Egreat A5 Review: Android TV Box powered by HiSilicon Hi3798C V200

Today we want to introduce you to Egreat A5 review. Egreat A5 is one of the new flagship high-end model from Egreat (Egreat Technology CO.,Ltd). Indeed, the device has everything you should have a flagship TV Box. As usual, we do not want reveal too much but Egreat A5 with a HiSilicon Hi3798C V200 it works really well and supports Blu-ray features which we mentioned at the unboxing, more you will find out in the review. Egreat A5 has the same SoC as the last TV boxes from HIMEDIA. In this review (typically) we want to bringyou the the features and impressions of using Egreat A5 TV Box and answer the questions: how Egreat A5 powered by HiSilicon Hi3798C V200 chip works in normal use, as copes with video playback at 4K and that we stumbled upon some problems. Together we follow the standard stages of our review. We invite you to read.

I want to say thanks to Egreat company (Egreat Technology CO.,Ltd – www.egreatworld.com, for sending us an Egreat A5 TV Box to review. The A5 TV Box can be bought directly from Egreat via email or can also buy on Geekbuying for $209 + free shipping.

Egreat A5 Android TV Box specifications:

• CPU – HiSilicon HI3798C V200 quad-core ARM Cortex A53 processor
• GPU – ARM Mali-T720 supporting OpenGL ES 3.1/3.0/2.0/1.1/1.0 and OpenVG 1.1 support, OpenCL1.2/1.1 full profile/RenderScript support, Microsoft DirectX 11 FL9_3 support, ASTC(Adaptive ScalableTexture Compression) support, Pixel fill rate is greater than 2.7Gpix/s, Triangle up to 280Mtri/s, Floatingpoint operations up to 103GFLOPSsupport.
• Memory – 2GB DDR3
• OS – Android 5.1
• Storage – 8GB eMMC flash and micro SD
• Video Ouput – 1x HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz, 1x composite video (RCA)
• Audio Output – HDMI, stereo audio (RCA), optical S/PDIF port.
• Video Codecs / Formats – 10-bit H.265/HEVC, H.264, VC1, MPEG4, MPEG2, VP9, VP8, VP6, AVS video decoding up top 250 Mbps bitrate. 3D blu-ray, BD-ISO, 3D BD-ISO
• Audio Capabilities – 7.1 HD Audio pass-through and downmix for Dolby TtrueHD, DTS HD, and Dolby Atmos, 192K/24bit audio decoding and output
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n/ WiFi with external antenna, Bluetooth 4.0
• Interfaces – 1x SATA port, 1x USB 3.0 host port, 2x USB 2.0 host ports,1x TF card slot, 1x Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45), 1x HDMI2.0,1x Optical SPDIF, 1x Coaxial, AV port and DC jack
• Misc – Front LED, IR receiver
• Dimensions – 189 x 129 x 31.5 mm
• Power Supply – 12V/2A
• Case – aluminium

What we find in the box?

• Egreat A5 TV Box
• HDMI cable
• Remote control (without AAA batteries)
• Power adapter 12V/2A (EU)
• SATA cable
• RCA Audio / Video Cable, 3 RCA Male

The following video from our YouTube channel where you can take a look at more Egreat A5 TV Box and bundled accessories.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW1XYlqjeis[/embedyt]
First impressions, settings, overview of features

The Egreat A5 TV Box is a solidly made and looks aesthetically. The case is made of aluminum in black with Egreat logo on top cover. The case and the TV Box are doing a very good impression, looks like High-End model. TV Box is a really high quality. As we said at the beginning of his heart is HiSilicon Hi3798C V200 quad-core ARM Cortex A53 processor which supports 10-bit 4K*2K H.265/H.264 hardware decoding, 4K*2K UHD video playback / 4K@60fps and HD Audio (7.1CH) passthrough. Device runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop. On the front panel A5 TV Box has LED display, IR receiver and Power button. On one side there is a SATA 3.0 port and USB 2.0 port. On another side of the device there are micro SD card slot, USB 3.0 port and USB 2.0 port. On the rear panel are: S/PDIF optical audio, Coaxial, Composite AV, HDMI 2.0a, Gigabit LAN (RJ45), RST hole and DC jack.

At the bottom of the lack of hot air outlets. At the bottom of the device also you can see four corners of the small rubber to prevent slipping device. Below also remote control and a photo illustrating the connection of 2.5-inch HDD via the SATA cable.

Below we include the Egreat A5 Android TV Box pictures in combination with a matchbox so it was easier to see the size of Egreat A5.

Booting Android to the “home screen” takes about 00:30:20 seconds. Egreat A5 UI launcher looks great and is very readable, providing quick and easy access to the most important features. The device can operate in the resolution of even 4K (up to 2160p 24Hz). We chose typical the resolution of FHD 1920×1080 (1080p 60Hz) but you can also adjust the preferred resolution or set the auto switch. Everything worked stable and very quickly without delays, Netflix also works without problems. Egreat A5 support also DLNA and Miracast. We had no problem with Ethernet and WiFi connection to router and to Internet, but connected via WiFi works a little too slow (Ethernet: Download – 318.72Mbps Upload – 40.72Mbps, WiFi: Download – 26.44Mbps Upload – 26.92Mbps). Sometimes the device has not seen a WiFi network despite previously added WiFi key. In addition to the remote control (that looks and works great) we used a standard keyboard and mouse and Gamepad GameSir G3s.  Egreat A5 has a lot of settings HDMI and video playback. Although the device has 8GB eMMC storage, not constitute a problem because device has a SATA port, so you can connect an external drive. In addition to the Google Play app store it is also available as an application APP Store. Below a some screenshots.

The Egreat A5 has also SAMBA service. Which works without a problem. You can easily share files at home. You can also set Administrator password when you need to login from PC / Smartphone to any resources on the Egreat A5. We had no problems getting to “share” through smartphone and laptop. The Egreat A5 in the local network (home network) was recognized as ANDROID_AAB4F, also Egreat A5 you can use as a home NAS.

Another important feature of Egreat A5, is to support the full specification of Blu-ray menu, movie Poster Cover Art Auto Matching, and display the description of the movie, also playback of Blu-ray video is smooth. These elements work great. A big plus for the Egreat team!. Below screenshots.

Egreat A5 TV Box has a pre-installed VidON XBMC application (based on XBMC 16.1).

On Egreat A5 TV Box games from Google Play are working properly.  You can play without a problem just connect gamepad or air mouse and keyboard. We used Gamepad GameSir G3s. The combination of Egreat A5 with Gamesir gamepad is great fun. Real Racing 3 and Beach Buggy Racing work great. The Mali-T720 GPU is doing great.

Operating system and components

The Egreat A5 TV Box runs on the Android 5.1 Lollipop, namely version 5.1.1. Simply connect the device to the Internet, and the device via OTA update the latest firmware. We used Desktop and Player version 1.5.9, Firmware version 1.1.0.7. TV Box is equipped with a HiSilicon Hi3798C V200 quad-core ARM Cortex A53 @ 1.60 Ghz processor and GPU Mali-T720, CPU speed between 400 MHz and 1.60 GHz. On the following screens you can see exactly the components used and their specification (Information taken from the CPU-Z app). The device is detected as EGREAT_A5_EN (Hi3798CV200) and board bigfish. Below screenchots.

After using the DRM info (app) we know that Egreat A5 not supported Google Widevine Moudlar DRM, MArlin DRM, Verimatrix VCAS and unfortunately does not supported Microsoft Playready DRM.

Performance tests and benchmarks

For testing we used the AnTuTu Video Tester 3.0 app and AnTuTu Benchmark 6.1.4. The result 965.

Video playback by VidON XBMC and MX Player runs smoothlyand stable. The Egreat A5 without problem seems plays movies with the resolution of 480p,720p and 1080p (24fps, 30fps, 60fps) and also 4K (60fps) with various codecs video such as H.264,H.265, MPEG2, MPEG4, RMVB and audio – DTS and AC3. Dolby Digital 5.1 passthrough worked fine via HDMI. Also we tested several video formats – AVI, MKV, MP4 (typical formats in which it holds the majority of movies), ISO and also videos was played fine. The tested TV Box plays video files in 4K (also 60fps) almost without any major problems. The following table of video samples tested for Kodi. TV Box Also copes well with playing the video on YouTube – videos plays in 1080p. Also, we tried to play VP9 4K video runs smoothly.

Typical 1080p	KODI
MPEG2 / MP2 2.0 – 6.6Mbps	OK
MPEG4 / MP3 2.0 – 7.6Mbps	OK
H264 / AAC 2.0 – 7.2Mbps	OK
VC1 / WMA3 2.0 – 25Mbps	OK
VP8 / VORBIS 2.0 – 7.8Mbs	OK
–	–
4K Video
Sintel – H264 / AAC 2.0 – 24fps	OK
BBB Sunflower -H264 – 60fps	Video OK (sound delays)
Honey Bees – 96fps	OK
Skyfall – H264 / AAC 2.0 – 10Mbps	OK
Puppies Bath – h264/AAC 2.0	OK
Cinemartin H265/HEVC	OK
Tears of steel – 60fps	OK
HD Club Chimei – H264 / AAC 2.0 – 60Mbps	OK
Jellyfish 4k uhd HEVC 10bit – 140Mbps	OK
Jellyfish 4k uhd HEVC 10bit – 200/250/300/400Mbps	Not smooth
LG Demo – Istanbul 3840×2160 MP4/H264 8bit – 116Mbps	OK
Sony 4K – Camp HDR MP4/HEVC 10bit – 75.8Mbps	OK
Demo Samsung 2014 – USA Road Trip TS/HEVC 10bit – 51.4Mbps	OK
Demo Samsung 2014 TS/HEVC 10bit – 51.4Mbps	OK
H.265/VP9 Video
Tears of steel – H265-HVEC / AAC 2.0 – 15Mbps	OK
Youtube – VP9 / 1080p	OK
VP9 / 4k – Eye of the Storm 4K Ultra HD.webmv	OK
VP9 / 4k – 10 Incredible 4K (Ultra HD) Videos.webmv	OK
VP9 / 4k – Australia – Land Down Under in 4K.webmv	OK

 

Egreat A5 TV Box Benchmarks

The Egreat A5 scored 40293 on AnTuTu Benchmark v6.1.4.  The A5 TV Box on GeekBech 3 scored: Single Core score – 658 and Multi Core score – 1475, and RenderScript score – 860. Below screenshots.

The Egreat A5 TV Box scored 276 on Sling Shot. We failed to perform tests Ice Storm Extreme and Ice Storm Unlimited.

Below screen with the results in Vellamo and GPUbench. Egreat A5 TV Box has the internal memory benchmarks: Read 75.94MB/s – Write 8.46MB/s. RAM copy speed was 1830.35MB/s.

Conclusions

Egreat A5 is one of the newer flagship TV Boxes from Egreat, and one of the better TV Boxes which we tested. This high-end model is well made and has an aluminum housing. TV Box great cope with playing standard video files and 4K. It has many features and support Blu-ray files with navigation, descriptions etc. The big advantage is also an OTA update service, and Egreat team support via Egreat forum. Once again I want to say thanks to Egreat company for sending us a Egreat A5 sample. Is it worth buying? YES !. If you are looking for TV Box to build a home entertainment center that can handle your collection of video (including Blu-ray), and will also share these files on your home network, and allow you to enjoy the full functionality of Android TV Box you should choose Egreat A5. We recommend a Egreat A5 Android TV Box.