What’s happening everyone Nick here from TV Box stop with a brand-new TV stick from Mecool
This is the Mecool KD2 and it’s an Amlogic S905Y4 TV stick running on
a certified version of Android 11 TV OS As usual in this review we take a detailed
look at its hardware performance and firmware features and we’ll get to decide whether this
TV stick is good to purchase So stay tuned
So I’m back and in this unboxing contains the TV stick itself one wireless voice remote with Google
assistance feature a micro USB power cable a 5V 1A DC power adapter and a user manual
So the design of this model though it doesn’t have the same appearance
as your standard TV stick it’s designed to connect to your TV in the same way
On its surface it has the Mecool logo and a power LED
To the top edge is where you will find the HDMI male connector on a flex 2-inch cable
And to the lower edge you will find a USB 20 port it micro USB power port and a reset button
So I’ll now show you to set this up on your TV and why it’s called TV stick
So to the back of your TV you have to plug in the HDMI connector to any available port
and using the included micro USB cable you can provide power used the included power adapter
or you can use an available USB port to the back of your TV
This way provides a wire free configuration The included remote uses Bluetooth technology
so there is no need for line of sight to navigate the stick
When you startup this TV stick it starts with the new Android TV OS animation followed by the
pairing of the Bluetooth voice remote This is done by holding the okay button and the volume
down button until the LED starts blinking and the stick will pair to it automatically
Once successful you’ll be taken to the Android TV first startup wizard where
you are required to login to your Google account and connect to Wi-Fi
Once that is done you are presented with the Android TV launcher
This launcher as I already mentioned is Android 11 TV OS and in the settings area
here is its latest build information Other features include
4K display up to 2160p at 5994 Hz It has HDR display however there is
no settings for it which means that it’s always on by default This will affect TVs that do not
have HDR where the brightness and contrast may appear out of range So take note of that
It has HDMI CEC options and it works to turn off your TV when you shutdown the stick
However there’s an issue in this department and that is the stick also comes with power
key definition options where when you hold the power button on the remote you get the
option to shutdown or restart the stick this works hand-in-hand with HDMI CEC options
The problem is shutting down works perfectly but the remote does not restart the TV stick
from an off position and it will require that you pull the power adapter and plug it in again
Now this issue will not apply if you connect the TV stick directly to a USB port on you TV
in that once the TV is turned on so will the TV stick
but you can’t turn on the TV stick and use HDMI CEC to turn on the TV
As I proceed Under advanced display settings it has a gaming mode
And under advanced sound settings you have the option to disable surround sound audio options
However there are no options for Dolby and DTS audio I will test for those later in the video
The comes in 54 various languages
And it has built-in Chromecast and Google assistance feature
If we take a look at the apps section these are apps that you get to install
during the startup wizard and they have included apps such as Amazon prime video
Disney+ HBO Max and Sling TV to name a few
So I’ll install some of my own needed for his review and continue
I’ll now do a quick run through of its system and hardware information
So it shows that the brand is Mecool and it runs on 4GB LPDDR4 RAM and 32 GB of internal
storage Its Bluetooth version is 50 Its CPU which is the Amlogic S905Y4
is a quad-core cortex A35 CPU clock at 20 GHz with support for only 32bit applications
Its GPU is the Mali G31 with open GL ES version 32 support
Its network adapter provides dual band 2.4 + 5GHz Wi-Fi support
Under android it shows that the operating system is android 11
red velvet cake and it shows that it’s not rooted
Under devices it shows that it has Vulkan version 11 support
Its temperature sensor has been disabled so I can’t get a reading
Under codecs it has all the decoders to play 4K HDR videos and videos in AV1 formatting
You also have decoders for surround sound audio such as a DTS HD However I can’t identify
any Dolby decoders in this list but I will test for it later in the video
And that’s its system and hardware information
As mentioned this TV stick is Google certified and here it shows that it has Google Widevine L1
with HDCP 2.2 protection This is needed to protect movie services from piracy
It doesn’t have an official Netflix ESN certification
but you can get it in the HD using a modified APK This APK only works in HD if you have an
HD subscription and your device as Widevine level I with HDCP 2.2 If your device doesn’t it will only
show in 480p regardless of your subscription As for all the other services these will show
in HD or 4K with audio without issues If you would like access to the modified
version of Netflix you would have to contact me via email at tvboxstop@gmailcom
with HDR however you don’t get the option to use AV1 formatting
To view in AV1 you would have to sideload the smart YouTube player
The included remote is a wireless Bluetooth voice remote that has dedicated
YouTube Spotify prime video and play store buttons
To use the Google assistance feature simply press the button once and state your command
What’s the weather in Miami Florida in degrees Celsius
Currently in Miami it’s 26°C and sunny
Today it will be sunny with a forecasted high of 26°C and a low of 16
With the Google Chromecast feature you can mirror your mobile phone to this
stick with any Miracast app or you can use the official Chromecast feature with YouTube
or any authorized movie stream app such as Amazon prime video
If you don’t like the Android TV OS launcher and prefer the feel of the mobile version then you
can install the Nova launcher and using a mouse pointer from an air mouse air-mouse or using the
voice remote you can enjoy features such as long click menu pop-ups and drag-and-drop shortcuts
You can also use custom wallpapers However live wallpapers don’t work as well as screen rotation
For entertainment features you can play your own list of 4K HDR videos or videos with AV1
formatting without issues using its default movie player or you can use the VLC player
For this demonstration of using the VLC player
And that
this is the video with AV1 formatting and for this I’m using its default movie player
So this TV Stick plays 4K HDR videos and 4K HDR AV1 videos smoothly
So here I have it connected to my Sony 71 audio receiver and will perform a surround
sound audio test to see if it can output Dolby Atmos DTS X DTS HD-MA Dolby surround or
Dolby TrueHD
So from this test it shows that this TV stick can output Dolby Atmos Dolby surround and basic DTS
It did not produce DTS X DTS HD-MA or Dolby TrueHD
So I connected my gamepad via Bluetooth and it stays connected so Bluetooth is
stable This TV stick has Vulkan GPU support so I ran two Android games to test if it has
a smooth graphics handling I could not monitor for overheating as
its temperature sensor is disabled Also it’s not rooted so gamepad keymapping apps will not work
So it’s graphics handling is surprisingly very smooth a
lot better than boxes running on the Amlogic S905W2 chipset
Let’s now take a look at its benchmarks and where it places on my rankings chart
First these are the scores from its RAM copy and internal storage read and write speeds
There is nothing extraordinary about the scores and is consistent with S905X3 and S905X4 models
Next a look at its Wi-Fi bands and Ethernet LAN speed
Notice I said ethernet LAN and that is because you can connect an ethernet cable
using a micro USB hub to this stick The Results show that on the 5GHz
band on my network of 215 Mbps it achieved a 100% of my network speed
The 24GHz band achieved 78% And via a USB hub it achieved 36%
Benchmarking its CPU at 20 GHz with the Geekbench 4 CPU benchmarking app
resulted in scores slightly lower than what you will get from an S905X4 model
In benchmarking its graphics performance
resulted in some scores slightly higher than the S905X4 models
And finally in the Antutu benchmark it scored
83807 And with that benchmark let’s not see where it places on my rankings chart
So I have entered the scores on my rankings chart and the Mecool KD2 TV stick is at position
32 based on its Antutu benchmark score which classifies its hardware performance among S905X3
and S905X4 boxes I gave it a 3 out of 5-star rating for its certified operating
system streaming ability and gaming performance What affected its star rating is the lack Netflix
ESN HDR settings and surround sound decoders You can view this chart on my blog where you
can maximize it and compare various benchmark scores and features such as a 64bit architecture
Google certification and 4K video and surround sound features
I also provide a price comparison and discount coupon page using these links right here
A link to this chart can be found in the description directly below this video
In summary the Mecool KD2 TV stick in my opinion is another great performing
streaming device from Mecool it even performs better than a lot of TV boxes
However I believe that fans and supporters are getting a bit
wary of the fact that they are not getting the official version of Netflix with these models
No I know that Netflix is not the only streaming service available
and the stick can run all of them in HD and 4K However there is a huge segment of the global
community that has HD Netflix subscriptions that they would like to use on devices such as this one
I know that Mecool is working assiduously to rectify this issue and that some of their
upcoming devices will feature Netflix ESN But I must give credit to Mecool because they are
the only manufacturer currently that taking on the challenge of delivering streaming devices
running on a certified version of Android TV OS They just ran into a little issue couple years ago
And with that said have come to the end of another fantastic Mecool review
If you were wondering what are my recommendations on whether this TV stick is good to purchase?
I would have to say yes In spite of that one issue
the performance of this TV stick is impressive and I had a great user experience with
So give this video the thumbs up if you like this product and value the
information provided in my review if you are new to my channel and you will love TV boxes
and would like to see more be sure to hit the red subscribe button and the little notifications bell
next to it to receive notifications as to when I release new videos or decide to do a giveaway
Thanks for taking the time to watch this video stay tuned and I’ll be seeing you in the next one