What’s up friends and welcome back to TV Box Stop the channel for the best
reviews in TV boxes and accessories. So Android 13 has hit the market and
with every new version of Android there are some brands that are early to cash
in releasing new models running the new OS One such model is this new G96 Max A13 RK3528
budget model and there’s a disclaimer from the developer that says this is a budget model and
it’s meant only for streaming movies and TV shows. Reason being we have learned from experience on
this channel that the early models sometimes have teething problems
when applied to new versions of Android. So it’s always exciting to see which developer
accomplishes the best integration and in this review we take a look at what’s in this model and
what new pros and cons it faces under Android 13. So don’t go anywhere my full review is up next.
And welcome back. In the box you have
your standard TV box items such as the G96 Max Android box itself.
One infrared remote control. One HDMI cable.
A 5V 2A DC power supply. And a user manual.
Its design is pretty standard featuring a plastic body with some artwork and the
G96 Max branding on a glossy surface. For I/O ports to its rear has one HDMI
2.0b port one ethernet LAN port one optical audio port one AV port and its DC input power socket.
On the side has one USB 3.0 port one USB 2.0 and a microSD card reader.
At the front it has an LED display.
And to its base it has four antiskid rubber pads and lots of ventilation holes.
So it starts with a G96 animation for a couple of seconds then you
are taken directly to the launcher. So this launcher we are familiar with and
it’s called the leanback launcher and it features a horizontal scrolling panel with shortcuts to all
apps installed a shortcut bar to the top and below here you have shortcuts to its settings area.
However it does not feature a navigation bar or status bar with system controls.
So where this firmware is concerned there are two things you need to take note of
and even ignore in certain areas. Firstly the firmware was built using
the Android 13 mobile version SDK so please ignore where it says Android TV OS version.
Here is the firmware build information and you have access to developer options.
Secondly I would like you to ignore the information on the box as it indicates
that this is a model certified to run popular streaming services such
as Netflix Prime Video and Disney+ and that is has Google Assistant feature.
That is incorrect and does not pertain to this box.
So features of this box include. 4K 2160p@60Hz display.
HDR display with an auto HDR feature. It has built-in screen rotation to portrait mode
reverse portrait and reverse landscape. It has advanced brightness and color settings.
It supports formats such as HDR 10 and HLG and it does not support Dolby Vision and HDR 10+.
It has auto-frame rate switching. It has power key definition options.
Built-in hardware monitor overlay switch Audio output options.
Surround sound audio options however I doubt these work as I will show you in just a moment.
And 77 various languages to choose from and that’s a new record where the number of
languages are concerned. It’s usually at 54. There are no HDMI CEC options it does not
have a root switch navigation bar or status bar or SAMBA server options.
So as mentioned in the intro this model is classified as a budget model so let’s take a quick
look at what hardware they used to run Android 13. So the manufacturer of this chipset is Rockchip
and it comes with 2GB of DDR3 RAM and 16 GB of internal storage. Its Bluetooth version is 5.0.
Its Rockchip RK3528 CPU is a quad-core cortex A53 processor clocked at 2.0 GHz
configured in 64bit mode with support for both 32 and 64bit apps and games.
So that’s some great news right there but it’s bittersweet as its GPU is the
outdated Mali 450 MP2 GPU with a refresh rate of 60Hz with the outdated Open GL ES
version 2.0 support which is not the best performance option for Android gaming.
Its Wi-Fi adapter according to the product description is a dual-band
Wi-Fi 6 AX model but there is no way of telling for sure and I’ll connect it to
my Wi-Fi 6 router later in the video. Its operating system is Android 13 internally
codenamed Tiramisu and it’s not rooted. Its GPU has Vulkan support API version
1.2 so that’s an improvement from version 1.1. Its idle operating temperature is around 65°C
and I’ll monitor how high it increases during more intensive activities.
And for codecs it comes with all the decoders for playing 4K HDR 10 videos. It does not
support AV1 HDR 10+ HLG or any surround sound audio decoders. I will however test
for surround sound audio later in the video. And that’s its system and hardware information.
So the box is categorized as a budget model meant for streaming movies and TV shows but
when it comes to streaming content from premium services such as Netflix Prime
Video and Disney+ it does not have the required DRM level to use your HD or 4K subscription.
Here its DRM information shows that it only has Google Widevine Level 3 with no HDCP
protection. This means if you are paying let’s say for example to get Netflix in 4K with the
Dolby Atmos if you try to use it on this box you will only get 480p resolution and
the same will apply for the other services. So even though the box is not rooted as shown
here by the rooted checker app it still does not have the digital rights to stream in HD or 4K
even if you are paying for a premium subscription. Another thing to note is that even if you are okay
with your basic Netflix subscription the stock remote cannot navigate its menu with its direction
pad. You will have to use either an air mouse or other controller that has a mouse pointer.
If you don’t have Netflix or others and would like to stream movies and
TV shows from alternative sources then you can do so on this box without issues.
With that said apps can be navigated with the stock remote and depending on which
streaming apps you installed you can use the direction pad to navigate their menus.
For watching YouTube videos in HD and 4K quality on its Mali 450 GPU with lack of certain decoders
hampers its ability to stream videos in 4K with HDR. I installed both versions of YouTube and they
are comfortable playing 1080p videos but freezes when you try to play 4K. You don’t get HDR.
For mobile screen mirroring it does not come preinstalled with any screen mirroring
apps such as Miracast or airplay so you are left with the Airscreen app or similar apps.
Here I’m using my Android tablet to mirror its
display with the Airscreen app installed on the box.
For using alternative navigation bars and alternative launchers I installed the menu
button alternative navigation bar and it works however due to no root access the
recent apps feature is not working. Also you can install any alternative
launcher and it will work however you cannot change the wallpaper or use live wallpapers.
If you intend on playing 4K HDR videos you are limited to H.264 and HEVC videos as it
does not have the AV1 decoder. Also its Mali 450 GPU is not powerful enough to smoothly play 4K HDR
videos as some of them takes a while before it begins to play while others don’t play at all.
So from this test shows that it can play HDR 10 and HLG videos however videos are
slow to start and the audio from the videos is very choppy. The jellyfish
video with the high bit-rate also had lots of difficulty.
For those who value surround sound audio by connecting the box to audio receivers
will be pleased to know that it can play all surround sound audio formats in spite of not
having any of these decoders listed in AIDA64. Formats such as Dolby Atmos Dolby Digital plus
Dolby surround Dolby TrueHD DTS HD MA and DTS X are produced when you use its default
media player the nova player and the MX player. However it does not work with the VLC player.
So I’m not sure if it’s a situation where AIDA64 is not detecting the decoders or
if it’s something new allowing software decoding to process all these formats.
Here it outputs Dolby Atmos. Next you have Dolby Digital plus.
Here it outputs DTS HD Text you have Dolby surround.
You even get Dolby TrueHD. You have Dolby Digital
And you get DTS X.
So there you have it and that covers all formats in spite of it not being listed in AIDA64.
For 3D gaming the Mali 450 in my opinion is not the best as it was used in the Amlogic S905X2
models with poor graphics rendering performance. As you can see here it’s having difficulty playing
one of the easiest games to render on the Play Store Real Racing 3.
The temperature during gaming remained in the 70s which given the circumstances of the GPU and will
its CPU clock that 2.0 GHz is pretty okay in my opinion. I was expecting it to be in the 90s.
And now a quick look at some benchmarks and where it places on my ranking chart.
First we have its RAM copy speed and its internal storage read and write speeds. It has a RAM copy
speed of 1926 MB/s its internal storage has read speed of 173 MB/s and a write speed of 104 MB/s.
Next its Wi-Fi and ethernet LAN speeds. So based on my network speed of 154 Mbps
the claim of having Wi-Fi 6 is questionable as its network adapter underperformed in this
test. Its 5 GHz band only achieved 58% of my maximum speed the LAN port which
is not a gigabit LAN port achieved 61% and the 2.4 GHz band got a dismal 6.4%.
And in the Antutu benchmark got a score of 65916. And wanting to take note of is
that the Mali 450 did not qualify for any of the graphics performance tests.
So let’s now see where it places on the ranking chart.
So I’ve entered the scores on my chart and the new G96 Max is at position 94 based on
its Antutu benchmark score and it received a 3/5 star rating based on its pros and cons.
So to view this chart see the link in the description below this video.
In summary the new G96 Max is both exciting and disappointing at the same time. It’s nice
to see the first box running on Android 13 it’s configured a 64-bit mode and can
play all surround sound audio formats. At the same time the box’s hardware is
very cheap and outdated and cannot play modern Android games that require OpenGL ES version 3.2.
So even though it is meant for streaming movies and TV shows only it does not have
the digital rights to stream the premium movie streaming services in HD and 4K.
However it is the cheapest Android 13 TV box on the market today.
And with that said have come to the end of this review. Special thanks to the
sponsors of G96 for sending the box review. The box is cheaply priced at
only $24 for the 2GB 16GB $26 for the 4GB 32GB and $28 for the 4GB 64GB model. And
if you are into wholesale purchasing you can get one of these units for only $16.
So see the links in the description below this video.
So thanks for watching give this video the thumbs up if you enjoyed the presentation.
If you intend to purchase one of these units leave me a tip by using the link
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Thanks for taking the time to watch my video and I’ll be seeing you in the next one.