2014-10-13, 13:17
MXQ S85 and EM6Q-MXQ are two main Full HD H.265 Android media players based on Amlogic S805 currently selling on Chinese online stores. I’m lucky enough to have received both, and I’ve already completed the review for EM6Q-MXQ, so today I’ll complete MXQ S85 review and compare both devices. I’ve already taken picture of the device, accessories, and checked out the board’s components in my unboxing post, so in this post, I’ll focus on the user interface, evaluate performance, and test most hardware features of this media player.
Gearbest provided the sample for review, so if you are interested in purchasing you could do so on their site for $47.99 (with MXQBCM coupon), or for $45.99 (with MXQCM coupon) for the version without Bluetooth from http://goo.gl/QsztjQ.
MXQ S85 is actually a pretty good device and performance considering the price (<$50). Wi-Fi and Ethernet are pretty decent, video codecs/containers is quite good in XBMC, and H.265 can be played in MX Player, but not yet in XBMC. The firmware is pretty stable, and I did not come across massive slowdowns like in EM6Q-MXQ.
PRO:
The firmware is stable, relatively smooth to operate, and only hung when trying to play 4K videos
Good XBMC support.
HEVC/H.265 hardware video decoding support. Working in MX Player, but not with XBMC (yet)
Very good price/performance ratio.
Good Wi-Fi, and decent Ethernet performance
Video Output – Supports 1080p24/50/60 (but no 25/30 Hz), and composite output (NTSC/PAL).
CONS:
Despite having a power button, power off is not perfect (no clean power off)
Bluetooth Low Energy (mostly used for wearables) is not currently supported.
OTA firmware upgrade is not working
USB / NTFS storage performance is disappointing.
USB webcam did not work reliably for me in either Skype and Hangouts.
“App xxx not responding” message may appear while loading large apps such as games.
Read more about MXQ S85 Android TV Box (Amlogic S805) Review : http://goo.gl/DTCJDq
Gearbest provided the sample for review, so if you are interested in purchasing you could do so on their site for $47.99 (with MXQBCM coupon), or for $45.99 (with MXQCM coupon) for the version without Bluetooth from http://goo.gl/QsztjQ.
MXQ S85 is actually a pretty good device and performance considering the price (<$50). Wi-Fi and Ethernet are pretty decent, video codecs/containers is quite good in XBMC, and H.265 can be played in MX Player, but not yet in XBMC. The firmware is pretty stable, and I did not come across massive slowdowns like in EM6Q-MXQ.
PRO:
The firmware is stable, relatively smooth to operate, and only hung when trying to play 4K videos
Good XBMC support.
HEVC/H.265 hardware video decoding support. Working in MX Player, but not with XBMC (yet)
Very good price/performance ratio.
Good Wi-Fi, and decent Ethernet performance
Video Output – Supports 1080p24/50/60 (but no 25/30 Hz), and composite output (NTSC/PAL).
CONS:
Despite having a power button, power off is not perfect (no clean power off)
Bluetooth Low Energy (mostly used for wearables) is not currently supported.
OTA firmware upgrade is not working
USB / NTFS storage performance is disappointing.
USB webcam did not work reliably for me in either Skype and Hangouts.
“App xxx not responding” message may appear while loading large apps such as games.
Read more about MXQ S85 Android TV Box (Amlogic S805) Review : http://goo.gl/DTCJDq