Tronsmart Vega S95 Telos TV Box Unboxing and Teardown

Tronsmart Vega S95 Telos is an Android mini PC powered by Amlogic S905 quad core Cortex A53 processor, but contrary to the two other S905 device I previously reviewed, namely K1 Plus and MINI MX, it’s not been designed for the ultra low end, as it comes with 2GB RAM, 16 GB eMMC flash, 802.11ac WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, and a SATA port. GeekBuying sent me one sample for review, and I’ll start with some pictures of the package, device, and board, before running it through a full test procedure.

Tronsmart Vega S95 Telos Unboxing

I got the box via DHL in the following package with makes it clear it’s a 4K media player.

The box comes with a simple IR remote control requiring two AAA batteries, an HDMI cable, a SATA cable for laptop drives, a 12V/2A power supply, and a user’s manual in English.

The device looks somewhat like Beelink MINI MX from the outside, but the connectors’ placements are different.

One side has two USB 2.0 host ports and a full-size SD card slot, while the other side features the SATA connector. The rear panel comes with a power hack, an optical S/PDIF port, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, and another USB 2.0 port.

On the bottom of the  case, you’ll find the Fn pin hole to update the firmware in case OTA updates don’t work, or you need to re-install Android on your device.

That’s the unboxing video. Sorry about the lack of focus at times…

Tronsmart Vega S85 Telos Teardown

You’ll need a sharp and rigid plastic tool to pop-up the bottom cover by sliding it on the four edges of the case.

We’ll find a “Tronsmart Vega S95” sticker o the board, two Samsung K4B4G1646D-BCMA DDR3 RAM chips (1GB), and a golden button which you press to upgrade the firmware (Fn pinhole). There’s also a sticker with something that looks like a 6 bytes MAC address, and the prefix 20:18:0E looks up Shenzhen Sunchip Technology.

After removing four screws, we can have a better look at the WiFi antenna, and the whole board with the RAM, storage, and Amlogic S905 SoC covered with a metallic shield and an heatsink. The shield is not soldered, so I could remove it quite easily with a small plastic tool.

So we’ve got Amlogic S905 processor (not S905-H) , two more Samsung DDR3 chips to bring the total memory to 2GB, as well as a Samsung KLMAG2WEMB-B031 16GB eMMC 5.0 flash with theoretical read and write speeds of 170 MB/s and 11 MB/s. Ampak AP6335 wireless chip brings 802.11 b/g/n., 802.11ac, and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity to the device, and Realtek RTL8211F Gigabit Ethernet. Genesis GL850G USB 2.0 hub is used to add some extra USB ports.

What about SATA? I’ve been told GL830 USB to SATA bridge is often used in low cost device, and has very poor performance. At least, Tronsmart Vega S95 Telos does not use that part, and instead they went with JMicron JM20329 USB 2.0 to SATA bridge. We’ll have to see how it performs in the review.

I’d like to thanks GeekBuying for sending the sample for review. You could consider purchasing Tronsmart Vega S95 Telos from them for $89.99 when using GRZYOXAC coupon. The device is not listed on many sites, but you can also find it via some sellers on eBay.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

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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