Cloudsto A20 Media Stick, a mini PC based on AllWinner A20, was discovered in March, with shipping expected in early April. One person in Korea (“Eddy Lab”) got hold of the device and took some pictures of this mini PC, as well as screenshots. But before going through this, let’s have a look at the specifications:
- SoC – Allwinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 + Mali-400MP2 GPU
- System Memory – 1GB DDR3
- Storage – 4GB Flash + micro SD slot (Up to 32 GB)
- Video Output – HDMI (1080p)
- Video Containers – RM, RMVB, MPEG1/2/4, MPEG2 Transport Stream, VOB, AVI, ASF, WMV, MKV, MOV, MP4, RMP4, IFO, ISO
- Audio Codecs – AAC, MP3, OGG, WMA, WAV, M4A
- Connectivity – Built-in Wifi 802.11 b/g/n
- USB – 2x USB host (1x full USB, 1x mini USB)
- IR Receiver
The package contains the A20 Media Stick, a remote control, a power adapter and corresponding USB cable, a short HDMI cable, and a user’s manual in English.
Let’s see what’s inside the beast.
And the other side.
There may not be a way to connect a serial connector to this board, unless the two pads on the first picture are the Rx and Tx pins.
We also get lots of screenshots for the device on that site, and as you can see below this is just stock Android.
The volume buttons are there, but there’s apparently no power button, nor full screen option.
Interesting part of the settings menu include Wi-Fi support (but nothing for Ethernet or Bluetooth), audio output options (CODEC, HDMI, S/PDIF), a wide range of display output from 576p to 1080p60, 360 MB available storage space, and lots of developer’s options are enabled. The model name is “dongel_ZH-A20” (no typo from my part this time…), and it’s running Android 4.2.2 with Linux kernel 3.3.0.
He installed several applications from Google Play, so it seems to work and ran Antutu v3.3 on the device with a total score of 4266 points, which is slightly lower than WM8850-MID tablet, powered by a single core Cortex A9 processor @ 1.5 GHz, and significantly lower than Rockchip RK3066 mini PCs.
He also tested Wi-Fi performance with Benchbee, and achieved 14.1Mbps download speed, and 20.6Mbps upload speed. The link speed was 150 Mbps and encryption WPA2 PSK.
The device comes rooted. The firmware does not appear to be fully stable yet, and improvements are expected. The production firmware should support external Bluetooth USB dongles.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress
The allwinner a20 is the worst chipset of this generation, 4266 points in antutu is very low.
@pepe
Agreed but keep in mind that it’s a dual core A7 which is not as good as an A9 and also the firmware might evolve to five a better score.
I don’t expect it to do that great though, it’s just a cheap replacement for the cheap A10. Given that the A10 scores 2600 this is indeed an improvement.
For some people this might just be enough… I all you want is to do basic things you don’t need that much power. It can probably play Angry Birds just fine 🙂
At least A20 will not overheats… not all is antutu numbers.
Does it run Linux/Ubuntu?
@dirk
Not yet. But it will.
@Marius
If I remember correctly A10 scores ~2,600 points with Antutu 2.9.x, but it should be in the 3,xxx with Antutu 3.x.x
Considering there’s now just around $10 to $15 between A10 and RK3066, A20 mini PCs better get price closed to A10 ones.
He’s now done the same for Cloudsto A20 STB: http://muritzy.tistory.com/700
where can i download the stock firmware?
I have an A10 tablet (cheap clone) with only 512mb of RAM. I recently self compiled the 3.4 kernel with CarbonRom 4.2.2 and scored 4987 on the lastest Antutu… So, the A20 will do MUCH better with better firmware. Looks like it’s the graphics that are scoring much lower than on the A10.
Eddy mentions a A20 7inch Tablet PC gets about 8000 (tested at Hong Kong Fair), so it’s pretty good. Mini PCs usually get lower scores however.