MX Plus TV Box Review: Android TV Box powered by SoC Amlogic S905

Still TV Boxes with SoC Amlogic S905 are on top. Therefore, today we want to introduce you to MX Plus TV Box review, TV Box which has mounted this popular SoC. MX Plus is one of the cheaper TV Boxes. In this review we want to bring you the the features and impressions of using MX Android TV Box and answer the questions: how MX Plus works in normal use, how copes with video playback at 4K and that we stumbled upon some problems. We invite you to read.

I want to say thanks to Well Global company (Shenzhen WellGlobal Electronic Co.,Limited) for sending us a MX Plus TV Box to review. Persons / distributors interested MX Plus Android TV Box can contact through the Well Global website or directly via e-mail: sales1(at)wellglobal.cn. MX Plus TV Box also is available on Gearbest for $39.99 + free shipping and Geekbuying for $49.99.

MX Plus Android TV Box Technical Specifications:

• Chipset – Amlogic S905
• CPU  – Quad core ARM 64bit Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz
• GPU – Penta-core Mali-450MP up to 750Mhz
• Memory – 1GB DDR3
• Storage – 8GB eMMC Flash  + SD card slot (up to 32GB)
• OS – Android 5.1
• Video Output – HDMI 2.0
• Video Decoding/Format – H.265 10-bit 4K*[email protected], H.264 AVC/MVC 4K*[email protected], AVS+, MPEG1/2/4 ASP, WMV/VC-1, RealVideo8/9/10  / Format – MKV, WMV, M2TS, MOV, MP4, AVI, MPG, MPEG, DAT, VOB, FLV, 3GP, DIVX, F4V, ASF, M2V etc.
• Connectivity – 10/100/1000M, Wi-Fi 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n (AP6212), Bluetooth 4.0
• Interfaces – 1x HDMI (2.0), DC jack, RJ45 LAN, SD card slot, 3x USB 2.0, optical S/SPDIF jack
• Other – IR receiver, power LED
• Power Supply –  DC 5V/3A
• Dimensions – 117*117*18.5mm
• Weight – 250g

What’s in the box?

What we find in the box? The box included everything that you need to get started:

• MX Plus Android TV Box
• HDMI cable
• Power adapter 5V/3A (EU)
• Remote control (without AAA batteries)

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

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnju1A6LWiA[/embedyt]

First impressions, settings, overview of features

The housing MX Plus TV Box is made of good quality not shiny plastic in black color. The MX Plus is also a small (117*117*18.5mm) and weighs little. MX Plus TV Box has been built on the model CX-A8 (information also visible on the box) from Sunchip info here. The front panel has IR receiver and power LED, the sides of the device are made of shiny plastic. On one side is a two USB 2.0 port and SD card slot. On the rear panel are: 5V DC jack, Optical S / PDIF port,  RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI 2.0 port and another USB 2.0 port. 

At the bottom of the device can be seen reset hole. Below also remote control.

As we said at the beginning of MX Plus Android TV Box is also a small TV Box and thin. Belowpictures MX Plus TV Box compared to matchbox.

Booting Android to the “home screen” takes about 00:37.1 seconds (well enough). “Home screen” launcher MX Plus TV Box looks very simple, easy to use and familiar, we could see it in other TV boxes (e.g Beelink Mini MX, PROBOX2 EX+). In addition to the remote control I used a standard keyboard and mouse, MINIX A2 Lite and Xiaomi gamepad.

MX Plus TV Box can additionally be controlled using the application on the smartphone. Download here – RC_Client_Amlogic. The application works with TV boxes  based on SoC Amlogic: S905, S812 and S805. Below screenshots of applications from the smartphone.

The device worked in the resolution of FHD 1920×1080 (1080p 60Hz) but you can also adjust the preferred resolution (also 4K) or set the auto mode.  The launcher includes 6 large icons, with 4 of those (Online Video, Recommend, Music, and Local) being some folders for apps, and My Apps providing access to all installed app, and Settings. Below also we have access to the most important features and apps: media player, music etc. MX Plus has also DLNA, Miracast and Airplay. I had no problem with Ethernet and WiFi connection to my router. In the specification, you can see that the MX Plus has 8 GB of internal memory, but the device shows the total memory 4.3GB (screen below). Connections to work fairly quickly. The remote control and A2 Lite works without a problem,Xiaomi gamepad as always worked greate. Everything worked quickly without delays. But sometimes it happens that during a the running application, there has been a return to the “Home screen”. TV Box also comes with preinstalled Netflix app, which is functioning properly and there is no problem with loading your video content. The device also has a preinstalled Hulu Plus app and Flix Universe. Below a few screenshots.

The MX Plus TV Box does not have kodi while a preinstalled application VidOn XBMC (version XBMC 14.2) based on Kodi. Additionally, manually installed stable version Kodi 15.2 Isengard. Unfortunately summary information in Kodi 15.2 showing resolution of 1280×[email protected], instead of 1920×[email protected] Below Kodi screenshots.

On MX Plus Android TV Box you can play without a problem just connect gamepad. I used Xiaomi gamepad. The combination of MX Plus with Xiaomi gamepad is great fun. Beach Buggy Racing and Jetpack Joyride runs reliably and without problem, even with high resolution works trouble free also I was able to run Asphalt 8: Airborne which also worked without problems, and well with the game Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride.

Operating system and components

The MX Plus TV Box runs on the Android 5.1 Lollipop, namely version 5.1.1 and the Linux Kernel version 3.14.29. Received device has firmware build number p200-201511300746. TV Box is equipped in the recently very popular a SoC Amlogic S905 Quad core 64-bit  Cortex A53 Up to 2.0GHz processor and GPU Mali-450, CPU speed between 100 MHz and 2.02 GHz. On the following screens you can see exactly the components used and their specification (Information taken from the CPU-Z app). Unfortunately, Amlogic S905 is not yet recognized in the applications only detected ARM Cortex–A53. Also, the model device is detected as MXplus_S (p200) and board p200. Below screenchots.

After using the DRM info (app) we know that MX Plus supports Google Widevine Moudlar DRM, but unfortunately does not support Microsoft Playready DRM.

Performance tests and benchmarks

For testing I use the AnTuTu Video Tester 3.0 app and AnTuTu Benchmark 6.0. The following screenshots from the video test. The result 892, slightly worse than MRX (result 906), T95 (result 906), Minix Neo U1(result 899), K1 Plus TV Box (result 886) and Beelink Mini MX (result 920). Also worthy of note is that MX Plus did not have not supported codecs.

Video playback by VidOn XBMC (version XBMC 14.2) and MX Player runs smoothly and stable. TV Box 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 I tested several videoformats – AVI, MKV, MP4 (typical formats in which it holds the majority of films) and also videos wasplayed without any problems. The tested MX Plus Android TV Box plays video files in 4K (also 60fps) without any major problems (Big Plus). Unfortunately, the stable version Kodi 15.2 on the MX Plus had problems with video playback. Files with a resolution of 480p, 720p, 1080p was not displayed on the full screen (screen below). Also video in 4K did not work smoothly, they were jumping frames.

As part of the tests was installed last version Kodi 16.0 Jarvis RC3 which worked perfectly. Video in the typical resolutions, codecs and 4K was played properly without delay.

The following table compares VidOn XBMC and MX Player for some video samples. Also copes well with playing the video on YouTube.

Typical 1080p	VidON XBMC	MX Player
MPEG2 / MP2 2.0 – 6.6Mbps	OK	OK
MPEG4 / MP3 2.0 – 7.6Mbps	OK	OK
H264 / AAC 2.0 – 7.2Mbps	OK	OK
VC1 / WMA3 2.0 – 25Mbps	OK	OK
VP8 / VORBIS 2.0 – 7.8Mbs	OK	OK
–	–	–
4K Video
Sintel – H264 / AAC 2.0 – 24fps	OK	OK
BBB Sunflower -H264 – 60fps	OK	OK
Honey Bees – 96fps	OK	OK
Skyfall – H264 / AAC 2.0 – 10Mbps	OK	OK
Puppies Bath – h264/AAC 2.0	OK	OK
Cinemartin H265/HEVC	OK	OK
Tears of steel – 60fps	OK	OK
HD Club Chimei – H264 / AAC 2.0 – 60Mbps	OK	OK
–	–	–
H.265/VP9 Video
Tears of steel – H265-HVEC / AAC 2.0 – 15Mbps	OK	OK
Youtube – VP9 / 1080p	OK	OK

 

MX Plus TV Box Benchmarks

The MX Plus Android TV Box  scored 35808 (MRX – 35466, Sunvell T95 – 28731, MINIX Neo U1 – 37564, Beelink Mini MX –34123, K1 Plus – 29252, PROBOX2 EX+ –34332, ZIDOO X6 Pro – 30158) on AnTuTu Benchmark v6.0.1. The MX Plus scored  on AnTuTuand GeekBech 3: Single Core score – 587 and Multi Core score – 1617. Below some of screenshots.

The MX Plus TV Box scored 4300 (MRX – 4357, Sunvell T95 – 4300, MINIX Neo U1 – 4326, Beelink Mini MX –4282, K1 PLUS – 4299, PROBOX2 EX+ – 5834, ZIDOO X6 Pro – 4431) on Ice Storm Extreme.  Ice Storm Unlimited scored 7195.

Below screen with the results in Vellamo and GPUbench. MX Plus TV Box as the internal memory benchmarks: Read 27.27MB/s – Write 6.19MB/s. RAM copy speed was 2418.47MB/s.

Conclusions

The MX Plus Android TV Box is a solidly made TV Box with good quality plastic. As we said at the beginning of his heart is a new Amlogic S905 Quad core 64-bit  Cortex A53 Up to 2.0GHz processor which supports UHD [email protected] HW decoding, multiple formats including H.265 10-bit, H.264, AVS+ and also FHD 1080p @60fps HW encoding, H.264. Plays typical video content in 1080p and copes very well with the video in 4K (also with 60fps). MX Plus TV Box has an easy to use UI which provides quick and intuitive access to key features. TV Box works well in simple games, but also web browsing and watching videos. It’s really good equipment with big potential to build a home entertainment center. Of course, TV Box require improvements, but as in most of the available TV Boxes, always something to find. In addition, it is worth mentioning that MX Plus Android TV Box is a cheap ($44.68 + free shipping) compared to other TV Boxes with SoC S905, which is why it is a good value for money. Once again I want to say thanks to Well Global company for sending us a MX Plus sample. Therefore, if you are looking for the TV Box with new SoC S905, good support multiple codecs and 4K video playback and also good price this TV box is for you.