Minix Neo X7 Review - Why you should buy the X7...
I've long intended to write a review of the Minix Neo X7, but sadly it has been laying in the closet unused for quite some time. Like all RK3188 based devices the X7 was also plagued by jerky video playback. Some people in this forum, including me, devised fixes for it which could be applied to the kernel sources, thus making the RK3188 based devices useful only when flashed with a custom kernel. Such a kernel was not available for the X7 yet. Just 1 or 2 weeks ago I made a tool that can apply the video fix to a binary kernel:
and Bob and I made a custom rom with the video fix and some overclock options included:
Since then I've thrown my Tronsmart T428 in the closet and have been using the X7 with great pleasure. Now to the review...
This review is not going to be about Antutu scores or comparisons with non-RK3188 based devices. Instead I want to take a look at what makes the X7 different from other RK3188 based devices, in other words: why should you buy the X7 and not any other RK3188 based device.
The hardware
Let's start with the hardware. Most RK3188 devices are "sticks", meant to plug behind your TV. The X7 is quite different and uses an Apple TV style housing. It has a big external antenna to improve WIFI and BT reception.
Most sticks only have a HDMI connector, a micro SD slot and one or two USB ports, and one micro usb port to power the device. The X7 has quite a lot more to offer:
Most RK3188 devices have a 5V 2A power supply unit bundled. The PSU bundled with the X7 is rated for 5V 3A. These numbers can be deceiving however, the 2A PSU of my Tronsmart T428 easily drops towards 4.5V under load, when overclocking the device it dropped even lower causing crashes and reboots. I had to get a new PSU just to use my T428 properly. The PSU of the X7 however is over 5v without during idle, and dropped to around 5.01v while running Antutu's CPU benchmark (measured on the USB port). This will provide great stability and will save you the bucks of buying a stronger PSU.
The extra USB ports came in handy to me too. With the T428, to connect both a RC keyboard dongle and a power hungry webcam, I had to use a powered USB hub. This meant loads of extra cables and a second power supply. With the X7 it's all neat and tidy behind the TV now.
The X7 has 16GB NAND flash rom, while most other sticks have 8GB.
Another difference between the X7 and many (but not all) other RK3188 devices is it's external antenna. Some sticks have an external antenna but most sticks are limited to a tiny piece of wire inside the casing. The X7 has a rather large and somewhat ugly looking antenna. Compared to my T428, the WIFI reception/range is better, but the speed is more or less identical, both connect at 65mbit in close range and give about 3-4mbyte/sec throughput. Both the T428 and X7 use the same WIFI/BT chipset: AP6330. Don't expect "higher" WIFI speeds from the X7, just more range (and thus more speed at longer ranges of course). Like the T428, the X7 also supports 5ghz 802.11n. This might be useful if you live in an area crowded with 2.4ghz base stations. Throughput seems a bit faster at 4-5mbyte/sec.
Still... this is quite far from the speeds I can achieve with a decent laptop (such as my macbook pro) and what the 11n standard claims it can reach. I'm not exactly sure why all rockchip sticks I've tried have such low WIFI speeds. The ones with realteks say they connect up to 150mbit or so, but I haven't seen any throughput higher than those of the AP6330, it's always in the range of 3-5mbyte/sec, so those connect speed numbers can be deceiving. I suspect it's because all of these devices are single antenna, while to gain full 11n performance you'd need 3 antennas. Additionally they probably only have a single transmitter as well, while full performance can be gained with 4 transmitters:
Other mobile devices, such as my Sony phone, seem to have similar configurations though (without 5ghz support even).
If you really want to make sure your connection is stable, you can use the built-in ethernet port, which has about 8-10mbyte/sec throughput. Alas no 1000mbit ethernet, but 100mbit should be sufficient for most purposes.
The big antenna on the X7 seems to be used for the BT as well. This makes a huge difference with my T428. On the T428 the range of my BT mini keyboard seems limited to a useless 1 meter or so, even worse when the T428 is behind the TV, blocking it's already weak signal. With the X7 the BT reception of the keyboard is great even at the other end of the room about 7 meters or so away! Also, the mini keyboard always connects flawlessly with the X7, while on the T428 it was always troublesome.
Tip: if you're using a non-BT RC keyboard with dongle, try using a small USB extension cord or USB hub to move the dongle away from the X7, this greatly improves reception. I had the same issue on the T428 and my old MK802III.
I haven't actually tried the additional audio ports. I have read postings that people use the SPDIF port, with a patch in the ROM, to send the AC3 sound pass-through to their surround set. This is also something not possible on other sticks.
Then there's the IR remote control. At first it seemed a bit silly to me, especially considering the lack of buttons on it. But it proved to be useful anyway. It has 4 direction controls, home, back, OK, option, volume up/down and power. You can wake up the X7 with the remote control. The 4 direction controls and ok button do allow you to navigate to your movie player app, select a movie and start it. The only problem is that none of the buttons allow you to pause playback. The workaround for me is to use the power button on the remote. The X7 wakes up from standby in seconds, so it works reasonably well. The good thing about the remote is that it has 2 IR leds, 1 facing forward, one slightly down. This means that the IR still works if you hold it in a natural way pointing slightly upwards. IR does feel kind of dated though. Anyway, most people will use a RC or BT keyboard anyway, but it's a nice addon.
I also opened the device to see the build quality:
Looks good from the inside too. There's a proper heatsink on the CPU, though the housing is completely closed. I've never managed to make the X7 warm though, so it's well dimensioned heatwise.
The only "problem" I can find about X7 is that the bottom of the housing doesn't have any rubber feet. When laying on top of a smooth surface it easily slides around or scratches the bottom of the X7.
Vendor support
Now to another important aspect of the X7: how is the vendor support? There are several aspects to this...
First, the stock rom. When the X7 was first released, it got a lot of positive comments about the rom. It was relatively clean. The first rom versions did seem to have some stability issues though. Minix worked hard on solving the issues though and released one rom after another. As I said earlier, the X7 also suffered from the jerky video playback problem. Minix was one of the first to adopt the fix made by users in this forum in their stock kernel:
So, you can expect that when you buy a Minix device, you will be seeing a lot of firmware updates. This in contrast to the T428, which hasn't received an update for months and is still suffering from jerky video playback with the stock kernel.
The stock rom contains the paid version of the AirPin software, allowing you to play music and watch photos on your TV straight from your AirPlay compatible (ipad, iphone, etc) or DLNA compatible device (many other smartphones / tablets).
Then there's the community interaction aspect. Minix prides itself for actively communicating with their users. This certainly seems true. You ask a question on their forum, they will reply (no guarantee you will like the answer of course
). They also seem to take the wishes of the end users into account with their firmware updates.
Lastly, there's the modding community support. Making custom kernels is a lot easier if you can get the kernel sources / config from the vendor. There are leaked kernel sources from other devices, but there's still quite a bit of customization for a specific device, esp. one with so many extra ports as the X7. To support community based development, Minix provided the kernel sources:
Thanks Minix!!!
Conclusion
The Minix Neo X7 is an excellent device. The biggest con might be that it's kind of pricy compared to the average RK3188 stick, but you really do get a better device with better support for it! And if you keep in mind that you won't have to buy a proper PSU for it to replace the lousy stock PSU's bundled with most other sticks, and you don't need to buy an extra powered USB hub just to connect a webcam/HD/etc, then the price difference already gets smaller.
If I'd have to rate this device on a scale of 1-5 stars, I'd give it a 4.5 stars.
I've attached a poll to this post where you can post how many stars you'd rate this device. Please only vote this poll if you actually own a X7, thanks! If you have additional comments about the X7, just post it as a reply to this thread.
and Bob and I made a custom rom with the video fix and some overclock options included:
Since then I've thrown my Tronsmart T428 in the closet and have been using the X7 with great pleasure. Now to the review...
This review is not going to be about Antutu scores or comparisons with non-RK3188 based devices. Instead I want to take a look at what makes the X7 different from other RK3188 based devices, in other words: why should you buy the X7 and not any other RK3188 based device.
The hardware
Let's start with the hardware. Most RK3188 devices are "sticks", meant to plug behind your TV. The X7 is quite different and uses an Apple TV style housing. It has a big external antenna to improve WIFI and BT reception.
Most sticks only have a HDMI connector, a micro SD slot and one or two USB ports, and one micro usb port to power the device. The X7 has quite a lot more to offer:
- HDMI
- RJ-45 Ethernet jack (10/100Mbps)
- SD/MMC card reader (SD 3.0, MMC V4.41)
- USB 2.0 HOST port x 3, Micro-USB OTG port x 1
- Headphone Jack, Microphone Jack
- IR receiver (built-in, remote included)
- Antenna
Most RK3188 devices have a 5V 2A power supply unit bundled. The PSU bundled with the X7 is rated for 5V 3A. These numbers can be deceiving however, the 2A PSU of my Tronsmart T428 easily drops towards 4.5V under load, when overclocking the device it dropped even lower causing crashes and reboots. I had to get a new PSU just to use my T428 properly. The PSU of the X7 however is over 5v without during idle, and dropped to around 5.01v while running Antutu's CPU benchmark (measured on the USB port). This will provide great stability and will save you the bucks of buying a stronger PSU.
The extra USB ports came in handy to me too. With the T428, to connect both a RC keyboard dongle and a power hungry webcam, I had to use a powered USB hub. This meant loads of extra cables and a second power supply. With the X7 it's all neat and tidy behind the TV now.
The X7 has 16GB NAND flash rom, while most other sticks have 8GB.
Another difference between the X7 and many (but not all) other RK3188 devices is it's external antenna. Some sticks have an external antenna but most sticks are limited to a tiny piece of wire inside the casing. The X7 has a rather large and somewhat ugly looking antenna. Compared to my T428, the WIFI reception/range is better, but the speed is more or less identical, both connect at 65mbit in close range and give about 3-4mbyte/sec throughput. Both the T428 and X7 use the same WIFI/BT chipset: AP6330. Don't expect "higher" WIFI speeds from the X7, just more range (and thus more speed at longer ranges of course). Like the T428, the X7 also supports 5ghz 802.11n. This might be useful if you live in an area crowded with 2.4ghz base stations. Throughput seems a bit faster at 4-5mbyte/sec.
Still... this is quite far from the speeds I can achieve with a decent laptop (such as my macbook pro) and what the 11n standard claims it can reach. I'm not exactly sure why all rockchip sticks I've tried have such low WIFI speeds. The ones with realteks say they connect up to 150mbit or so, but I haven't seen any throughput higher than those of the AP6330, it's always in the range of 3-5mbyte/sec, so those connect speed numbers can be deceiving. I suspect it's because all of these devices are single antenna, while to gain full 11n performance you'd need 3 antennas. Additionally they probably only have a single transmitter as well, while full performance can be gained with 4 transmitters:
Other mobile devices, such as my Sony phone, seem to have similar configurations though (without 5ghz support even).
If you really want to make sure your connection is stable, you can use the built-in ethernet port, which has about 8-10mbyte/sec throughput. Alas no 1000mbit ethernet, but 100mbit should be sufficient for most purposes.
The big antenna on the X7 seems to be used for the BT as well. This makes a huge difference with my T428. On the T428 the range of my BT mini keyboard seems limited to a useless 1 meter or so, even worse when the T428 is behind the TV, blocking it's already weak signal. With the X7 the BT reception of the keyboard is great even at the other end of the room about 7 meters or so away! Also, the mini keyboard always connects flawlessly with the X7, while on the T428 it was always troublesome.
Tip: if you're using a non-BT RC keyboard with dongle, try using a small USB extension cord or USB hub to move the dongle away from the X7, this greatly improves reception. I had the same issue on the T428 and my old MK802III.
I haven't actually tried the additional audio ports. I have read postings that people use the SPDIF port, with a patch in the ROM, to send the AC3 sound pass-through to their surround set. This is also something not possible on other sticks.
Then there's the IR remote control. At first it seemed a bit silly to me, especially considering the lack of buttons on it. But it proved to be useful anyway. It has 4 direction controls, home, back, OK, option, volume up/down and power. You can wake up the X7 with the remote control. The 4 direction controls and ok button do allow you to navigate to your movie player app, select a movie and start it. The only problem is that none of the buttons allow you to pause playback. The workaround for me is to use the power button on the remote. The X7 wakes up from standby in seconds, so it works reasonably well. The good thing about the remote is that it has 2 IR leds, 1 facing forward, one slightly down. This means that the IR still works if you hold it in a natural way pointing slightly upwards. IR does feel kind of dated though. Anyway, most people will use a RC or BT keyboard anyway, but it's a nice addon.
I also opened the device to see the build quality:
Looks good from the inside too. There's a proper heatsink on the CPU, though the housing is completely closed. I've never managed to make the X7 warm though, so it's well dimensioned heatwise.
The only "problem" I can find about X7 is that the bottom of the housing doesn't have any rubber feet. When laying on top of a smooth surface it easily slides around or scratches the bottom of the X7.
Vendor support
Now to another important aspect of the X7: how is the vendor support? There are several aspects to this...
First, the stock rom. When the X7 was first released, it got a lot of positive comments about the rom. It was relatively clean. The first rom versions did seem to have some stability issues though. Minix worked hard on solving the issues though and released one rom after another. As I said earlier, the X7 also suffered from the jerky video playback problem. Minix was one of the first to adopt the fix made by users in this forum in their stock kernel:
So, you can expect that when you buy a Minix device, you will be seeing a lot of firmware updates. This in contrast to the T428, which hasn't received an update for months and is still suffering from jerky video playback with the stock kernel.
The stock rom contains the paid version of the AirPin software, allowing you to play music and watch photos on your TV straight from your AirPlay compatible (ipad, iphone, etc) or DLNA compatible device (many other smartphones / tablets).
Then there's the community interaction aspect. Minix prides itself for actively communicating with their users. This certainly seems true. You ask a question on their forum, they will reply (no guarantee you will like the answer of course
). They also seem to take the wishes of the end users into account with their firmware updates.Lastly, there's the modding community support. Making custom kernels is a lot easier if you can get the kernel sources / config from the vendor. There are leaked kernel sources from other devices, but there's still quite a bit of customization for a specific device, esp. one with so many extra ports as the X7. To support community based development, Minix provided the kernel sources:
Thanks Minix!!!
Conclusion
The Minix Neo X7 is an excellent device. The biggest con might be that it's kind of pricy compared to the average RK3188 stick, but you really do get a better device with better support for it! And if you keep in mind that you won't have to buy a proper PSU for it to replace the lousy stock PSU's bundled with most other sticks, and you don't need to buy an extra powered USB hub just to connect a webcam/HD/etc, then the price difference already gets smaller.
If I'd have to rate this device on a scale of 1-5 stars, I'd give it a 4.5 stars.
I've attached a poll to this post where you can post how many stars you'd rate this device. Please only vote this poll if you actually own a X7, thanks! If you have additional comments about the X7, just post it as a reply to this thread.
.gif "HELL YEA!!")
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