H96 Max TV Box Based on the New Amlogic S905X2

Not long ago, TV boxes based on the relatively new—or, more precisely, updated—Amlogic S905X2 processor started appearing for sale, and I ordered one of them almost immediately. I bought it on pre-order, and at the time it cost around $50.
This TV box is interesting in its own right, although unfortunately it has a few drawbacks and some “teething problems.” More on all of that in the review.


First, a word about the new chips. Several new processors were announced recently: the S922X, S905Y2, and S905X2. The first two are still in the pipeline, but the X2 is already on sale, so that’s the one we’ll be looking at.
The first thing you notice in the specs is the smaller process node: 12 nm versus 28 nm on the older chips. This should certainly help with heat, which was quite substantial on the previous models.
The GPU and CPU cores have also been upgraded, although the core count remains the same as on the S905X: four.
The specs claim support for 4K video at up to 75 frames per second, H.265, gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, and Bluetooth 5.0. As far as I can tell, most of that is still on the roadmap, but it’s already pretty good in my book.


The TV box has the following specifications.
CPU — Amlogic S905X2
Number of cores — 4
Graphics — ARM Dvalin MP2 GPU
RAM — 4 GB DDR4
Flash storage — 32 GB
WiFi: 2.4/5 GHz
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.1
LAN — 100 Mbit
Ports: 1x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, HDMI, RJ45, AV, microSD card
Operating system — Android 8.1

The packaging is standard for most TV boxes.


The accessories are nothing out of the ordinary either:
1. TV box
2. IR remote control
3. HDMI cable
4. Power supply
5. Manual.


The manual has pictures, but there’s not much point to it, really. The cable is a basic, budget model.
The remote, on the other hand, is programmable, which is definitely a plus for ease of use.
The power supply is rated at 5 V, 2 A, and looks completely ordinary.




The design (if you can call it that) is pretty plain: a square case with a “chrome” trim around the perimeter.


It’s fairly compact, although I’ve seen even smaller designs.


There’s a small window at the bottom of the front panel, through which you can see the power indicator LEDs. The remote’s IR receiver also works through it.


The external connectivity is pretty basic: two USB ports, one of them USB 3.0, a memory card slot, HDMI and AV outputs, an Ethernet port, and a power jack.


There are lots of ventilation holes on the bottom. One downside right away: the box is lightweight and has no rubber feet, so it slides around on the table like crazy.


It’s awkward to open, with lots of clips around the perimeter. For easier access, I recommend starting at the back, where it’s easier to pry up the top cover.




The home screen has the familiar icon layout and a rather... cheerful color scheme :)


There aren't many apps installed. I'll tell you about them later; for now, I'm more interested in the settings.


From the home screen, you can access general information about the TV box and a few settings. That's a bit odd.


The apps section has two more settings buttons, which I find extremely inconvenient.


One opens the standard Android menu, but it's been stripped down to the bare minimum.


You can also check how much of the built-in flash storage is in use here.


The second settings button, Droid setting, gives access to the TV box's main settings.


And I can say there really are a lot of settings, although some are tied to hardware features this model doesn't have.



For example, the audio output settings include an option to enable SPDIF, but the TV box itself doesn't have that output.


There's also a backlight brightness control, which the TV box obviously doesn't need. On the other hand, it does have image adjustment settings, which is extremely rare—in my experience, I've seen them on only a couple of the more than 40 models I've tested.


Next, as usual, here's the general information from CPU-Z.


And of course, the benchmarks. Since this is a performance comparison, I haven't hidden them behind a spoiler.
The best comparison is probably with the S905X, since the S905X2 is essentially an updated version of it.

In AnTuTu versions 5 and 6, the S905X scores about 29000/35000 here, which is noticeably lower.


I hardly ever used AnTuTu version 7 before, so this is more of a "for future reference" result.


This isn't exactly a performance benchmark, but it's still useful: storage and RAM speeds.
With an external SSD, USB 3.0 gets around 150 MB/s read and just 36 MB/s write.
The built-in card reader is fairly slow: 16/15 MB/s.
The built-in flash storage, on the other hand, is fast, at around 120/80 MB/s. That was already apparent when installing apps—the box really is fast.



Geekbench versions 3 and 4
S905X - 664/1963 - 639/1800/867
S905X2 - 802/2519 - 651/1962/1092

The X2 isn't dramatically faster, but it is faster.


1. Ice Storm Extreme (added to the table)
2. Ice Storm Unlimited
3. Ice Storm Performance
4. PCMark

The X2 is about 20–30% faster.


Performance and temperature tests.
Epic Citadel
S905X - 50/25
S905X2 - 49.7/40.9

In the first test, performance is the same; in the second, it's clearly higher. Most importantly, there's no overheating—even after several runs, the temperature was around 60 degrees.


Bonsai Benchmark
S905X - 1900/27
S905X2 - 3108/44.3

The results speak for themselves: the X2 is clearly faster, and once again, clearly cooler.


AnTuTu Video also delivered a good result, both in terms of performance and format support.



The TV box has a dual-band Wi-Fi module, which is very useful, especially when the 2.4 GHz band looks something like this.


But in practice, the speed turned out to be not all that high. On the 2.4 GHz band, I got around 20–35 Mbps at various distances within a large room.


The 5 GHz band was worse: performance wasn’t much better, topping out at 40 Mbps (upper graphs). A decent module under the same conditions manages 100–150 Mbps without any problems.



Let’s move on to the built-in software.
1, 2. Two file managers are preinstalled. The first is really awkward to use; the second is more conventional, but not much better.
3. An app for working with DLNA
4. Google Play works; in fact, I installed some of the apps through it.
5, 6. Netflix doesn’t work out of the box, and when I tried to update it, I got a message saying it wasn’t compatible.


Kodi works, and without any particular issues related to the TV box itself. At least I was able to watch several different channels without any problems.


YouTube was also almost perfect, except that everything I tried only worked in Full HD. There was no stuttering when I tried playing either 4K30fps or 4K60fps. I later noticed that my own video had accidentally made it onto the list, too.


Alternative software.

Torrent TV usually worked on my other boxes, but after a while the picture would freeze. Here, it didn’t work at all, even though I tried different players.


I also downloaded some app for watching online TV. Strangely, it only played Ren-TV; the other channels just loaded forever.


Another app, with much the same result: for some reason, I could only watch one channel.


Lanet TV, on the other hand, worked perfectly, as it always does. Channels switched without any problems, and video started playing almost immediately. Very convenient software.


Encouraged by its generally decent performance and the fact that it didn’t overheat, I moved on to testing offline video playback—and ran into problems.

1024x768_h265_AC3.mkv - no sound
2560x1600_AAC .mp4 — minor frame drops
3840x2160_AAC .mp4 — noticeable frame drops
4096x2160_AAC .mp4 — severe frame drops
gopro-hero-3-be-avc-high@l5.1-4096x2160-12p-aac-2ch.mp4 - OK
GraysPeak8HDR_Dolby AC3.mp4 - OK
LG 4K Paris_AAC.mp4 - severe frame drops
LG 4K Story-of-Earth_AAC.mp4 - OK
LG_Chess_HDR.mp4 - OK
Philips_UHD_supershopdemo_1.mp4 - OK
samsung-note-3-3840x2160-high@l5.1-AAC-2ch-2.mp4 - OK
4K HD.Club Changhong-Furano-100mbps.mp4 - frame drops/OK
Sony_4K_HDR_Camp.mp4 - OK
Molly — Holy Molly (2016) 4K UHD_60 fps.mkv - frame drops
Ducks.Take.Off.1080p.QHD.CRF25.x264-CtrlHD.mkv - OK
Ducks.Take.Off.2160p.QHD.CRF25.x264-CtrlHD.mkv (243 Mbps) - frame drops
4K HD.Club TCL-super_car-Part-1-HEVC.mp4 - OK
Colours Of Culture Bali (6K.3240p.x264).mkv - doesn’t work

As you can see, quite a few formats didn’t play correctly. Even copying the files to the built-in flash memory, which is noticeably faster, didn’t help. Things got a little better, but the stuttering problem remained.
The results above list Furano-100mbps.mp4 as having frame drops/OK. I actually have two versions of this file, a regular one and an HEVC one; the latter worked perfectly.


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

The only problem here was with the full 8K resolution version; everything else worked fine.


There were no problems with proper output in Full HD, either.


Now for the usual questions.
CEC worked for me, and commands from the keyboard were passed through without any problems.
AFR refused to work, even though I tried different players and settings. I could manually select any mode from the list. I can’t say for sure that it doesn’t work at all; the software may still be rough, or perhaps it needs a different player.


Comparative test results; models based on the S905X are highlighted in orange.


Based on the test results, I can say that the new processor model’s performance is comparable to the S912, while it runs considerably cooler. Although I think Chinese manufacturers will see this and cut back on cooling in an attempt to save another two cents.
There were no particular problems with the TV box software either, but some video file formats that previous models handled without any trouble were difficult to play.

In short, there is progress, but for now the software clearly feels unfinished and needs more work. It’s not yet clear whether that will come through updates or simply by releasing new models, but I think things will look quite different after a while. Still, in my opinion, it’s a decent model, especially considering the 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of flash storage.

The same TV box model is available at Gearbest - link, as is a model with 64 GB of flash storage - link.
There are also models on AliExpress with 16, 32, or 64 GB and different remotes - link, priced from $36 to $66.

That’s all. I hope you found this information useful.