MECOOL M8S Max TV Box Review

[blinkone]

MECOOL M8S Max TV Box Amlogic S912 3GB RAM + 32GB ROM 2.4G + 5.8G WiFi BT4.0 100Mbps 4K VP9 H.265



Hi Guys,In this review im going to be looking at the MECOOL M8S MAX,The Device in this Review came from Gearbest in about 1 week from the EU to the UK.

Get your's from here

Main Features

* Built in fan keeping the unit COOL
* Android 7.1 operation system
* Amlogic S912 CPU, Octa core, ARM Cortex-A53, 1.5GHz
* ARM Mali-T820MP3 GPU, up to 750MHz ( DVFS )
* 3GB SDRAM + 32GB Flash ROM
* 2.4GHz + 5.8GHz dual band WiFi
* 100Mbps Ethernet
* Support 4K ultra HD image display
* Support H.265 decoding
* V4.0 + HS Bluetooth
* Support OTA update


Highlights

Amlogic S912

MECOOL M8S MAX comes with Amlogic S912 CPU which is a high-performance octa-core 64bit chipset which is known for fast clock speed. Apps will never run so smoothly in other chipset devices. People can easily enjoy many hot games and APKs with its 3GB DDR3 RAM and 32GB Flash ROM.

DDR3 3GB RAM, eMMC 32GB Flash

It boasts DDR3 3GB RAM, and eMMC 32GB Flash, advantageous in performance, security, and reliability, ascribing to the eMMC memory, ultimately delivering a richer end-user experience.

IEEE 802.11ac

IEEE 802.11ac, one of the wireless networking standards in the 802.11 families, is developed in the IEEE Standards Association process for the achievement of high-throughput wireless local area networks (WLANs) on the 5 GHz band.

4K Resolution

The latest in a line of broadcast and media resolutions, 4K is due to replace 1080p as the highest-resolution signal available for in-home movies and television. With a minimum resolution of 3,840 pixels wide and 2,160 pixels high, making it the equivalent to two 1080p screens in height and two in length.

looks and feel

The box itself looks much the same as other Meecool M8S devices a very nice looking black tv box at 10cm by 10cm square with 4 big rubber Pads on the bottom,Lots of venterlation holes on the underside & both sides,The main big difference you will notice on the M8S MAX is the intergrated fan on the top of the unit,The MECOOL M8S MAX TV Box running Android 7.1.2 with No crap installed.It comes with just the one launcher installed VSLauncher.The UI is very fast and smooth and the box boots up in under 25 seconds taking you to the Android TV home screen (Below).

Top view

Cool blue back lit fan to keep the unit nice and cool




Home Screen



App Draw



Settings



There is a status bar but you will need to turn it on in display settings



About Tab



Ports and locations

1* HDTV output 2.0 4K*2K@60Hz
2* USB 2.0, Support U DISK and USB HDD
1* TF CARD Support 1~32GB
1* 3.5 Phone out CVBS&L/R output
1* RJ45 LAN Ethernet 10M/100M



Some internal photos











LED Built into the fan




Device & firmware

The firmware on this box is Not bad for a starting point,FW Date is 2019/06/05. Nice and quick response & everything seems to work well But its only running android 7.1.2 would of been nice to see Android 9.

The boot time on the M8S MAX is just under 25 seconds to complete.

Shut down time is 3/4 seconds.

The best thing about this COOL device is the built in Fan that does a perfect job of keeping the unit nice and cool.With all my tests,games ect the M8S MAX temperature's have not gone above 42c.The fan is running all the time when unit is on but you can hardly notice it running.

Antutu Score of 48432 Not bad but not massive.

USB logitec c270 webcam works fine.

External Samsung hard drive of 1TB works fine powered by the M8S MAX.

It comes pre installed with TV center (kodi 17.6)

HDMI CEC works great its nice to be able to control the box with my normal tv
remote this is a great touch.

I find an Air Mouse is much better to control any TV box

This is the one i tend to use most. Its from Gearbest The T1 2.4GHz Air Mouse Full Keyboard Backlight



Games

Ashpalt8,Beach buggy Blitz,play perfect Using My tronsmart Mars G01 (Sixaxis app dont work)

Some tech stuff

Antutu



Antutu Video Tester





CPU Z











DRM



WIFI



Whats in the box

1 x Adapter
1 x TV Box
1 x IR Remote Control
1 x HDMI Cable
1 x User Manual

Unboxing Video

[clarkss12]

Great review, thanks. I do like that fan and cover.

[blinkone]

Great review, thanks. I do like that fan and cover.

Yes I must admit it does look really cool and it stays cool too

Its nice to see the manufacturers doing what we have been doing for years by adding a fan.

[blinkone]

Yes I must admit it does look really cool and it stays cool too

Its nice to see the manufacturers doing what we have been doing for years by adding a fan.

[blinkone]

Stock Firmware for the Mecool M8S Max 2019.06.05

USB only

https://mega.nz/#F!IExVmCLD!dt68ownBJmPSjgSW6VKacg

[Jancales]

Stock Firmware for the Mecool M8S Max 2019.06.05

USB only

https://mega.nz/#F!IExVmCLD!dt68ownBJmPSjgSW6VKacg

Do you think the firmware is different from the Pro L LB?

What are the dimensions of the fan, since I have modified many Pro L, and the space above the heat sink is only about 5mm, which would be very little for a fan, unless they made the case more spacious.

[blinkone]

Hi,

I did try to install the Magendanz LB rom on it (The SD version) and that gave me an error.




Will try the pc version when I get chance

The fan dimensions are 48mm x 48mm x 8mm

Its only the top case that's different its slightly raised more, Oh and bottom has slightly bigger rubber feet







So overall the unit is 6mm taller that the M8S PRO

[Jancales]

Thanks for the detailed response.

I might be wrong, but I guess the error has to do with what is written in the Meta -Inf and can be changed if you know how to unpack and pack the image again, but I'm sure Guest can give clarification.

Maybe he will be even able to make the change and upload a img that works.

I had a chat with videostrong today and asked if the firmware of the LB could be used, and they said it should be possible, but that are the sales people of course.

It would for sure be nice to have a nexus rom for this device.

[RiCkLaR_atvX]

Great review, box does look fantastic with the LED lighting the fan.

Was going through documentation the other day for Mali GPU's, this Mali T-820MP3 is suppose support Vulkan 1.0 driver- can you check an make sure it is activated? Can use DevCheck info app or Vulkan app from Play Store to check. It is possible that it wasn't included in driver stack of the kernel build like one the S912 devices I have.

[blinkone]

Great review, box does look fantastic with the LED lighting the fan.

Was going through documentation the other day for Mali GPU's, this Mali T-820MP3 is suppose support Vulkan 1.0 driver- can you check an make sure it is activated? Can use DevCheck info app or Vulkan app from Play Store to check. It is possible that it wasn't included in driver stack of the kernel build like one the S912 devices I have.

Hi there.

Devcheck screenshot below

Vulkan support = No

[RiCkLaR_atvX]

Hi, thanks for checking and the screenshot info. I see from the new screen shot that box also is not supporting the better OpenGL ES 3.2 standard which the GPU is capable of handling.

Also note the CPU Governor is 'Interactive' that can me changed to 'Performance' governor with apps like Kernel Auidtor or EX Kernel apk. Interactive governor is good for android phones because it uses less energy and still gives good CPU power, but when you have DC voltage current in tvbox you don't need to worry about unnecessarily draining battery, and can use the Performance governor. The CPU is still limited by the DVFS of 6 Watts, so it is safe to change the governor cause it will still run at 1.5 Ghz and not its maximum of 2 Ghz. I like imputing changes/tweaks that get a quantifiable result, and changing the governor will get you 100 points increase in both Single-core an Multi-core test on Geekbench4.

[blinkone]

Hi, thanks for checking and the screenshot info. I see from the new screen shot that box also is not supporting the better OpenGL ES 3.2 standard which the GPU is capable of handling.

Also note the CPU Governor is 'Interactive' that can me changed to 'Performance' governor with apps like Kernel Auidtor or EX Kernel apk. Interactive governor is good for android phones because it uses less energy and still gives good CPU power, but when you have DC voltage current in tvbox you don't need to worry about unnecessarily draining battery, and can use the Performance governor. The CPU is still limited by the DVFS of 6 Watts, so it is safe to change the governor cause it will still run at 1.5 Ghz and not its maximum of 2 Ghz. I like imputing changes/tweaks that get a quantifiable result, and changing the governor will get you 100 points increase in both Single-core an Multi-core test on Geekbench4.

Some good tips there thank you RiCkLaR_atvX

[Jancales]

blinkone have you had in the mean time a chance to flash the Nano rom through burning tool?

[blinkone]

blinkone have you had in the mean time a chance to flash the Nano rom through burning tool?

Hi there,No I have not had chance yet sorry, but downloading it now and will let you no asap

Blinky

[blinkone]

Right Jancales .

The Magendaz LB TVStock Variant: BURN PACKAGEFlash's just fine 2.47 to burn then around 4 min for first boot.

Had to open box and short pins where the reset button should be to get it to burn image.

Used the USB port furthest away from SD card slot to connect to pc.

WIFI: Don't work

Bluetooth: Works

Ethernet: Works

Google playstore:Works

Fan:Works

HDMI CEC: Works

Nice clean fast rom

Happy to test other things before I try and get back to stock.

Blinky