While there are many Amlogic S905 TV Boxes below $40, many of them only come with 1GB RAM, and if you want to get a model with 2GB RAM, you’d need to pay a little more. Mini M8S appears to be a pretty good deal, as it includes 2GB, and sells for $32.97 including shipping on eBay.
Mini M8S specifications:
- SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz
- System Memory – 2GB DDR3
- Storage – 8GB flash + micro SD card slot
- Video Output – HDMI 2.0
- Audio – HDMI, optical S/PDIF
- Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0
- USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports
- Misc – IR receiver
- Power Supply – DC 5V/2A
- Dimensions – 110 x 110 x 17.5 mm
- Weight – 162 grams
The device runs Android 5.1, and looks exactly the same as Beelink MINI MX, but with more memory, and a Fast Ethernet connection instead of Gigabit. The TV box ships with an IR Remote Control, an HDMI Cable, a power adapter, and a user’s manual in English.
I reviewed MINI MX previously, but at the time it was one of the first Amlogic S905 based devices, with both firmware and especially Kodi support needing some work. Now the status appears to be much better, based on comments in the review. Several people have also bought Mini M8S to run Linux, either OpenELEC, or as a Linux server with 2GB RAM, and you won’t be alone as close to 700 Mini M8S above been sold through that eBay seller. Other shops also sell it, but not quite as cheap: $37.99 on GearBest, $37.89 on Everbuying, $49.99 on Amazon US, etc…
Redskull YouTube user also posted a video review.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress
Based on firmware versioning shown in video (102L02) it’s probably Beelink device too. Same versioning pattern 🙂
Here you have teardown photos: http://www.aminhacasadigital.com/2016/05/unboxing-e-teardown-box-android-mini.html
So if you have access to Beelink device you can compare PCBs.
@cbm80
Thanks. The PCB is different -> http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/11/23/mini-mx-4k-android-media-player-unboxing-and-teardown/
I have one of the mini m8s and it runs cool and is great for tv, Kodi, Browsing and even using a Clone chinese Arduino uno r3 with. The older soc s802 gets higher scores in 3Dmark and Antutu. Antutu on the s905 still suffers from graphic errors where land meets water in the garden test in Antutu and marooned will not run. But as a all in package of power supply, case, remote and the s905, 2ghz, 2 gb ram it makes many single board computers look over priced slow old hardware.
Freaktab community supports Linux in this device?
@theguyuk
“even using a Clone chinese Arduino uno r3 with.” So it’s running Linux?
I’m looking for similar class of machines (~30$, perf, size) but with TNT (French dvb-t) inputs .. am I asking for too much ?
@agumonkey
yes for now! K1 Plus DVB-T2 is 60$
Is there a modern, Amlogic containing box with 2GB RAM and full support for Open/LibreELEC yet?
@onebir
No I just use Arduino ide in Android.
@roor thanks for the suggestion, a bit over my trigger buy budget though.
@agumonkey
Looks like xstreamer have some cheapest devices with DVB-T2 and DVB-S2 starting at 49€ with free shipping fee 🙂
http://www.xtreamer.net/mxv/
@roor this one is very tempting. Where did you find it ? Many thanks nonetheless.
My Mini M8S arrived with firmware 106L03.
After installing a few apps, trying a different launcher it started t act weird: stock browser would no longer ‘browse’, download of file crawled to a stop.
After a power cycle the box would no longer boot, ‘Android starts.. optimizing 1/1’… stuck, dead, a “brick”.
I revived it with FW 104L03 (others were not available) using the Amlogic USB tool; the box worked again and updated itself, but never to the original 106L03, go figure.
Box runs fine now, even with different launcher to control many Android apps (about 100), basically works like a computer on any large screen TV. You can throw anything at it because it is fully rooted with SuperSU control: security cam apps, Flightradar24, email and banking stuff, news readers, even Maps etc. All works fine as long as a full keyboard and mouse are used, very few apps are badly written and usually miss the scroll control by mouse (expecting gestures), oh well…
Very fast, great at handling multiple apps at once, does not run hot despite tiny footprint. WiFi speed is OK for my needs (65Mbit on a repeater from one floor above). The rare Bluetooth comes in handy for an external keyboard with mousepad, 2x USB is sufficient.
Kodi 16.0 works fine, but for some reason refuses to bind my large MP3 collection from a NAS server – maybe a timeout issue? Binding 4000 movies from the same server is no problem though, YMMV.
Of all current TV boxes this 2/8GByte M8S seems to be the best choice, versatile, zippy and functional, all for a low price (29Euro shipped, from the bay).
Just somewhat shaky on the firmware side; not sure what threw it off on day #2 – it was really scary..
Learning to reflash it and keeping a set of good FW images around is a recommended precaution.
@mw210461
Thanks for your review. When exactly did you order your M8S? I’m waiting for mine but I ordered it recently.
Did you use modded firmware – I know that there were issues with WiFi download and somebody fixed this.
Judging from mw210461’s comment above and a number of others on Freaktab. It appears that the Mini M8S is shipping with Firmware 106L03 that is borked. Nobody seems to ever get back to 106L03 after unbricking. So I suspect that 106L03 was pulled from the online servers. Hopefully 107L03 will be available by the time my M8S arrives.
Hi. My mini M8s when play movie with AC3 sound directly from USB HDD, the sound does not come out.
Please help.
My M8S arrived yesterday. When I attempted to upgrade it, it was already upto date at Firmware 106L03. I set my launcher to the Nova Prime and everything is working exactly as it should.
I suspect there was a bad firmware upgrade online and the supplier of this box had it removed.
I’ve just received my M8S and I have fw from April. I assume I purchased it from same seller. So far it works like a charm. 2gigs of RAM is doing well. It is very fast. eMMC memory is quite good. Read >110MB/s but write is slow – about 20MB/s. But apps load very quick. Some 4k videos which I had problems on H3 (Orange Pi PC) here work perfect! But only in Android mode (MXPlayer and others). Kodi doesn’t handle them at all. Even newest one 16.1. And very positive thing – new YouTube works in 1080p! This one factory installed didn’t support FullHD.
cnxsoft could you please check if other S905 devices support 1080p in YT? Maybe Google started supporting this chip better.
@mw210461
Hi. I purchased 4 x Mini M8S Android boxes from Gearbest, unfortunately, only one worked. The other three all have the same problem, i.e. no signal to TV so unable to do anything with them. Blue light comes on two of them – third box nothing. Tried toothpick for hard reset but nothing – its as though the HDMI cable is not connected, but it is – other Android boxes work fine via same setup. Any help/guidance would be appreciated. Thank you.
I got an R-Box (2gb) with similar specs that actually runs better than my s905. It was 15 dollars. Actually has bluetooth.
@Gremble
$15? You must have purchased it in China.
@haktuih
You’d need to use Kodi to play it.