SCISHION V88 Pro Review: Android TV Box powered by Amlogic S905X

Today we want to show you a review SCISHION V88 Pro. This review will start a little unusual, since the comparison. Remember the earlier model SCISHION V88, which received a weak final grade (V88 review can be found here)?, V88 Pro comes with a newer SoC S905X and also fallen out badly. When he appeared on the market, we were hoping that would be better than the V88. Unfortunately, our fears were confirmed. V88 Pro can safely say that it fallen out bad, and even worse than SCISHION V88. Together we follow the standard stages of our review. We invite you to read.

I want to say thanks to Gearbest store for sending us a SCISHION V88 Pro to review. Now SCISHION V88 Pro Android TV Box is available on Gearbest for $32.88 + free shipping.

SCISHION V88 PRO Android 6.0 TV BOX specifications:

• CPU – Amlogic S905X Quad Core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU up to 2GHz
• GPU – Penta Core ARM Mali-450 GPU up to 750MHz+
• Memory – 1GB DDR3
• Storage – 8GB eMMC + SD card slot (up to 32GB)
• Wireless Connectivity – 802.11b/g/n WIFI (2.4Ghz)
• OS – Android 6.0 Marshmallow
• Video Output – HDMI 2.0a, up to 4K*2K @ 60fps, Support HDR, HDMI-CEC, HDCP 2.2
• Audio Output – HDMI 2.0a, AV, and coaxial S/PDIF
• Power – DC 5V 2A adapter
• Interfaces – HDMI port, RJ45 port (100Mbps Ethernet), SPDIF port, 4x USB Host, SD Card Slot, AV Out; DC jack
• USB – 4x USB 2.0 host ports
• Supported Video Format – UHD 4K 60fps HW decoding, supports multiple formats including H.265 10-bit, H.264 & VP9
  DAT/MPEG/MPE/MPG/TS/TP/VOB/ISO/AVI/MP4/MOV/3GP/ FLV/MKV/M2TS/MTS/M4V/ WMV/ASF/RM/RMVB
• Dimensions – 11.60 x 11.60 x 2.50 cm
• Weight – 145g

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

• SCISHION V88 Pro Android TV Box
• HDMI cable
• Power adapter 5V/2A (EU)
• Remote control (without AAA batteries)
• User Manual

The following video from our YouTube channel where you can take a look at more SCISHION V88 Pro TV Box and bundled accessories.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHvgOD3YZ8Q[/embedyt]
First impressions, settings, overview of features

The SCISHION V88 Pro TV Box is well and solidly made of good quality plastic in black. Top housing is a matt while the sides of the device are shiny. As we wrote at the beginning of his heart is Amlogic S905X Quad Core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU up to 2GHz which supports 4K HDR, 4K VP9, H.265 10-bit 4K*[email protected] and HD Audio (7.1CH) passthrough. Device runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The front panel has IR receiver and power LED. On one side is a three USB 2.0 ports and SD card slot. On the rear panel are: another USB 2.0 port, Optical S / PDIF port, AV port, HDMI 2.0 port, RJ45 Ethernet port and 5V/2A  DC jack.

The SCISHION V88 Pro has holes for the discharge of hot air. Below also remote control.

SCISHION V88 Pro has a well-known launcher, which we could see in previous TV boxes. In addition to the remote control we used a standard keyboard and mouse. Also, we used a new Gamepad GameSir G3s. The device worked (typically) in the resolution of FHD 1920×1080 (1080p 60Hz) but you can also adjust the preferred resolution or set the auto switch. We had no problem with Ethernet and WiFi connection to router and to Internet. TV Box is stable but reacts slowly. Below are some screenshots.

V88 Pro has 8GB of flash storage, as seen above is available size is 4.6GB. Unfortunately, the firmware that comes with SCISHION V88 Pro has no improvements. Most applications can not be installed from the Google Play Store, info: Your device isn’t compatible with this version. Therefore, we could not perform most of the tests required for review. Here are a few examples.

TV Box has a pre-installed Kodi 16.1 Jarvis. We could not test any games, they can not be downloaded from the Play Store.

Operating system and components

The SCISHION V88 Pro TV Box runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, namely version 6.0.1 and the Linux Kernel version 3.14.29. We have installed the latest available firmware for V88 Pro build p212-userdebug 6.0.1 MHC19J 20160830.093224 test-keys. TV Box is equipped with a SoC Amlogic S905X Quad Core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU up to 2GHz processor and GPU Penta Core ARM Mali-450, CPU speed between 408 MHz and 2GHz. Failed to install CPU-Z application, but SoC is quite known and could see information from application in other reviews TV Boxes equipped with Amlogic S905X.

After using the DRM info (app) we know that V88 Pro TV Box supports Google Widevine Moudlar DRM, but unfortunately does not support Microsoft Playready DRM, Marlin DRM and Verimatrix VCAS.

Performance tests and benchmarks

For testing we used the AnTuTu Video Tester 3.0 app and AnTuTu Benchmark 6.1.4. The result 910. Also worthy of note is that V88 Pro TV Box did not have not supported codecs.

Unfortunately, the problem came with playing video samples. V88 Pro could not play any sample in 4K via Kodi.  The SCISHION V88 Pro without problem seems plays movies with the resolution of 480p,720p and 1080p (24fps, 30fps, 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 video formats – AVI, MKV, MP4 (typical formats in which it holds the majority of movies) also videos was played fine. The video on YouTube plays in 720p. 

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	not play
BBB Sunflower -H264 – 60fps	not play
Honey Bees – 96fps	not smooth
Skyfall – H264 / AAC 2.0 – 10Mbps	not smooth
Puppies Bath – h264/AAC 2.0	not smooth
Cinemartin H265/HEVC	not play
Tears of steel – 60fps	not play
HD Club Chimei – H264 / AAC 2.0 – 60Mbps	not play
Jellyfish 4k uhd HEVC 10bit – 140Mbps	not play
Jellyfish 4k uhd HEVC 10bit – 200/250/300/400Mbps	not play
LG Demo – Istanbul 3840×2160 MP4/H264 8bit – 116Mbps	not play
Sony 4K – Camp HDR MP4/HEVC 10bit – 75.8Mbps	not play
Demo Samsung 2014 – USA Road Trip TS/HEVC 10bit – 51.4Mbps	not play
Demo Samsung 2014 TS/HEVC 10bit – 51.4Mbps	not play
H.265/VP9 Video
Tears of steel – H265-HVEC / AAC 2.0 – 15Mbps	not smooth
Youtube – VP9 / 1080p	OK
VP9 / 4k – Eye of the Storm 4K Ultra HD.webmv	not play

 

SCISHION V88 Pro TV Box Benchmarks

The SCISHION V88 Pro scored 19772 on AnTuTu Benchmark v6.1.4.  No information from the Geekbench app. Below screenshots.

The V88 Pro TV Box scored 6358 on Ice Storm.

Conclusions

Unfortunately SCISHION V88 Pro can not be called successful TV Box just as the previous V88 model. Most probably this applies to all TV Boxes from SCISHION. It may seem that the company responsible for SCISHION brand is not interested in the problems and optimizing the firmware. The biggest advantage V88 Pro is its a price (as well as other SCISHION models). If you want to buy a TV Box and wonder over SCISHION V88 Pro, it is better to buy a little more expensive TV Box. If do not improve the quality of the firmware, it is not worth spending money at TV Boxes from SCISHION. At the moment V88 Pro with the current firmware is unacceptable. In contrast, you can find a combination of SCISHION V88 / V88 Pro + LibreELEC OS which seems to be better and works better than the current version of Android 6.0.1.