Alfawise S92 TV Box Octa Core Amlogic S912 Android 6.0

[ioadam01]

Whilst many boxes promise OTA updates, the reality is that few of the lowest cost ones actually do and some that do tend to wipe your data as part of the update process and therefore the term OTA is very subjective.

So updates will more likely come in the form of full flashable images but then again, the custom and modded ones from devs and enthusiasts are likely to be better than the manufacturer's efforts, so you will likely end up flashing one way or another.

Marshmallow on the S912 is still in it's earlier stages of development too, so will take some time to mature, although the general deficiencies from an out of the box experience are far less than they would have been a year ago, so scope for a positive outlook.

My question is: will be there devs? I mean, I don't know how much people will buy this box for developing on it. Anyway, I think that I'm going to buy it. If the box have serious problems, I can always contact gearbest for support.

For wifi, I'll buy a wifi repeater, I need it for my room.

[bluesmanuk]

My question is: will be there devs? I mean, I don't know how much people will buy this box for developing on it. Anyway, I think that I'm going to buy it. If the box have serious problems, I can always contact gearbest for support.

For wifi, I'll buy a wifi repeater, I need it for my room.

Will there be devs is a question that will only be answered over time.

Quite a number of these boxes share some of the same hardware inside, so ports between devices is more likely, so potentially spreads the variable uses.

But if this box was so be a surprise pick of the bunch and offer something that the others don't, then it, like others, could suddenly become the subject of more interest.

Alfawise is a very new name to the bunch but only a short while ago the likes of Dolamee, Yundoo .... were also unknown.

I have a theory that most of these boxes are made in the same factory, with multiple little splinter companies setup to give the appearance of competition, where they are mostly owned by the state.

I shall know more after Monday.

[ioadam01]

Will there be devs is a question that will only be answered over time.

Quite a number of these boxes share some of the same hardware inside, so ports between devices is more likely, so potentially spreads the variable uses.

But if this box was so be a surprise pick of the bunch and offer something that the others don't, then it, like others, could suddenly become the subject of more interest.

Alfawise is a very new name to the bunch but only a short while ago the likes of Dolamee, Yundoo .... were also unknown.

I have a theory that most of these boxes are made in the same factory, with multiple little splinter companies setup to give the appearance of competition, where they are mostly owned by the state.

I shall know more after Monday.

I ordered one: it was in flash sale until tomorrow, so I bought it. Let me know your experience tomorrow.

[scooter2014]

Ahhhh thats where alot make the mistake Gearbest is not the support department for these devices they are just the whole sale. 😀 If it looks like a duck walks like a duck sounds like a duck most times its a duck.... No web page no firmware links normally means unsupported device. So id class this as unsupported. Cheap because of the same.

[bluesmanuk]

There are companies that are owned by the same parent group though, such as Geekbuying, Tronsmart and Zidoo, where you have the production, sales and support.

But where support is lacking, this is where the Batmen and Supermen of Freaktab come swooping in to restore TV justice foe all.

[bluesmanuk]

Alfawise S92 Feedback

In the box

A black square shaped object, all plastic and noticeably, with no feet to raise it or no vent holes of any description, which immediately raised questions about whether it may overheat (after 6 hours of continual testing though, it doesn’t get past luke warm and inside temp maxing out at 54C).

Typical basic remote control, which stays in the box for me (as they always do)

HDMI cable.

Basic user guide.
5v/2a AC adapter (correctly having a UK plug for me)


It is very light and has all the usual ports that you find on these boxes now.

2 x USB 2.0 (1 on the rear and one on the right side)
1 x HDMI 2.0a
1 x SPDIF Optical audio
No AV port, so it’s digital all the way (reset button is a pin hole on the base)
Gigabit Ethernet
Dual band WiFi with AC (internal antenna)
MicroSD card slot on the right

Boot-up is quick, with a basic Google TV animation, so nothing specific to the brand.

Default launcher is Mediabox, with the usual GUI style layout, although the button usually used to fire up Kodi has a different function and you will find Kodi as just another app.

Kodi is a stock version that updates through the app store.

Apps are pretty standard and basic, although don’t contain the usual bundled array of TV apps.

Instead these can be installed manually through an app called APP4TV.

You do get Fishing joy as a gaming addition to play with but aside from that, nothing that you have not seen before apart from the few that I mention in this opening review.

Kodi does come loaded up with some addons courtesy of TV Addons but easily restored back to clean by installing the Fresh Start addon from the built in repository and running it.

One other slight change to the way of adding Kodi addons (which I still do not approve of at all) is via an app called KodiMate, where you can automatically install a slew of addons but also has other functions such as backing up and restoring Kodi settings and even provides an option to run 4 videos, linked to Youtube that show you how to use Kodi, which in general is a nice touch out of the box for newbies that want to know how to utilise it best.

Firmware is pre-rooted.

A few additions to the UI not found on all S912 boxes to date include screenshot capture, reboot/shutdown/sleep button, clear all background apps (little square box), so no more swiping individually off the screen one by one.

Notification and Mena bars are also present.

Ethernet appears to be very fast, with apps downloading from the Play Store very rapidly.

On the subject of the Play Store, when adding your Google account, do not do it from within settings as the setting UI will crash as the end of the process and you will find that after a reboot the Play Store will not load. So add it via the Play Store app where it will prompt you to provide your account credentials and complete the process correctly.

Generally the UI navigation is smooth and snappy.

No issues with Bluetooth connectivity.

SD cards and USB flash drives recognised immediately and with the correct read and write accesses.

Youtube

Smooth enough playback at 1080p when the correct display settings are in place (more about that below)

Kodi

The first thing to do when running Kodi is to turn off the amcodec, or some videos will not play and when exiting you will get a Kodi has stopped error.

Testing my gamut of videos show that this box is as equal to any of the other S912’s on the market and has AC3/DTS passthrough working with no audio clipping at all. All you do get with passthrough is a very quick crackle at the start as the receiver switches modes and from then on it is plain sailing.

But there is something that all users of any of the latest boxes need to understand and I have seen from many a comment on the Interweb that 2 users with the same box, playing the same media can get different results as far as smoothness of playback is concerned.

With all the latest AMLogic S905x and S912 (and RK3229) the HDMI Self Adaption (auto adjust frame rate) does not work.

And because it does not work, the display setting that you have for a given video file/stream will affect how smoothly it will play.

An example of this was when I had a display setting of 4k@50hz and some video streams/files were a little jerky.

Changing to 4k@60Hz to match the video being played resulted in smooth playback of the same files.

So at the moment, until AMLogic fix this (which should be their top priority at the moment) then playback results are going to vary dependent upon the setting that you have.

So when matching the right settings up, the videos that I played through Kodi yielded very good results indeed.

HDR does not work correctly, with videos not showing the colour range correctly but again this is the case with every single AmLogic Android 6 implementation right now, so do disadvantage to the S92 itself.

Bottom line is that Kodi, when all is aligned will give you great enough results.

The only thing that I have noticed with all current AMLogic boxes that I have used to date is that the video is a little on the soft side and when compared to my out of the box experience of the Dolamee D5 RK3229, you notice the difference and when compared to my Intel Tronsmart ARA X5 running Kodi under Windows 10, you can really see that there is a way to go before the best is bought out of the Mali-T820MP3 GPU.

iPlayer

As good as I’ve experienced with any other box.

Browser

Smooth scrolling and fast loading (over Ethernet, not tried WiFi as of yet)

General first impressions

The Alfawise S92 is most certainly not inferior to any of the other S912 boxes that I have either tested myself, or read from the results of other users experiences.

All of the general known issues/deficiencies that come with the other boxes Android 6 implementations are here too but that is something that AMLogic have to fix as a whole and so not does not makes this variant of device any less functional.

It has a few extras missing from other devices, such as the clear all background tasks with a single click, a dedicated reboot button and audio passthrough working out of the box.

To me the general experience feels snappier than other boxes that I have used.

It is, I believe also the cheapest of the S912 variants out there and therefore at this present time represents the best value.

It has one seemingly unique issue with regards to setting up a Google account through settings but that is a very minor annoyance.

WiFi I have yet to test, so judgement is reserves on that for now.

As far as heat dissipation goes, I can only comment based upon my own usage in a room of an ambient temp of 18C, so it is possible that results may vary in hotter climates where temperature control is not available.

Thumbs up from me so far though and when AMLogic develop their DK to make the most out of the GPU and resolve the key auto adjust frame rate issue then we should be really rocking and rolling to a close to perfect Android TV box experience.


http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_462432.html?wid=21

[bluesmanuk]

A few GUI screenshots (trying to get photos of the same size to appear consistently on here is a pain in the arse, so see the next post where there is a download link to them all and more).

[bluesmanuk]

A few benchmarks and other system info.

All of them plus more and the GUI screenshots are available to download here and peruse at your leisure.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/usgsxib2h8voky1/Alfawise%20S92%20Screenshots.zip?dl=0

[bluesmanuk]

A quick bootup and video tour of the GUI.

[ioadam01]

Seems good box at all. Any problems with green screen flickering or dark brightness?

[clarkss12]

There are companies that are owned by the same parent group though, such as Geekbuying, Tronsmart and Zidoo, where you have the production, sales and support.

But where support is lacking, this is where the Batmen and Supermen of Freaktab come swooping in to restore TV justice foe all.

Hahaha, I like that.

[bluesmanuk]

Seems good box at all. Any problems with green screen flickering or dark brightness?

No green screen flickering at all for me.

I've been using it for general player use this afternoon and did notice that if you turn off the amcodec in Kodi that videos do tend to be a little darker.

[bluesmanuk]

Hahaha, I like that.

It might give some strange visions too lol

[bluesmanuk]

No green screen flickering at all for me.

I've been using it for general player use this afternoon and did notice that if you turn off the amcodec in Kodi that videos do tend to be a little darker.

However, in SPMC things are better and so I have switched to that in preference because it also yields a better quality of video.

I'll give Kodi 17 Beta 4 a test later.

[ioadam01]

No green screen flickering at all for me.

I've been using it for general player use this afternoon and did notice that if you turn off the amcodec in Kodi that videos do tend to be a little darker.

Any news about its update? Do you know if they work or not?