Sunvell T95 Review: Android TV Box powered by Amlogic S905

The Amlogic S905 chip is one of the most used chipsets in new TV Boxes. Today we want to introduce you to Sunvell T95 review, TV Box which has mounted this popular SoC. In this review we want to bring you the the features and impressions of using Sunvell T95 TV Box and answer the questions: how T95 TV Box works in normal use as copes with video playback at 4K and that we stumbled upon some problems. We invite you to read.

I want to say thanks to Gearbest for sending us a Sunvell T95 to review. Now Sunvell T95 Box is available on Gearbest for $39.68 + free shipping.

Sunvell T95 TV Box Technical Specifications:

• SoC- Amlogic S905
• CPU  – Quad core ARM 64bit Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz
• GPU – Penta-core Mali-450MP up to 750Mhz
• Memory – 1GB
• Storage – 8GB NAND Flash  + microSD card slot
• 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 – 10/100M, Dual Band Wi-Fi 2.4GHz and 5Ghz 802.11b/g/n,
• Interfaces – 1x OTG, 1x HDMI (2.0), DC Power Port, AV, RJ45, LAN, TF Card, 2x USB 2.0
• Other – IR receiver, mini LED digital display,
• Power Supply –  DC 5V/2A
• Dimensions – 11.3 x 11.3 x 2 cm / 4.44 x 4.44 x 0.79 inches
• Weight – 0.195 kg

What’s in the box?

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

• Sunvell T95 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 Sunvell T95 and bundled accessories.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPd3FzDSADA[/embedyt]
First impressions, settings, overview of features

The Sunvell T95 is a small, well and solidly made TV Box in a black metal housing. The aluminum housing does not shine and looks solidly at the front is a a small LED digital display.The front panel has also IR receiver and power LED. On one side is a two USB 2.0 port, OTG port and micro SD card slot. On the rear panel are: 5V DC jack, AV port, RJ45 Ethernet port and HDMI 2.0 port.

At the bottom of the device you see four corners of the small rubber to prevent slipping device. Below also remote control.

On the digital LED display shows information about the type of connection (HDMI, Wi-Fi, Ethernet and also boot info) and standard current time.

Booting Android to the “home screen” takes about 00:33.4 seconds (very good result). “Home screen” launcher T95 looks very simple, easy to use and familiar. In addition to the remote control I used a standard keyboard and mouse, MINIX A2 Lite. Unfortunately I could not use my favorite Xiaomi gamepad because Sunvell T95 does not have bluetooth. 

When you start T95 you can not skip the really beautiful boot animation, which is presented below.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jue2F4Gb40[/embedyt]

 

The  TV Box can additionally be controlled using the application on the smartphone. Download here – U1_remote.apk. The application works with TV boxes  based on SoC Amlogic: S905, S812 and S805. 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.  Launcher includes icons in different sized, enabling available for the most important functions, inter alia: Kodi, Apps, Music, Browser, Settings etc. and also as at the top of the screen found a Dropbox and Clean Memory app. The Sunvell T95 has also DLNA, Miracast and Airplay. In the specification T95 is the information that has internal memory of 8GB but there is only 4.8GB. I had no problem with Ethernet and WiFi connection to my router. The remote control and A2 Lite works without a problem. TV Box also comes with several preinstalled applications like Netflix, MegaBox HD, Sky HD, etc. Everything worked quickly without delays. Below a few screenshots.

The T95 TV Box  is another TV Box which has KODI Jarvis (more precisely KODI 16.0 Jarvis Beta3) version with TVAddons.

On the Sunvell T95 you can play, but unfortunately the firmware from which you have received the device had some errors and when you download from Google Play appeared information about incompatibility.

However, after installing the new firmware “T95-1G1230” (more on this later) was able to install and run some games: Fruit Ninja, Asphalt and Beach Buggy Racing with high resolution.

Operating system and components

The Sunvell T95 runs on the Android 5.1 Lollipop, namely version 5.1.1 and the Linux Kernel version 3.14.29. Unfortunately installed firmware (build number LMY47V.20151123 test-keys) on the unit we received had the incompatibility problem, we turned to “own sources” of the latest firmware T95-1G1230 (build number LMY47V.20151218 test-keys). In spite of installation of a new firmware problem has not been fully resolved and some apps on Google Play showed information about incompatibility (like Antutu3D Bench)

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 T95 (p201) and board p201.

After using the DRM info (app) we know that T95 not supported Google Widevine Moudlar DRM, and unfortunately does not supported Microsoft Playready DRM.

Performance tests and benchmarks

For testing I use the AnTuTu Video Tester 3.0 app and AnTuTu Benchmark 5.7.1, because it failed to install Antutu 3DBench addon to AnTuTu Benchmark 6.0 (not compatible with the unit).

The following screenshots from the video test. The result 906 , better than Minix Neo U1 (result 899), K1 Plus TV Box (result 886) but worse than Beelink Mini MX (result 920). Also worthy of note is that T95 did not have not supported codecs.

Video playback by Kodi Jarvis (16.0 Beta 3) and MX Player runs smoothly and stable. The T95 TV Box without problem seems plays movies with the resolution of480p,720p and1080p(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. 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 Sunvell T95 plays video files in 4K (also 60fps) without any major problems. The following table compares Kodi and MX Player for some video samples. Also copes well with playing the video on YouTube.

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	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

Sunvell T95 Benchmarks

The Sunvell T95  scored 28731 (MINIX Neo U1 – 37564, Beelink Mini MX – 34123, K1 Plus – 29252, PROBOX2 EX+ –34332, ZIDOO X6 Pro – 30158) on AnTuTu Benchmark v5.7.1. The T95 scored  on AnTuTuand GeekBech 3: Single Core score – 600 and Single Core score – 1750. Below some of screenshots.

The Sunvell T95 scored 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 7307.

Below screen with the results in Vellamo and GPUbench. Sunvell T95 Box as the internal memory benchmarks: Read 58.29MB/s – Write 8.53MB/s. RAM copy speed was 2318.99MB/s.

Conclusions

The Sunvell T95 is a small, well and solidly made TV Box in a black metal housing. On the digital LED display shows information about the type of connection (HDMI, Wi-Fi, Ethernet and also boot info) and standard current time. 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 well with the video in 4K (also with 60fps). The T95 has nice and an easy to use UI which provides quick and intuitive access to key features.  Unfortunately, the firmware has currently compatibility problem with some applications and games. We hope that the manufacturer will soon prepare firmware in which this problem will be fixed. Once again I want to say thanks to Gearbest for sending us a Sunvell T95 sample. The big advantage of the T95 is the price (now costs $39.68 + free shipping). If you are looking a TV Box with Amlogic S905 chip, which copes well with play most video files and 4K, like TV Boxes with digital display and do not want to undermine its own budget – Sunvell T95 is for you.