Mecool KM8, a TV box with voice control and Certified Android TV

About six months ago, I reviewed a Mecool TV box with voice control. Today, I’ll show you a very similar, though different, TV box from the same company, with roughly the same features.
As always, the review will include an inspection, teardown, tests, and a summary table.


Since this model is very similar to the Mecool M8S PRO L, I’ll naturally compare the two from time to time.

First, the specifications:
CPU — Amlogic S905X
Number of cores — 4
Graphics — Mali-450
RAM — 2 GB DDR3
Flash storage — 16 GB
WiFi: 2.4 GHz
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.1
LAN — 100 Mbit
Ports: 2x USB 2.0, HDMI, RJ45, AV, microSD card
Operating system — Android 8.0
Dimensions — 98 x 98 x 26 mm

As you can see, there was a reason the previous model cost more. For comparison, it has:
An S912 SoC, rather than the less powerful S905X
3 GB of RAM instead of 2 GB
32 GB of flash storage instead of 16 GB, although the M8S PRO L was also available with 16 GB.
2.4/5 GHz WiFi, while this one only supports 2.4 GHz

On the one hand, it turns out the boxes differ noticeably in terms of hardware: the M8S PRO L is clearly better. On the other hand, I think the 2/16 GB RAM/storage configuration offers better value, at least for now. I mention this fairly often in my reviews.
They’ve dropped the 5 GHz band, which is a shame, although routers that use this frequency still aren’t all that common. Personally, what I’d miss is a gigabit network card—though the M8S PRO L has one.

Overall, I’d call the model under review a “lite” version of the M8S PRO L. Now, on to the review.

First of all, the packaging is noticeably different. It’s at least one and a half times larger than the previous model’s box, even though the devices themselves are the same size.


The box lists various features and differences, and opens like a book, with a magnetic flap. You have to admire the effort they put into it :) In any case, it looks pretty good.



The package contents are much like those of most other TV boxes:
1. TV box
2. Power adapter
3. HDMI cable
4. Remote control
5. Antenna
6. Manual



1. The manual is entirely in English. It includes a few illustrations showing what to connect where, as well as how to use the device.
2. The HDMI cable is completely ordinary, nothing special.
3, 4. The difference in the package contents is the external, detachable WiFi antenna.
5, 6. The power adapter looks like the ones supplied with Beelink TV boxes (if I’m remembering correctly). It’s very neatly made, with a 5 V output and a load current of up to 2 A. It works normally and doesn’t overheat, but when I try to connect a hard drive, the TV box reboots.


The remote is exactly the same as the one included with the M8S PRO L: Bluetooth, with very few buttons and a microphone hole.
It’s handy that the remote uses a radio link, so you can place the TV box behind the TV if you like.


The TV box has a plastic case, with “Android TV” printed on top and a reminder that it supports voice control.


Its size is more or less “standard” for devices like this: a square box about 10 x 10 cm, though it’s a little taller than the previous model.


There’s an IR receiver window on the front, although the styling initially made me think it was a built-in microphone. Another useful little feature is the power button. By default, the TV box is set to turn on automatically when power is applied, so this is really an off button, not an on button :)


There aren’t many ports. On the back you’ll find:
1. Analog audio and video output; the required cable isn’t included.
2. Wired network port
3. HDMI output for connecting to a TV or monitor
4. Antenna connector
5. 5 V power input.

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


The ports’ relative positions.


There are four soft rubber feet on the bottom and a bunch of ventilation holes. Once again, I’m seeing a poorly thought-out ventilation system: there are holes on the bottom, but none on the top or sides. There’s another version too: it has openings on the sides, but none on the bottom.
There’s also a reset button hole in the center of the front.


The status indicator is a single two-color LED: blue when operating, red in standby. Since the LED is behind the case plastic, it isn’t very bright, especially in standby.


To get inside, you need to peel off a couple of feet, remove two self-tapping screws, and release the clips. It’s a little unusual to have only two screws, and for them not to be positioned diagonally. I first removed two feet, but happened to pick the ones on the right. Then I tried to remove the bottom before figuring out that there were actually two screws on the left.


As far as I can tell, the PCB was designed in week 15 of this year, so it’s relatively recent.


The board is also secured with four more self-tapping screws. It comes out of the case very easily, but keep in mind that the antenna connector cable is soldered on, so it’s easy to tear it off the board.


The reset button. To be fair, I only noticed it after I’d already taken the TV box apart.


I have no particular complaints about the board, although lately almost all the TV boxes I’ve opened have been of roughly comparable quality, with only minor differences.


Here’s another reason the LED isn’t very bright: it has a rubber cap over it with a small hole. Is the era of blinding status lights finally over, and have the Chinese started coming to their senses?


The heatsink is frankly too small, even for a relatively low-power processor like the S905X. I’ve never understood the logic behind this kind of cost-cutting: a heatsink two or three times larger doesn’t cost that much more, especially compared with the overall price. Sure, it’ll work as is, but why skimp on this?


On the other hand, the HDMI port protection is all good here—they didn’t skimp, which is nice. On the left side of the board, you can see a footprint for a USB hub and a microUSB connector.


The USB port data lines are protected too, which is quite unusual. I once put together a roundup of TV boxes and noticed that protection used to be installed much more often. Then manufacturers started cutting costs here. Why? A mystery.
There are also additional components near the power connector that look like overvoltage protection, but these are much more common than port protection.


A little more detail on the components.
1, 2. Four Micron RAM chips, two on each side of the board, for a total of 2 GB.
3. Foresee flash memory. It’s been a long time since I last came across one of these.
4. WiFi module AP6236, a budget module I hadn’t seen before. Its maximum rated speed is 72.2 Mbps, and it doesn’t support the 5 GHz band. I thought TV boxes without 5 GHz had moved into the really budget segment, at around 25-30 dollars per device, but apparently you can find this even in more expensive models.
5. There was an audio chip under the sticker.
6. The board also has several small DC-DC converters.

The board looks pretty crowded, but in reality it consists of the processor, RAM chips, flash memory, and WiFi module. Everything else is just supporting circuitry. For example, there’s no separate network card or USB hub here, even though there’s a footprint for one on the board. But so far, my only complaint is the undersized heatsink.


During the initial setup, you’re offered various options, including the option to choose a name for the TV box to make it easier to find on your local network.


It uses a somewhat unusual launcher, though I’ve come across a similar one before.


Still, it’s easy to use, even if it takes a little getting used to. Virtually everything you use most often is right on the home screen. And since this is a TV box, most of the apps are geared toward media content.


The settings menu is almost identical to those on previous TV box models, with one exception: there’s no option to switch to the more familiar “old” menu, and Advanced settings takes you to the video output settings.
You can also see the remote’s battery charge level here. Since it uses a little more power than a regular remote, this feature may come in handy.


There aren’t a huge number of settings, but the main options are there.




This is the general information about the firmware version. As far as I remember, this is the first TV box with Android 8.x. But compared with the changes Windows gets from one version to the next, Android has changed much less; visually, it’s practically indistinguishable from the familiar “seven.”


As usual, the built-in update utility found nothing. I can’t think of any TV boxes where it actually updated anything.


There are two app menus: the main one and Sideload launcher. The latter also includes apps you install later. The app icons—and especially the font—really “jump out at you” because of their size. As you can see in the screenshot, I’ve already installed at least three apps. There were only nine to begin with, including a file manager and the update app.


You can install everything else from Google Play.
>

DRM information (Digital Rights Management):



Since this processor has been on the market for quite a while, CPU-Z won’t show anything new: the same 4 cores and the same 1.5 GHz.


Synthetic benchmarks. Since I started comparing this TV box with the Mecool M8S PRO L, I’ll keep doing so, even though it’s not entirely fair, as the M8S PRO L is built around a more powerful processor. Still, that might make the comparison even more interesting.


WiFi testing.
As I’ve written several times already, the TV box has a WiFi module that supports only the 2.4 GHz band, but it does have an external antenna. Based on the scan of the “surrounding area,” I wouldn’t say its sensitivity is particularly high.


In real-world conditions, the speed was of course lower than the figure given in the radio module’s datasheet, and came out to:
1. Opposite corner of the large room, with no line of sight — 16 Mbps.
2. A couple of meters from the router — 15 Mbps
3. One meter from the router — 25–28 Mbps.

I checked the speed three times, and the results were roughly the same.



Let’s move on to the apps.
First, Google Play. I wanted to watch a movie here, but no such luck—everything costs money. I was especially “impressed” by the prices of some titles: around 470–480 UAH, or about $17. So, no movies here, although the trailers play perfectly.


While I was at it, I tested voice control by searching for various channels on YouTube. Almost everything works great here: search works fine in both Russian and English. It doesn’t always get it right on the first try, but somehow it finds what I’m looking for. I did have to type one channel’s name into the search bar manually, though. It kept sending me to Babyblog or Ivi Blog, even though I was searching for EEVblog. So if you’re creating a channel, give it a simple name, or nobody will ever find you :)


All right, I launch YouTube by voice again and just try watching something to see how it works.
First I tried some Full HD videos. Some played fine, while others had minor stutters at regular intervals. I’m not even sure what to blame here—maybe AFR, since the stutters happened about once a second and lasted 1–2 frames.


I launch a 4K video at 60 fps, and everything is simply excellent. I watched quite a lot of clips, and everything played very smoothly—right after launch, half an hour later, and even when starting playback from a random point.


There’s also the Play Store, which works fine, but YouTube Kids flat-out refused to work. Worse, its videos show up on the home screen, and the only way to exit the app is with the “Home” button; the Escape key I’m used to doesn’t help.


That’s it for the preinstalled software. You have to install everything else yourself, so, as usual, I decided to test TorrentTV.
But I ended up getting a notification saying the video couldn’t be played. No problem, I install MX Player, but it throws an error when I try to launch it.


I head to the Play Store (using voice again) and look for a newer version of MX Player, since I suspected it simply wasn’t compatible with Android 8.0. I download it, but when I try to install it, I get politely turned away before it even gets to the point of trying.
But I decided not to stop there and downloaded VLC Player, another app I’m quite familiar with. Videos started playing, but froze after 5–10 seconds. I exited, launched another channel, and the same thing happened. Unfortunately, this is a common problem, but since everything had been going so well up to that point, I’d hoped it wouldn’t be an issue here.


I install the familiar LOL TV! and update it as soon as it’s installed. Nothing freezes here, but only about one channel in ten works, and the two that did were pretty weird: one had a psychedelic cartoon, and the other showed Polish ads for some kind of junk.


Of course, I could try other apps, and I think they’d work fine, but I usually test with these two. If you have any suggestions for other software to try, let me know.

The pixel test revealed no problems; Full HD output is correct.


When I was looking through the TV box settings, I also noticed two AFR (auto frame rate) modes. But there’s no point testing them with a monitor, so I left that for last.
When I connected it to another device that I use to test this feature, I still couldn’t get AFR to show up, but the TV box did offer the full list of resolutions, including 4K.
There are two possible reasons why AFR might not work in this case:
1. It simply doesn’t work at all.
2. Not supported by the players I tried.

While I was at it, I also checked the CEC function. It worked without any problems: control was passed from one device to another over the HDMI cable.


Next, I tested playback of various video formats:
1024x768_h265_AC3.mkv
2560x1600_AAC .mp4 — minor frame drops
3840x2160_AAC .mp4 — minor frame drops
4096x2160_AAC .mp4 — minor frame drops
gopro-hero-3-be-avc-high@l5.1-4096x2160-12p-aac-2ch.mp4
GraysPeak8HDR_Dolby AC3.mp4
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
Sony_4K_HDR_Camp.mp4
Molly — Holy Molly (2016) 4K UHD_60 fps.mkv
Ducks.Take.Off.1080p.QHD.CRF25.x264-CtrlHD.mkv
Ducks.Take.Off.2160p.QHD.CRF25.x264-CtrlHD.mkv (243 Mbps)
4K HD.Club TCL-super_car-Part-1-HEVC.mp4
Colours Of Culture Bali (6K.3240p.x264).mkv

I only ran into trouble with files 2, 3, and 4: there were minor frame drops because AFR is not supported. One file also refused to play in the preinstalled player, so I launched VLC. It played everything, and both the built-in player and VLC output audio, including in AC3 format.
The hardest one to handle was the “ducks”: the TV box can't keep up with the read speed required by the 240 Mbps stream. Even after copying the file to the built-in flash storage, playback starts out fine but begins to stutter a little toward the end.


I also tested playback of 4K files at 60 fps.
The files were:
4k hdr demo 60fps wildlife video for 4k oled tv 1920x1080
4k hdr demo 60fps wildlife video for 4k oled tv 2560x1440
4k hdr demo 60fps wildlife video for 4k oled tv 3840x2160
Peru 8K HDR 60FPS 1920x1080
Peru 8K HDR 60FPS 2560x1440
Peru 8K HDR 60FPS 3840x2160
Peru 8K HDR 60FPS 7680x4320

Only the last one, at full 8K resolution, failed to play; it just showed a black screen.


Summary table.
I highlighted the TV box under review in yellow, and similar models from other manufacturers in orange. The results aren't entirely clear-cut: in most tests, the devices perform about the same, but the one under review is faster in some and slower in others.
For example, its Geekbench 3 score is noticeably lower, while its Bonsai benchmark score is higher. But the Epic Citadel test was even more surprising: the results differ even within the same software, depending on the rendering quality.


A short video (not mine). Interestingly, the packaging in the video and on the product page is noticeably different from what I received.
<video>https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=79&v=iEURNhp9iCk</video>


And now it's time to wrap things up. In this case, I'm finding it hard to reach a clear-cut verdict on the TV box itself. The box works reasonably well overall, and I liked how YouTube runs and how it plays various video formats. Voice control also works nicely. I was a little critical of this feature in my Mecool M8S PRO L review, but this time I actually liked it.
The build quality is also pretty good. It has protection on the HDMI and USB ports, which is less common these days. The heatsink, however, is disappointingly small, and I suspect that's why some of the performance test results were worse. I should also mention that it may have trouble with some external hard drives. I tested it with a fairly power-hungry 7200 rpm model and an HDMI-to-VGA converter connected.

One software quirk is the mouse cursor's odd behavior when you move it to the top-left corner of the screen: for a fraction of a second, it jumps to the very top-left corner. I haven't seen that before. It doesn't really get in the way, but it's a little annoying.

It's hard for me to comment on the price, but in my opinion, a gigabit network connection or at least 5 GHz Wi-Fi wouldn't be out of place for $60. It's strange that they chose to cut costs there. And if you compare it with Mecool M8S PRO L, which I mentioned during the review, I think that one is a better deal: for $10 more, it has a more powerful processor, more RAM, 32 GB of flash storage, and 5 GHz Wi-Fi.
That said, part of the price here goes toward Google certification.

That's all for today. I hope this review was useful and helps you choose a TV box.