marshmallow News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

February 12, 2019February 12, 2019 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Estone MJ-100 10.1″ Rugged Tablet is Equipped with Rockchip RK3399 Processor, a Barcode Scanner

Launched several years ago, Rockchip RK3399 is now a mature platform found in Chromebooks, some laptops, SBCs, and various other products. Estone Technology offers something a little different with MJ-100 rugged tablet with a 10.1″ display, IP65 waterproof rating, MIL-STD-810G shock & drop resistance, as well as ESD protection. The Android 7.1 tablet also comes with up to 4GB RAM, up to 256GB flash storage, 4G LTE connectivity, GPS / GLONASS support, and some unique features like sealed IO ports, an optional 1D/2D barcode reader, or an optional medical grade power supply. Estone MJ-100 rugged tablet specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 big.LITTLE hexacore processor with 2x Arm Cortex A72 cores @ 1.8 GHz, 4x Cortex A53 core @ 1.8 GHz, Arm Mali-T860MP4 GPU System Memory – 2GB LPDDR4 RAM (Optional: 4GB) Storage – 64GB, 128GB or 256 GB of eMMC 5.1 flash, micro SD/SDXC/SDGC/SD3.0 card slot up to 64GB Display […]

September 4, 2018September 4, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

MINIX NEO U9-H TV Box Gets Android 7.1 Firmware

MINIX NEO U9-H is generally considered one of the best Android TV boxes if you are after an Android experience, as opposed to a pure Android TV experience. I found the firmware solid and performing on very capable hardware when I reviewed the device in 2017 although there were a few bugs here and there for the version of the firmware I tested. The device is still the main TV box model sold by MINIX, but so far, you had to run the older Android 6.0 OS. The good news is that you can now upgrade your box, if you wish to do so, to a more recent Android 7.1 operating system. There’s no specific changelog for the release, and you can find Android 7.1 for MINIX NEO U9-H on MEGA.An important caveat is that it’s not an OTA update, so you’d have to use USB Burning Tool – also […]

August 12, 2018February 29, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

NanoPC-T4 Review with Android 7.1 Firmware

NanoPC-T4 is one of the many Rockchip RK3399 SBCs now available, and as we’ve seen in the “unboxing review” the company sent me two samples. So far, I’ve been reviewing RK3399 boards with Linux distributions in posts such as “Checking Out Debian and Linux SDK for VideoStrong VS-RD-RK3399 Board” and more recently “AIO-3399J Development Board Review with Ubuntu 16.04“. But in this NanoPC-T4 review, I’ll switch to Android, specifically Android 7.1, as I’ll soon try Android 8.1 on Firefly-RK3399 which might make for an interesting comparison between the two versions of the OS, before switching to Linux with Pine64 RockPro64 board which I received yesterday. First Boot with NanoPC-T4 Development Board I had already assembled the board in the first part of the review, so I just added the two WiFi antennas, the optional USB to serial debug board, and connected various accessories and cables from left to right: USB […]

August 11, 2018August 11, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Rikomagic R5 Mini Projector Features Rockchip RK3328 Processor, Android 7.1

Last year, I reviewed Rikomagic RKM R1 Android mini projector with a typical TI DLP with 854×480 native resolution found in competitors, but what I really like what the touchpad and buttons at the top of the device that made it so much easier to configure and control compared to a device like Doogee P1. However with a Rockchip RK3128 quad core Cortex A7 processor and 1GB RAM, performance was on the lower side, and software already felt a little outdated (in 2017) with Android 4.4 and Kodi 14.2. The good news is that company has now launched Rikomagic R5 mini projector with significantly better hardware (Rockchip RK3328 processor + 2GB RAM), and a more recent Android 7.1 operating system. Rikomagic R5 mini projector specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3328 quad core Cortex A53 processor with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU System memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, micro SD […]

May 1, 2018May 2, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Energizer POWERMAX P550S Smartphone Offers up to 20 Days Battery Life with a 5,000 mAh Battery

Energizer, the battery company, has now entered in the phone & smartphone business with devices boasting large capacity batteries such as their POWERMAX P550S Android smartphone powered by a Mediatek processor, and equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery promising over 20 days of standby time. Energizer POWERMAX P550S specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT6737 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ 1.3 GHz with Mali-T720MP GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC flash, micro SD slot up to 64GB Display – 5.5″ capacitive touch IPS display with 1280×720 resolution Cellular Connectivity 2G – 850/900/1800/1900 MHz 3G – 900/2100 MHz 4G / LTE – B3/B7/B20 Data / Voice – VoLTE, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA up to 21 Mbps, HSUPA up to 5.76 Mbps, and LTE up to 150 Mbps downlink / up to 50 Mbps uplink Dual nano SIM card slot Wireless Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, GPS […]

November 14, 2017November 15, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Magicsee C300 is a $70 DVB-T2/C & DVB-S2 Android Set-Top Box Powered by Amlogic S905D SoC

Amlogic S905D processor is an evolution of Amlogic S905X with Gigabit Ethernet support, and TS interfaces for digital TV tuners. That explains why most devices launched with the processor come with tuners. So far, we’ve covered or reviewed a few including Sen5 STB (2x DVB-T2/C), Mecool KI Pro (T2/S2), and TX95D TV box with a single DVB-T2 tuner. Magicsee C300 is another Amlogic S905D Android STB that comes with DVB-T2/C (Terrestrial & Cable), and DVB-S2 (Satellite) tuners, and sells for just under $70 on Aliexpress, and can be found on other shops such as GearBest. Magicsee C300 specifications are quite similar to the ones for Mecool KI Pro: SoC – Amlogic S905D quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5 GHz with penta core Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 2 GB DDR3 Storage – 16GB eMMC flash + micro SD card slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0a […]

July 18, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

PROBOX2 AVA 4K TV Box, NAS, and HDMI IN DVR Sells with an Optional Air Mouse

We’ve recently come across several TV boxes based on Realtek RTD1295 SoC which offers not only typical 4K Android TV box features like H.265 & VP9 video playback, and HDR support, but acts like a NAS function thanks to a SATA interface and OpenWrt, and provides an HDMI input port that allows for DVR, PiP, and UDP broadcasting functions. PROBOX2 AVA is another one of those device with the hardware extremely similar to Beelink SEA I model, but with an external antenna, and a different user interface. The box can also ship with an optional Remote+ air mouse, which could allow you to turn on the device without using the IR remote control (TBC), as I have to do with other boxes. PROBOX2 AVA specifications: SoC – Realtek RTD1295DD quad core ARM Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.4 GHz with ARM Mali-T820MP3 GPU System Memory – 2 GB DDR4 Storage – 16 […]

July 6, 2017July 28, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Vorke Z3 Rockchip RK3399 TV Box Review – Part 2: Android 6.0 Firmware

Vorke Z3 is another mini PC / TV box powered by Rockchip RK3399 hexa core processor with two Cortex A72 cores, and two Cortex A53 cores making it theoretically one of the fastest TV boxes on the market, excluding NVIDIA Shield Android TV which is well ahead of the competition, albeit with poor worldwide availability. I’ve have already shown Vorke Z3 hardware inside out, so in the second part of the review, I’ll focus on testing the firmware including video playback, and the system performance, and see how it compares to the similar Yundoo Y8, which I reviewed last month. First Boot, Setup, and First Impressions One the selling point of Vorke Z3 is its SATA connector, so I connected a 1TB 3.5″ SATA drive first, as well as Seagate USB 3.0 drive (1TB) to the USB 3.0 port, I also added a USB hub to connect a USB keyboard, […]