complained during the process.
After the update, the software not only refused to work properly, but even sitting idle on the home screen it loaded the processor so heavily that the temperature climbed to 92–95°C. Everything was barely moving, and eventually Android showed me a notification: “Remove dangerous app.”
I had to uninstall it.


TUMC, aka Kodi. The first launch showed that the app wouldn’t work without add-ons.
I launched K-Addons and installed everything in one go. After that, Kodi went a little “off the rails” and started constantly showing notifications that the installed add-ons were incompatible. It seemed like the notifications just never stopped.


But then things settled down, and I was able to use some of the add-ons—in this case, StreamHub.
I watched several videos without any problems. Overall, I had no complaints about them.


FilmOn was also included as an extra app. But this software refused to launch at all, and also disrupted the launcher.


YouTube wasn’t included out of the box, so I had to install it myself from Play Market.
For the most part, it worked, but there were occasional brief freezes. The highest resolution available was 720p. The processor temperature hovered around 72–77°C.


Now let’s move on to third-party apps.
As usual, I started by testing with Torrent TV, but it kept returning an error and refused to show anything.


Things went much better with LolTV! A couple of times it failed to connect to a stream, and once it showed a gray screen, but the other channels I tested played fine, although there were occasional brief freezes here too. The temperature was around 60–65°C.


Testing playback of various video files.
1024x768_h265_AC3.mkv
2560x1600_AAC .mp4
3840x2160_AAC .mp4 - brief freezes
4096x2160_AAC .mp4 - brief freezes
gopro-hero-3-be-avc-high@l5.1-4096x2160-12p-aac-2ch.mp4
GraysPeak8HDR_Dolby AC3.mp4 - dropped frames
LG 4K Paris_AAC.mp4 - dropped frames
LG 4K Story-of-Earth_AAC.mp4 - dropped frames
LG_Chess_HDR.mp4 - dropped frames
Philips_UHD_supershopdemo_1.mp4 - dropped frames
samsung-note-3-3840x2160-high@l5.1-AAC-2ch-2.mp4
4K HD.Club Changhong-Furano-100mbps.mp4 - brief freezes
Sony_4K_HDR_Camp.mp4 - severe stuttering

Ducks.Take.Off.2160p.QHD.CRF25.x264-CtrlHD.mkv (243 Mbps) - severe stuttering
4K HD.Club TCL-super_car-Part-1-HEVC.mp4 - dropped frames
Colours Of Culture Bali (6K.3240p.x264).mkv - doesn’t work

As you can already tell from the results above, the TV box doesn’t handle 4K resolutions properly. Sometimes the video would freeze briefly, sometimes the audio, but overall the results were disappointing. This was partly due to the difficulty of decoding the files and partly to the bitrate exceeding what USB 2.0 can handle. The AC3 audio played normally in the stock player.


You may have noticed above that I didn’t mark anything next to these files -
Ducks.Take.Off.720p.QHD.CRF24.x264-CtrlHD.mkv (20 Mbps)
Ducks.Take.Off.1080p.QHD.CRF25.x264-CtrlHD.mkv (108 Mbps)

There were no problems with them; Full HD works perfectly well. For example, the HITACHI_1080P_18M.wmv test file looked excellent.


There were no issues with displaying Full HD pixel for pixel either, even though the TV box interface runs at 1280x720 resolution.


Summary table: the unit under review is highlighted in orange, and the alternatives in yellow.


To sum up, this TV box is suitable only for undemanding users. Also, because it has so little RAM, you’ll need to choose your playback software more carefully and configure it thoroughly.
It tries to handle 4K, but the results are pretty dismal. Full HD works fine, although, for example, YouTube stuttered even at 720p.

The cooling system is pushed to its limits. The temperature dropped to 40–45 degrees at idle, but when I tried launching any resource-intensive software, it quickly climbed to 65–75, and sometimes higher. Occasionally, a program could load the TV box so heavily that the temperature rose above 85–88 degrees, and everything started running very slowly.


That’s all from me. As usual, I’ll be waiting for your questions in the comments. I hope this review helps you make the right choice.