Review of the Minix Neo Z64 with Android powered by Intel

[convict]

Hi guys,

This time i'm gonna review a great and very capable Android Mini PC powered by an Intel CPU

It comes from Minix, the best Mini PC manufacturer to date and it is the Neo Z64. There is a Windows 8.1 version as well which i reviewed in a previous article, but this time i'm gonna focus on its Android little brother

You can get it from Gearbest by visiting the Official Gearbest Product Page at the price of 129$ which is very low for what this Mini PC has to offer

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What's in the Box
Once again Minix gives us high quality packaging and it includes

• The Minix Neo Z64 itself
• An IR remote
• The 5V 3A Power Adapter
• The HDMI Cable
• A USB Cable
• A Minix Product Brochure
• And a Multi-language Set Up Guide

The box is blue indicating that the Neo Z64 has an Intel 64-bit CPU and on the back we can see the device's technical specifications as well as some of the best features on the sides of the package

Technical Specifications

This Mini PC is very powerful and the technical specifications include

• A 64-bit Intel BayTrail Z3735F CPU running at 1.83 Ghz max
• An Intel HD Graphics GPU
• 2 GB DDR3L Ram
• 32 GB of Internal Storage
• 802.11 b/g/n WiFi
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Android 4.4.4
• HDMI 1.4 Output
• Audio Output via HDMI 1.4 and 3.5mm Headphone Jack

As you can see the specs are pretty high ranking the Z64 amongst the best Android TV Boxes so far





Looks & Ports
The device is made from high quality plastic with a black colour and a matte feel on the hand

The build quality is trully excellent as we would expect from a Minix product and on the top we can see the Minix logo carved on the plastic with big letters

Looking on the front we see the IR receiver and a blue operation LED indicating that the Z64 is up and running

On the left side we only have the external adjustable wifi antenna and on the the right side we find

• The Power On/Off button
• A MicroSD Card Slot
• And 2 USB 2.0 Ports

The remaining ports are on the back side give us

• A 3.5mm Headphone Jack
• An HDMI Output
• The Ethernet Port
• And the DC Input rated at 5V

And if we flip it upside down on the bottom we see a shiny android logo and the reset hole

Software

When the device has finished booting into the UI we are presented with the familiar Minix Launcher which is a good thing because this launcher is very simple to use and it isn't full of useless features which get the user confused

So on the top left corner we see our connection status and we have two top bars which we can drag down and view notifications and power controls

Of course the Minix Launcher is consisted of big tile-like folders in which we can add the applications we like and on the botton we find the favourites button which allow us to create shortcuts for our most used apps

If we press the settings tile we go to the stock android settings and from here we can see that the Minix Neo Z64A is running Android 4.4.4 which according to Minix will later be updated to Android 5.0

Since the device has an Intel CPU we have the option to use the Intel Smart Video feature which improves video quality by reducing noise and eliminating artifacts with interlaced content

We can also add different Users to the system and mess with the HDMI settings and if you find that the sytem is lagging, which is highly impossible, you can always use the task killer found on the home screen

The app drawer is also present as well as a screenshot button, a boot menu and the ability to hide the task bar

Of course you can use another launcher if you like. I chose Nova Launcher because it has the stock android feeling, it's easy to use and it has lots of features like adding widgets or using your favourite live wallpaper as a background

Browsing the internet is very smooth thanks to the intel CPUas well as watching videos on youtube and accessing your files through the Minix File Manager

Hardware & Benchmarks

According to CPU-Z the Minix Neo Z64A has some powerful specs which are

• CPU: Intel Atom BayTrail Z3735F running at 1.83 Ghz
• GPU: Intel HD Graphics
• RAM: 2 GB DDR3
• Nand Flash: 32 GB
• 1080p Kernel
• Root Access

I ran some benchmarks to show you how the device performs

The first test is Antutu Benchmark and it gave me 30857 points

Next i ran 3D Mark and got 7665 points

Video Playback & Kodi

Antutu Video Tester shows us what the device can do and here are the results

Kodi runs very smooth and i tried some test videos for you to see the real life performance of the device

The first one is a 2160p file

Next a 2160p 30fps .mp4

Next a 2160p 60fps .mp4

Next the same video at 1080p h.264.mov

Next a 4k 96fps .mp4

Next a 1080p 120Mbps .mkv

Next a 1080p BluRay .iso

And finally a 1080p 5.1Mbps H.265 file

And a 4k 17.6Mbps H.265 file

All the videos played very good with no problems except from the two last H.265 file which were unwatchable due to very low framerate

Gaming

Gaming on the Neo Z64 is great and you can use external gamepads like the Xbox 360 controller to play other platform games through emulators or android games downloaded from the Google Play Store

The overall performance is very good and the CPU and GPU can definitely keep up with the newer games out there

Conclusion

The Minix Neo Z64A is a very capable device and a very good media player. It is the best Android TV Box with an Intel CPU on the market right now and i definitely recommend it to you all because it has the best quality Minix is known for

Pros

• Powerful Specs
• Nice design
• Build Quality
• High Quality Internal Components
• Great Wifi Reception

Cons

• Only 2 x USB 2.0 Ports (you can solve it by using a USB Hub
• Choppy and unwatchable H.265 video playback

Watch my Video Unboxing and Review

Unboxing English
Unboxing Greek
Review English
Review Greek

I hope you liked my review, stay tuned for more and as always for more unboxings, reviews and tutorials subscribe, share and follow me:

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