Opinions on this S812 box

[bluesmanuk]

I have decided to try an AML S812 box for the first time and from the reviews that I saw, I was going to plump for the MXIII-G 2g/8g model.

Then I saw the M8S, which seemed to have the same specs as the MXIII-G but was more expensive.

Then somebody pointed be towards this Aliexpress deal for the M8S, which is a little cheaper than any of the usual well known dealers on here.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Original-M8S-Android-TV-Box-2G-8G-Dual-band-2-4G-5G-wifi-Android-4-4/32368069195.html

I'm always a little sceptical of Aliexpress dealers with extremely low prices but this is not too far off the mark.

So what do you AML users think is the better choice of the two boxes and would you trust a deal at this price?

[blinkone]

As far as I no there's no OTG port on the m8s So it could be hard to get out of trouble but yes it does seem a very good price for what you get.

[bluesmanuk]

As far as I no there's no OTG port on the m8s So it could be hard to get out of trouble but yes it does seem a very good price for what you get.

Good point.

I hadn't spotted that.

Thanks.

[budgetgeek]

Can't you flash them from sd card? Is OTG important if that is possible?

[clarkss12]

That is one heck of a price for an S812 with 2G/8G.

[bajann]

hhaahaha i love u all that item m8s on aliexpress or tronsmart mxiii plus on geekbaying 59usd 2gb version,m8s dont have power switch dont have otg dont have 1000lan,Maybe m8s+ with same spec

[bluesmanuk]

It is indeed quite a price for the spec, even with just 100Mb ethernet.

The $59.99 Geekbuying deal for the Tronsmart is only for the 1g/8g box. The 2g is $69.99, so ruled that one out partly on price but also for lack of general support.

[bajann]

use coupon?

[bluesmanuk]

use coupon?

Thanks.

That does take $11 off, so makes quite a difference.

[ididmytime]

It really is a toss up between the MXIII-G and the Beelink S82 plus, although near all boxes work fine the clones will leave you with problems.

Gearbest are selling the S82 plus pretty cheap if I recall, they are also reputable.

I don't like the ports on the side with the MXIII-G but it does seem like a very decent price for it.

Edit: The ROMs are interchangeable so you're laughing with either box.

[bluesmanuk]

It really is a toss up between the MXIII-G and the Beelink S82 plus, although near all boxes work fine the clones will leave you with problems.

Gearbest are selling the S82 plus pretty cheap if I recall, they are also reputable.

I don't like the ports on the side with the MXIII-G but it does seem like a very decent price for it.

Edit: The ROMs are interchangeable so you're laughing with either box.

Thanks.

Yes I saw that there are a lot of clones and remembering back to the days on the K-R42 and all the clones that came from that where ROM's were not interchangeable.

I was hoping that with the S82 and MXIII-G that they would likely receive the most support and ROM's being likely to be interchangeable.

[buzzmarshall]

M8S S812 is a great box but poorly supported by the dealers and factory...

there is a OTG port but the box needs to be opened and have the pins soldered onto the board and then a 2 pin jumper installed to enable the OTG function on the outer most usb port...

If your comfortable coding or even learning and looking at going native Linux with kodi its a great box to look at otherwise you'd be best to stick with something you can actually see current software being released for that others can recommend...

but the box is capable of OTG as well as serial port and Jtag with a bit of work...

[ultimatexbmc]

We have had M8S units in with no problems - not sure all M8S's are the same but the ones we had work really good and had a button to put it in to flash mode, it's located inside the headphone socket, so you just have to push a toothpick in to the headphone socket and you will feel the switch. The end USB port is used for OTG. The units we got did not come with root, so make sure you ask the seller first if this is something you need, they do flash easily using OTG method or sd card (just put the firmware on the sd card and hold the button in at startup for about 10 seconds). BUT we bricked a unit in our playing around trying to find the best firmware so be careful.

[veclinux]

There is now an m8s plus model anyone know the difference price is about the same but maybe has lollipop not sure tho any ideas?

Cheers,
Vec

[ultimatexbmc]

You shoud make sure the M8S+ units are CE approved for many reasons also the first batch of plus units all had Kitkat installed as far as we know, the Lolipop versions are buggy, that's straight from the mouth of a supplier we trust in China. Price difference is negligible.