Welcome viewers to my third and final video of this MXQ trilogy, and so far we have seen
2 great models from MXQ that caught the attention of lots of viewers with their quality build
and the great performance.
It’s now left to this final model to close out my three-part series with a performance
that’s supposed to leave a lasting impression and renewed interest in MXQ models.
My name is Nick and for the final episode I bring to you their most powerful model yet,
the MXQ M12 TV box.
This model runs on the Amlogic S922X hexa-core CPU, on 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage,
running on Android 9 operating system.
So in the wake of the first two models that made some serious inroads on my rankings chart,
is now left to see what this new powerhouse model can deliver.
So whatever you do don’t touch that screen and go anywhere, my full and final review
comes right after this.
In the box you have the M12 TV box itself.
An IR remote.
One HDMI cable.
A 5V 2A amps power adapter.
And a user manual.
The body is made of metal with no branding to the top.
It has one HDMI 2.1 port, one RJ-45 gigabit LAN port, one optical audio port, one AV port,
one external antenna, and the DC power input Jack to the rear.
You have 1 USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0, and a micro-SD card reader to the side.
At the front you have a pair of LED indicators, and an IR sensor.
And below the box it’s secured by 4 rubber feet and lots of cooling vents.
I’ll now connect this to my 4K TV and capture card and continue.
So the startup of the M12 starts slightly different from the previous two models with
an mbox animation for a few seconds then you are taken directly to the launcher with no
startup wizard.
The launcher however is the same and it does not have a navigation bar or status bar, and
I will install the same alternative one I used on the first two models in a moment.
This firmware has most of the features from the previous two models.
Features such as.
4K display resolution with Dolby vision and HDR display.
You have HDMI CEC options and audio output options.
And it has the digital surround sound audio options.
Absent in this firmware are the Wi-Fi hotspot feature, and the Built-in screen rotation
feature from the first two models.
And it does not have a root switch, navigation bar or status bar settings, hardware monitor,
or Samba server settings.
In the apps section it comes with the same preinstalled apps, so I installed my usual
set of apps and let’s have a look at its system and hardware information.
The mainboard used in this model is the Galilei, and it has 4GB of LP DDR4 RAM and 32GB of
internal storage from which this is the remainder.
The Bluetooth version is 4.2.
The CPU is the hexa core Amlogic S922X, consisting of a dual core cortex A53 clocked at 1.8 GHz,
and a quad core cortex A73 clocked at 1.7 GHz, for a total of six scores configured
in 32bit mode with a maximum CPU clocked range of 1.8 GHz, with support for only 32bit ABIs.
It’s GPU is the Mali G52 with open GL ES version 3.2 support.
It has a dual band 5GHz Wi-Fi support.
The operating system is Android 9 pie and the box is rooted.
With its metal body and heatsink design, the box runs cool around 43°C at normal operating
temperature.
It comes with all the decoders for the playback of 4K HDR video, and videos with digital surround
sound audio formats such as the DTS HD, HEVC, and Dolby vision.
And that’s its core system and hardware information, let’s now take a look at its
performance benchmarks.
First its RAM and internal storage data transfer speeds.
It has a RAM copy speed of 5671 MB/s.
It’s internal storage has a read speed of 111 MB/s and a write speed of 33.
These are the kind of scores you would expect from a hexa core model.
In the Wi-Fi bands and LAN speed tests, the box achieve the maximum bandwidth on the 5
GHz band and on the LAN port, with the 2.4 GHz band achieving 51%.
These scores here are a little difference from the previous two models that has maximum
bandwidth on both Wi-Fi bands and on their LAN ports.
In the Antutu benchmark it’s scored 121,092.
This is indeed a high score expected from hexa core models, and we shall see in a moment
how it does on the chart.
In the Geekbench 4 CPU benchmark it’s scored 1253 single core and 3432 multicore.
The Amlogic S922X CPU looking quite impressive in the scores, and is one of the characteristics
of a high and model.
The GPU benchmark revealed that the box does not have Vulcan support.
And because of its share power it maxed out in the ice storm extreme test, and scored
1630 in the slingshot test.
These scores are not surprising at all, because it’s what we usually see from hexa core
models.
So after entering the scores the MXQ M12 is at position 9 on my rankings chart, placing
it among the top 10 high performance models.
To view this chart along with my special editor’s choice chart, see the link in the description
below this video.
To start this segment a quick look at its root access and the DRM information.
It shows that the box is rooted, this is good for most apps that run on TV boxes.
However, it’s not important if all you are concerned about is streaming movies and TV
shows.
Its DRM information shows that it has Widevine level 3 with no HDCP protection.
The box is not Google certified and with this level of DRM Most premium services will be
restricted to their most basic quality only.
While hardware and performance may not be the most exciting part of my video, there
are some who are only concerned about its ability to stream movies and TV shows.
While I understand the need to explain in more details on how you can use this device
to cut the cord and watch free movies and TV shows, due to YouTube’s community guidelines
I can only speak in general about this subject matter.
And with that said, if you have a subscription with various premium services such as Netflix,
Amazon prime video, and Disney plus.
You can install them on this box and access your account.
However due to the box’s insufficient DRM protection, these services will be restricted
to their most basic resolution.
Here I’ve logged into my 4K Netflix account and there is no HD or HDR icon in this movie
description.
It comes preinstalled with the android TV version of YouTube, but I updated it using
APKpure that also has the version that plays in HDR quality.
Here I am playing a 4K HDR video and it activates the HDR feature on my TV.
The box comes with the official version of Miracast, and with it you can mirror your
mobile screen the box as well as use the official Miracast feature if an app has one.
For those like to use custom launcher’s you can use alternative launchers on this
box.
This is the ADW 2 alternative launcher a launcher geared towards the use of wireless AirMouse
and mini touchpad keyboards with mouse pointers.
I also installed a live wallpaper and they both work without issues.
I also installed a screen rotation app, but when I attempted to rotate the screen to portrait
mode nothing happens.
So this box does not have screen rotation.
All
the
videos played okay and the HDR feature was triggered on my TV during the playback.
I will now connect it to my 7.1 receiver in HDMI passthrough configuration, and test for
Dolby and DTS audio formats.
In similar fashion to its previous models the box can output Dolby Atmos, DTS X, HD
master audio, Dolby surround, and THX.
And just like the others it cannot output Dolby true HD.
For my final test, I will play some android games to test its graphics quality rendering,
gamepad key mapping capability, and for overheating.
So the games played extremely well, it has highest graphics quality you can achieve on
a TV box, in the absence of Vulkan support.
Something you can expect, as hexa-core boxes always deliver the best gaming performance.
You have gamepad key mapping capability on the panda key mapping apps, and this box has
one of the coolest temperatures during 3D gaming.
So I highly recommend this model if you are looking for a TV box to play android games.
The only downside is that for some reason the Google play store is limited and there
are lots of apps and games that I would usually play that are missing, so I had to sideload
some them using an APK app store.
So in summary the MXQ M12 did not disappoint, delivering the best performance among the
3 models.
MXQ is back, and I am really impressed with the quality build of their models and they
really took the time to ensure that they use the best materials and components to build
their boxes that ensures high performance and safe operating temperatures.
This model is the top tier model and delivers the best high-end streaming and the gaming
performance, and has one of the coolest operating temperatures under stress with its metal body
design.
Even though it outperformed the first two models it still lack two features which are
the Wi-Fi hotspot and built-in screen rotation that we saw in both models.
It also lacks 64 bit ABIs, DRM support for premium services in HD and 4K, and Dolby true
HD.
And that brings to an end my three-part video of MXQ boxes.
These models were released in the second half of 2020 and its left to see what they are
gonna release for 2021.
Whatever model it is, I would be the first in line to have a go at it, after seeing what
they are done with these models.
So if you are interested in this model, or all three of them, links can be found in the
description where you can get it at a really low price once you have an Alibaba account.
Thanks for taking the time to watch this three-part series of MXQ boxes.
Hit the like button if you enjoyed these videos, and the information was of value.
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Thanks again for your support, stay tuned and I’ll be seeing you in the next one.