Last month, MINIX announced their NEO X8 and NEO X8s Android TV boxes powered by Amlogic S802 and S802-H (with Dolby/DTS support). The company disclosed the specifications but they did not provide price information. This morning, I noticed the devices were available for pre-order on DealExtreme for $132 and $151.56, and I went to look for it on Aliexpress where NEO X8 sells for as low as $119 and NEO X8s for $148. All prices include shipping. One shop also sell these for well over $200 with the new MINIX NEO M1 air mouse.
Both devices come with 2GB RAM, HDMI video output, stereo and optical S/PDIF audio outputs, Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity, and 3 USB ports. Whereas NEO X8 features 8GB flash, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Amlogic S802 SoC, NEO X8s boasts 16GB flash, dual band 2.4/5GHz Wi-Fi, and Amlogic S802-H which properly supports Dolby and DTS audio pass-through via HDMI and S/PDIF. Software-wise, the media players run Android 4.4.2, and are pre-loaded with XBMC, Netflix and Hulu among other apps.
Both are sold with a 5V/3A power adapter (1.80m cable), a short OTG cable (23cm), a micro USB cable (1m), an HDMI cable (1.02m), a Wi-Fi antenna, an IR remote control, and an English user’s manual. Power adapter for the US, Europe, UK, and Australia are said to be available, although on DX you can only choose a UK plug for NEO X8s, and US and Europe plugs for NEO X8. None of the sites actually indicate when the products will ship, but a seller on Aliexpress said stock will be available by the end of this month.
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.
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oh my god….
dx will have big trouble. i just come back from minix office, they don’t allow any seller to list the neo x8 and neo x8s till they confirm it is ready to release.
they will choose only a few online store, and local distributor to do the presale.
minix still need to confirm a lot of information because ask us to release the presale link.
even now, the presale price haven’t been confirmed. DX supplier must be crazy.
I just send this link to MINIX, they said the information is not correct. and minix also don’t know the neo x8 should sell 119usd, and neo x8s sell 148usd. Crazy aliexpress, lol
I also found the Ugoos UT3 (RK3288) for pre-order in a website… some are becoming crazy.
“NEO X8 features 8GB RAM”
Wow!
Or a typo.
It’s a typo. dude. no 8GB ram. 🙂
@Eric
Will we see 4GB Chinese phones and ARM tv boxes this year???
the RK3288 support 4G RAM, but i think you should to place custom orders to factory to make those tv boxes.
for 4G RAM smartphone, i am not sure, but i know Xiaomi will release new model with 3GB RAM.
@onebir
Even though I assume Android (32-bit) supports 4GB RAM, maybe they’ll wait for 64-bit SoC before going to 4GB RAM. Smaphones with Mediatek ARM Cortex A53 SoC might be available by the end of the year.
http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/02/24/mediatek-mt6732-mtk6732-lte-soc-with-quad-arm-cortex-a53-mali-t760-gpu/
@Eric Maybe Tom Cubie will do this; I think some people buying Raxdas use them for Hadoop etc, & could make them really fast if the data was in memory. (Purest uninformed speculation.)
Hahah, they photoshopped the picture with X8
DX has added more NEO X8/X8s this morning with more choices of plugs…
DX is one of the biggest B2C of China, I don’t think they are lying on this.
@Javi
Since both companies are based in Hong Kong, they may have a close relationship.
DealExtreme seldom do presales, so I was surprised to see the NEO X8 there.
until now, Minix hav’nt confirmed that information and there is no release in the presell sites (strange)
A reseller said on a forum that these will be available in the second half of June.
DX is not lying, they just don’t know this whole things,or their Category manager (product manger) don’t know the product well. and The problem is the supplier behind the listing. DX have changed its business type, they have a good supplier backstage, a lot of supplier want to beat new product and price in that backstate, the supplier hide in this neo x8 /X8s listing want to get the chance of selling neo x8/x8s, so they break minix rules, and list the product.
here is the email from CEO of MINIX:
“Dear *****,
it is important complaints… you have to warning those involved parties that if they(dx) don’t correct it, then will affect their allocation of X8 series.
*****”
Fresh news from Minix – the high-end model will be named X8-H after all, and the retail price was set at ~170 USD
http://blog.minipcdb.com/minix-neo-x8-and-x8-h/
If you ask me, the difference between X8 and X8-H is too small.
I get 16GB space, DTS and an airmouse for just $20?
170$ USD for Amlogic S802H ?
Too much money…I’ll wait for a settlement with the other players (Tronsmart – BeelinK – Measy).
Ok for the 16GB Nand (better if it will be eMMC Nand)… but I am doubtful about whether it will be in the bundle the airmouse.
also offering the Minix Neo X8 at 150$ USD is a non-sense, because IMHO is a dated (old) product, already sold at less money from other competitors
It will be interesting to follow dx.com’s actions – after all they were the first major player to launch the presale campaign of X8 and X8-H – the campaign which they quicly withtdrew. I wonder when (if ever) their customers will get the items dx.com advertized to be shipped in 7-10 days – the presale price of dx.com for X8-H was only $ 152.99 which quite a lot less than the official retail price now announced by Minix. Maybe dx.com will just leave M1 out of the presold X8-H packages and replace it with the plain IR remote in order to avoid losses 😉 Best solution for dx.com would of course be if their their customers just cancalled their preorders of X8-H to avoid the bad publicity…
Pre-order will start on a number of shops on Wednesday (28/05/2014) – See http://www.minix.com.hk/AboutUs/Wheretobuy.html
Recommended prices are as follows:
NEO X8-H = US$149.00 | €124.90| £104.90
NEO X8 = US$129.00 | €109.90| £89.90
NEO M1 = US$24.90 | €24.90| £19.90 (when sold separately)
For a limited period, the NEO X8-H shall include the NEO M1 GyroMouse as a free-gift (worth US$24.90) .
The NEO X8-H will be released on Wednesday 4th June, whilst the NEO X8 will be available the following week, Wednesday 11th June.
Right from the source: https://www.facebook.com/minixtech/posts/723282324400605
Good…Minix’s prices revised.
Well – dx.com acted quite clumsy with all those customers who managed to put through a preorder of X8/X8-H before dx.com halted their campaign stating that the products are “sold out”: they just returned their customers their money and quoted that according to their own terms they have the righr to do that. Even though they unarguably have that right, their customers would have been entitled to a better explanation than “the product is no longer available, we are sorry for the inconvinience”. If the question is about a presell campaign, the customers already know that the product is not yet available but they still want it as soon it is available 🙂
I actually contacted dx.com in order to get further information about this miserably failed presell campaign but they just continued their “when you do not mention it, it never happened” policy. Sad end to their first presell campaign and even worse attitude towards their customers who will undoubtedly look for other retailers, not only for X8/X8-H but also for their future comitments. Even elephants do not have so permanent memory as once mishandled customers…
on Ebay there is the Amlogic S802H’s Tronsmart version (Tronsmart Vega S89-H Amlogic S802 2GHz 2Gb/16GB 4K HD 2.4/5G Wifi XBMC Dobly DTC) at 100 GBP with free shipping.