PROBOX2 EX+ Android TV Box powered by Amlogic S812 and PROBOX2 Remote+ Review

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First impressions, settings, overview of features

The housing PROBOX2 EX+ is made of good quality not shiny plastic. At the top is the POWER button The front panel has IR receiver and power LED. On one side there are two USB 2.0 ports, OTG port and micro SD card slot. On the rear panel are: 5V DC jack 3.5 mm, AV port, RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI port and an optical S / PDIF port.

At the bottom of the device you see warm air outlet.

Of course PROBOX EX+ comes with a typical remote controller, allowing available for main functions and having thwe mouse mode. That’s why we wanted to focus more on PROBOX2 Remote+, which is not typical remote controller but a an airmouse with integrated game controls. PROBOX2 Remote+ has also Gyroscope, Gaming pad, builtin microphone and directional pad for easy navigation in media applications like Kodi. Below PROBOX2 Remote+ and USB receiver.

PROBOX2 EX+ is a small TV Box measures 115mm * 115mm * 26mm. Below pictures PROBOX2 EX+ compared to matchbox.

Booting Android to the “home screen” takes about 01:04.5 seconds (to long!). “Home screen” launcher PROBOX2 EX+ looks nice and very, very simple and easy to use. But it also is available on PROBOX2 EX+ more colorful launcher, it all depends on your preferences. In addition to the remote control I used the standard keyboard and mouse, Remote+ and Xiaomi gamepad.

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.  On the launcher we have access to the most important features: settings, apps, browser, file manager, kodi etc. PROBOX2 EX+ has also DLNA, Miracast and Airplay. It also has a 16GB eMMC for data (a big plus). I had no problem with Ethernet and WiFi connection to my router. Below a few screenshots.

On PROBOX2 EX+ you can play without a problem just connect gamepad. I used Xiaomi gamepad. The combination of EX+ TV Box 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. The use of gaming Remote+ is also pleasant and mainly works in games: Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, but in the Asphalt and Beach Buggy had problems with control.

Operating system and components

Performance tests and benchmarks

For testing I use the app AnTuTu Video Tester 3.0 and AnTuTu Benchmark 5.7.1. The following screenshots from the video test. The result 1024! (nice). PROBOX2 EX+ is the first of the tested TV Boxes that did not have not supported codecs.

Video playback by Kodi Isengard (15.2 RC1) and MX Player runs smoothly and stable.PROBOX2 EX+ TV Box without problem seems plays movies with the resolution of 480p,720p and 1080p (24fps, 30fps, 60fps) and also 4K (small problems with 60fps) with various codecs video such as H.264, H.265, MPEG2, MPEG4, RMVB and audio – DTS and AC3. Also I tested several video formats – AVI, MKV, MP4 (typical formats in which it holds the majority of films) and also videos was played without any problems. The EX+ tested 4K video play without any major problems. In a one samples of the video were minimal jumping frames. The following table compares Kodi and MX Player for some video samples.

Typical 1080p	KODI	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	Minimal jumping frames / audio sync issues, delay	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

 

EX+ TV Box plays videos in a 4K  (Amlogic S812 can cope very well) mostly without problem. Even with some files 4K @ 60fps coped.

PROBOX2 EX+ Benchmarks

The EX+ TV Box scored 34332 on AnTuTu Benchmark 5.7. Below a lot of screenshots of AnTuTu and GeekBech 3.

The PROBOX2 EX+ scored 5834 on Ice Storm Extreme and scored 7980 on Ice Storm Unlimited.

Below screen with the results in Vellamo and GPUbench. EX+ TV Box as the internal memory benchmarks: Read 27.83MB/s – Write 24.94MB/s. RAM copy speed was 1050.39MB/s.

Conclusions

PROBOX2 EX+ is a small, well and aesthetically made TV Box. As we said at the beginning of his heart is Amlogic S812 Quad Core Cortex A9 processor which supports [email protected] H.265/H.264 hardware decoding, FHD 1080p @30fps hardware encoding, supports H.264. Plays typical video content in 1080p and copes well with the video in 4K. PROBOX EX+ has an easy to use UI which provides quick and intuitive access to key features. EX+ in combination with Remote+ gives you pleasure and ease of use. PROBOX2 team equipping EX+ in Android 5.1 took care of optimizing the device. EX+ TV Box works well in games, but also web browsing and watching videos. It’s really good equipment to build a home entertainment center. As you can see in the reviews, benchmarks PROBOX EX+ look impressive. Therefore, if you are looking for the TV Box with good performance, good support multiple codecs and 4K playback to TV box for you. We recommend PROBOX2 EX+.