What’s up everyone my name is Nick and welcome back to TV Box Stop the channel for the best
reviews in Android TV boxes and accessories. Today I have a special Android box from Buzz
TV called the X5 special edition 128 AX SE model. It runs on the Amlogic S905X4 chipset with 4 GB
of DDR4 RAM, and 128 GB of internal storage, and sporting the buzz TV live TV server hub feature.
So up next you have my full detailed review of its hardware and firmware features,
and you’ll get to decide whether the X5 is the box suited to your needs.
So don’t go anywhere that’s up next.
So I’m back and thanks
for keeping it locked during that quick on boxing. So let’s take a look at what’s in your purchase.
So first and foremost you have the X5 buzz TV model.
You get the BT 400 Bluetooth remote.
You get one HDMI cable. A 5V 2A DC power adapter.
And a support card with QR codes for the remote and another for the user manual of the box.
So this X5’s body is 100% aluminum with torque screws to the top to secure the
bottom panel so there are no screws to the base. It aluminum body also
acts as its heatsink, and it has the buzz TV logo and pattern to the top.
For I/O ports it has one HDMI 2.1 display port. One RJ-45 gigabit LAN port.
One optical audio port. One AV port.
A DC power socket. And a pair of external antennas.
To its right, it has one USB 3.0, one USB 2.0, and a microSD card reader.
At the front, it has an LED power light and an IR sensor.
And to its base, it has 4 antiskid rubber feet and lots of ventilation holes.
The first bootup process includes the buzz TV animation followed by
the pairing of the BT 400 Bluetooth remote. This is then followed by a first startup
wizard to select your language, the option to set your time zone, connect to your Wi-Fi network,
and then you may be presented with a firmware update for the Bluetooth remote or the box itself.
Buzz TV is one of the brand that provides firmware updates
which augurs well for their boxes ensuring updated patches or bug fixes where needed.
So this is the BuzzTV launcher, and the top section is for their proprietary live
TV server hub feature, to host various live TV, video-on-demand, pay-per-view,
and EPG guides from multiple sources. The second row is to access the app section
as well as a shortcut bar, and the last row is to scroll horizontally all apps installed on the box.
To the top right, you have a shortcut to the settings area,
a date and time widget, and a weather widget. This launcher runs on Android TV OS operating
system so it does not feature a navigation bar or status bar.
About its firmware shows that is running on Android 11 Android TV OS operating system,
the model is the X5 128 AX, and its firmware kernel and build information.
It comes in 54 various languages. When connected to my TV it has a
maximum resolution of 4K 2160p 59.94 Hz. It has HDR display, and out-of-the-box it
comes to set to HDR always on, however, you have the option to set it to adaptive HDR.
You also HDR up to 12-bit color space. It has HDMI CEC compatibility with your smart TVs.
Power key definition options. And surround sound audio options.
Under more settings, you have some advanced picture settings such as some color presets,
custom brightness and color settings, aspect ratio options, and advanced color adjustments.
Under buzz utility settings it has system updates, the option to change the launcher to a different
BuzzTV layout, you have the weather widget settings, options for the buzz TV Bluetooth
remote, volume control, and network shares. This is the equivalent to your Samba server feature.
Before I continue with the rest of its features, let’s take a look at what is BuzzTV’s MO and
what defines them from the rest. If you open the live TV shortcut,
you will access its live TV server hub feature. In this interface, you can set up multiple
live TV streaming subscriptions and switch between services without having to uninstall any of them.
You also have multiple ways to access your subscriptions. You can use the Mac server
ID address method, the Xtreme Codes API login method, and you can also use M3U playlists.
This interface does not use the service provider’s interface, but its own buzz
TV interface for each service, with access to a PVR recording feature, and full EPG guide layout.
So this is BuzzTV’s MO and is what defines them from the rest.
Besides its live TV server feature you can use it as a standard Android box.
Here it shows that it has Google Widevine L1 with HDCP 2.3 protection,
and here it shows that it’s not rooted. With this level of protection, you are supposed
to get services such as prime video and Disney+ in HD and 4K. However, in my Prime Video account,
it can only play up to HD 1080p with HDR. Netflix on the other hand will only show
in basic 480p due to the lack of a Netflix ESN certification.
However, there is a workaround to get Netflix in at least HD 1080p by
sideloading a modified version of the app. These note. This is not some hacked version
to get free Netflix, in fact, that’s impossible. The app utilizes the box’s
Widevine level I encryption together with your paid subscription the grant you at least
HD 1080p once you are paying for an HD account, this does not work if you have a basic package.
To get your hands on this modified version you would have to email me at tvboxstop@gmail.com.
So before I, proceed, let’s take a minute to look at its system and hardware information.
The manufacturer of this chipset is Droidlogic and it runs on 4GB of DDR4 RAM,
128GB of internal storage, and its Bluetooth version is 5.0.
Its CPU is the Amlogic S905X4 which is a quad-core cortex A55 processor clocked at
2.0 GHz configured in a 32bit mode which restricts it to only 32bit apps and games.
Its display is powered by the Mali G31 GPU with OpenGL ES version 3.2 support.
Its Wi-Fi adapter uses Wi-Fi 6 technology and it’s one of the first boxes I see that actually has an
indicator that shows you it’s using Wi-Fi 6. Its operating system is Android 11
and it shows that it’s not rooted. It GPU has Vulkan support API version 1.1.
With its aluminum body its idle operating temperature is 56°C.
For decoders in this list, I see that it has Dolby Vision, AV1, and HEVC. There
is no Dolby Atmos EAC3 or DTS HD in this list. And that’s its system and hardware information.
For installing apps you have the Android TV version of the Play Store and for those who
are new to Android boxes, this is not the same as the Google play store found
on your mobile phones. This is a special limited version with apps designed to be
navigated with a direction pad and their layouts are designed for horizontal TV
screens with no touchscreen function. This does not mean it is restricted,
as you can sideload some of your favorite mobile apps and they will work on this box.
They just won’t be found on this version of the Google TV Play Store for install.
So moving on to YouTube videos.
So with the Android TV version being the default version of Android TV OS,
you get up to 4K 2160p with HDR quality. And here’s a look at the stats for nerds information.
For mobile screen mirroring it does not come with the official
version of Miracast so you are left to try the Airscreen app,
and even with the Airscreen app your mobile devices do not detect it.
For the sake of curiosity and for those wondering about the functionality of the
menu button alternative navigation bar. Well the bar installs and configures without issues
however due to no root access the only feature that is not working is the recent apps feature.
For customizing your launcher you can install custom background images and you can also use
alternative launchers in addition to BuzzTV’s alternative options. However,
with alternative launchers you don’t get to add or change its wallpaper.
For playing self-hosted videos with the available
video decoders it can play 4K HDR, HLG, and AV1 videos.
During the system and hardware information is revealed that it does not have any surround
sound audio decoders. However this test shows that it outputs Dolby Atmos,
Dolby Digital plus, Dolby surround, and DTS neural X.
It cannot output DTS HD Master audio, DTS X, or Dolby
TrueHD.
When it comes to gaming and heat management the X5 does a pretty good job with its aluminum body
keeping its temperature around 72°C during gaming. I connected my Bluetooth gamepad simultaneously
with its Bluetooth remote and there was no conflict with connected to devices.
And with my gamepad I was able to enjoy smooth graphics and gameplay without throttling.
For benchmarking its performance it scored 88,214 and the Antutu benchmark.
For users of CoreELEC, CoreELEC comes with its own buzz TV X5 dtb and when installed
all features are working. You have access to dual band AX Wi-Fi, Bluetooth connectivity,
and the ability to install any add-on you like.
Its CPU is clock that 2.0 GHz. You get 4K 2160p@60hz resolution.
You get HDR 10, HLG. And you get Dolby Atmos and DTS neural X.
And for those who would like to enjoy some retro gaming on EmuELEC,
using the same Buzz TV X5 dtb you can enjoy hundreds of thousands of
retro gaming titles if you know how to configure your own Retroarch library.
So retro gaming is really good even difficult had to render games such as Tekken.
And now a look at some benchmarks and where it places on my ranking chart.
First the speeds from its round and internal storage.
It has a RAM copy speed of 3488 MB/s.
Its internal storage has read the speed of 162 MB/s, and a write speed of 128 MB/s.
For testing its Wi-Fi and ethernet LAN speeds, seeing that it has a Wi-Fi 6 AX adapter,
I set my router WPA3 personal with AES encryption and these other results.
Based on my network speed of 154 Mbps its 5 GHz band achieved the maximum speed of my network.
Its 2.4 GHz band maxed out at around 112 Mbps which is 72% of the speed of my network.
And it ethernet LAN port this test proves that
it’s a gigabit LAN port also achieving also the maximum speed of my network.
Its 2.4 GHz band still achieved better than most averaging over 100 Mbps.
In the benchmarking its CPU, In the Geekbench 5 CPU benchmark
it scored 150 single-core, and 379 multi-core.
And in the comprehensive Antutu benchmark, it scored 103,108. So
that’s a pretty high score and let’s now see where it places on my chart.
So with these scores the BuzzTV X5 is currently at position 31 based on its high Antutu benchmark
score and this is not bad at all for this box. If you would like to view this chart I recommend
you do so on a large screen monitor where you can compare its various benchmarks
and features such as root access, Google certification, and the surround sound audio
with other boxes in this list. This chart and also help you
decide which is the best TV Box to purchase based on your requirements.
So to view this chart see the link in the description below video.
In summary there are a lot of things to like about the X5 in relation to its streaming features,
quality build, and hardware performance, and then there some minor issues that may
be a dealbreaker for specific users. All in all, I think it’s a fantastic
dynamic well rounded Android box and I recommend it to purchase.
So friends that brings to an end this review. Thanks go out to BuzzTV for sending this model
for review and if you would like to purchase you can get it at the lowest
price using the link in the description below. Also the link in the description is my affiliate
link. so if you intend to purchase do me a favor help me earn that commission by using
my link. Thanks in advance for your support. As always give this video the thumbs up to show
some support. If this is the first time viewing one of my videos then be sure to hit that like
and subscribe button and ring that notifications bell to receive notifications when I release new
videos or decide to do a giveaway. It’s always nice seeing and hearing
from you in the comments. Stay tuned and see you in the next one.