Today we want to introduce you to VENZ V10 review. The VENZ V10 is another TV Box comes with popular Amlogic S905 processor. In this review we want to bring you the the features and impressions of using VENZ V10 TV Box with VENZ VZ-RK-1 (Air Mouse with Keyboard) and answer the questions: how VENZ V10 TV Box 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 Venz Technology Co., Ltd. (known as Venztech) company for sending us a VENZ V10 with VENZ VZ-RK-1 (Air Mouse with Keyboard) to review. By the way, we want to inform you that the Venztech company opened a branch office in the Netherlands (VENZTECH B.V.). This is good news for current and future Venztech customers from Europe. It is also easier access to the devices and support for European customers. There’s no denying, this also has an impact on sales in Europe.
VENZ V10 TV Box will soon be available and will appear in European stores. Recommended retail price of €69,95 incl. VAT. VENZ VZ-RK-1 (optional) airmouse remote keyboard gives best functionality with VENZ V10 (and probably other android TV boxes) Recommended retail price (SRP) of €24,95 incl. VAT. Also, the devices can be purchased by contacting the company via email: sales@venztech.com and europe@venztech.com.
Venztech VENZ V10 TV Box specifications:
- SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz
- GPU – Penta-core Mali-450MP Up to 750MHZ, OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 and Open VG 1.1 support
- Memory – 1GB DDR3
- Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot (up to 32GB)
- OS – Android 5.1
- Video Output – HDMI 2.0, AV
- Video Codec – 4K@60 Hz video decoding 10-bit HEVC and AVS+ codec support; H.264 up to 4K 30 Hz
- Audio – HDMI, AV, coaxial S/PDIF
- Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
- USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports
- Misc – IR receiver
- Power Supply – DC 5V/2A
- Weight – 220 g
- Dimensions – 11 x 11 x 3cm
What we find in the box? The box included everything that you need to get started:
- VENZ V10 Android TV Box
- HDMI cable
- Power adapter 5V/2A
- Remote control with 2x AAA batteries
- Quick Start Guide
As we said at the beginning from Venztech company we received an Airmouse with Keyboard called VENZ VZ-RK-1, optionally available (sold separately – retail price (SRP) of €24,95 incl. VAT.). In addition to the VENZ VZ-RK-1, you will find 2x AAA batteries, User Manual and USB Receiver.
The following video from our YouTube channel where you can take a look at more VENZ V10 with VENZ VZ-RK-1 and bundled accessories.
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNBN2L3y4XM[/embedyt]
First impressions, settings, overview of features
The VENZ V10 is a small (11 x 11 x 3 cm), well and aesthetically made TV Box. It has a black housing with good quality shiny plastic. The test sample which has received in the lower right corner of the incorrectly printed designation 4K30 Ultra HD, ultimately on store shelves the device will have the designation 4K60 Ultra HD. 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 4K@60fps HW decoding, multiple formats including H.265 10-bit, H.264, AVS+ and also FHD 1080p @60fps HW encoding, H.264. On the front is a IR receiver. On one side there are three USB 2.0 ports. On the rear panel are:5V/2A DC jack, AV port, optical S / PDIF port, RJ45 Ethernet port, RESET hole, HDMI and micro SD card slot.
At the bottom of the device there are rubber pads to prevent shifting. The V10 TV Box also has holes for the discharge of hot air. Below also remote control.
The remote control included with the VENZ V10 looks tipically and works without a problem, allowing access to all the features we need. That is why we want to focus more on VENZ VZ-RK-1 (Air Mouse with Keyboard) which received together with the V10 TV Box. We already had the opportunity to test this type of device (MINIX Neo A2 Lite) and we can confidently say that VZ-RK-1 lies better in the hand compared to A2 Lite (it is narrower in the middle, see pictures below). The VZ-RK-1 is also made of a good quality plastic. The buttons react fairly quickly without delays, which makes a lot of pleasure with control VENZ V10 via VZ-RK-1. The QWERTY keyboard works without objections. Location of controls and access to functions is convenient. Indeed, the combination of the VENZ V10 and VENZ VZ-RK-1 is a good connection, which allows easy, fast and comfortable use TV Box from the sofa :-). You can forget about the typical mouse and keyboard. A Big Plus!. Below VENZ VZ-RK-1 and USB receiver.
Booting Android to the “home screen” takes about 00:19.5 seconds (nice!). As for the launcher in Venz V10 is finally a breath of freshness :-). Indeed, it looks very simple as most recently reviewed TV boxes, but it is a new look, easy and friendly navigation. Venztech team has done a good job. Very easy and quick passes between the icons. In addition to the remote control I used a standard keyboard, mouse and VENZ VZ-RK-1. Unfortunately I could not use my favorite Xiaomi gamepad because Venz V10 does not have bluetooth.
The V10 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. The device worked in the resolution of FHD 1920×1080 (1080p 60Hz) but you can also adjust the preferred resolution. The launcher includes 7 large icons (Kodi, Browser, Youtube, Netflix, Skype, Facebook, +Add – add a preferred application to the home screen.) and on top of access to the three most important functions (Home, Apps Center, Settings). After entering the Settings tab (at the top of the home screen launcher) we have access to the most important features. It is easy to choose the Sound output, also check new firmware update via OTA update. After installing the application appears window with asking to which category includes the application.
VENZ V10 TV Box has also DLNA, Miracast and Airplay. I had no problem with Ethernet and WiFi connection to my router and to Internet. Below screenshot from SPEEDTEST.
Everything worked stable and quickly without delays, Netflix also works without problems. Below a some screenshots.
The VENZ V10 TV Box is another TV Box which has Kodi Jarvis (more precisely Kodi 16.1 Jarvis).
On the VENZ V10 you can play in games installed from Google Play without problems. Simply connect the mouse and keyboard or gamepad with USB receiver (unfortunately V10 does not have a bluetooth). Typical games like Beach Buggy Racing, Jetpack Joyride and Fruit Ninja works properly without any problem. Very nice to play in Fruit Ninja via VENZ VZ-RK-1.
Operating system and components
The VENZ V10 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 V1.0.20160608. 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). The device is detected as venz_a_oversea (giec_a) and board giec_a. Below screenchots.
After using the DRM info (app) we know that V10 supports Google Widevine Moudlar DRM, but unfortunately does not support Microsoft Playready DRM, Marlin DRM and Verimatrix VCAS.
Performance tests and benchmarks
For testing I use the AnTuTu Video Tester 3.0 app and AnTuTu Benchmark 6.1.4. The following screenshots from the video test. The result 918, Sunvell Q-Box (result 923), HiMedia Q10 Pro (result 930), NEXBOX N9 (result 544), Z68 TV Box (result 442), MemoBox MX MAX (result 913), MXV+ (result 903), PROBOX2 Z (result 910), MX Plus (result 892). Other 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 V10 TV Box did not have not supported codecs.
Video playback by Kodi Jarvis 16.1 and MX Player runs smoothly and stable. The VENZ V10 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 video formats – AVI, MKV, MP4 (typical formats in which it holds the majority of films) and also videos was played without any problems. The tested V10 plays video files in 4K (also 60fps) without any major problems. The following table compares Kodi (latest version of Kodi 16.1 Jarvis) 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 |
Jellyfish 4k uhd HEVC 10bit – 140Mbps | OK | OK |
– | – | – |
H.265/VP9 Video | ||
Tears of steel – H265-HVEC / AAC 2.0 – 15Mbps | OK | OK |
Youtube – VP9 / 1080p | OK | OK |
VENZ V10 TV Box Benchmarks
The VENZ V10 scored 37562, this is a very good result, considering that the V10 has only 1GB of RAM and 8GB ROM ( Q-Box – 36985, HiMedia Q10 Pro – 38133, N9 – 21336, Z68 – 27053, MX MAX – 35024, MXV+ – 34208, PROBOX2 Z – 35996, MX Plus – 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 v6.1.4. The V10 on GeekBech 3 scored: Single Core score – 612 and Multi Core score – 1767. Below some of screenshots.
The VENZ V10 scored 4246 (Sunvell Q-BOX – 4335, NEXBOX N9 – 2203, Z68 – 3319, MX Max – 4349, MXV+ – 4218, PROBOX 2 Z – 4333, MX Plus– 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. Unfortunately, we failed to complete the tests Ice Storm Unlimited.
Below screen with the results in Vellamo and GPUbench. V10 TV Box has the internal memory benchmarks: Read 96.09MB/s – Write 21.12MB/s. RAM copy speed was 2287.32MB/s.
Conclusions
The VENZ V10 is a very well and aesthetically made TV Box. TV Box is equipped in the recently very popular a SoC Amlogic S905 Quad core 64-bit Cortex A53 Up to 2.0GHz processor. Plays typical video content in 1080p and copes well with the video in 4K (also with 60fps). V10 TV Box has a fresh, nice and an easy to use UI which provides quick and intuitive access to key features. V10 in combination with VENZ VZ-RK-1 gives you pleasure and ease of use. Although VENZ V10 has 1GB of RAM, running fast and stable. This is one of the better TV Boxes with specification with 1GB RAM, without bluetooth. The V10 copes well with games that can be downloaded from the Google Play. Web browsing and watching video (Netflix) also works well. Of course, there will always be something to which you can attach. On the other hand, when it comes to firmware is really good, we also hope that Venztech team will respond to the problems reported by users and update the firmware. Once again I want to say thanks to Venztech company for sending us a VENZ V10 and VENZ VZ-RK-1 sample. Is it worth buying? YES !. This is a good TV Box with Amlogic S905 that works properly, stable and fast and also has also excellent support for various multimedia. If you are from Europe it is also a good TV Box for you, in case of any problems you will get faster support in Europe. We recommend a VENZ V10 TV Box.
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