Welcome back to TV box stop my name is Nick, and on today’s video I have a new box called
the K10.
And it is an Amlogic S905X3 TV box running on 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.
I cannot tell if it’s from one of the major brands, or who is the manufacturer.
So is this a new brand and what are the new features if any does it have to offer stay
tuned a full review is up next.
So in the box you have nothing out of the ordinary.
You have the K10 TV box itself, one IR remote, one HDMI cable, a 5V 2A DC power adapter,
and your user’s manual.
So it has a plastic housing design with the K10 branding printed to the top.
To the rear you have one HDMI port, one ethernet LAN port, one optical audio SPDIF port, one
audio video port, and the DC power input.
To one side you have one USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0, and a microSD card reader.
To the other side is blank.
To the front you have an LED clock display.
And below the box you have lots of ventilation holes.
So it’s time to set it up on my 4K TV and capture card and continue.
When you start the box for the first time you are greeted with K10 logo animation, then
you are presented with a quick startup wizard.
Once completed you are then taken to the launcher.
So this is the K10’s launcher.
It has a simple but attractive design with these large main icons that cannot be changed,
and the shortcuts bar to the top here for adding shortcuts.
You have the ability to change the wallpaper from a selection they have included, and you
also have the ability to add you own custom wallpapers.
It comes with a date and time widget, that you can adjust from within the settings area.
And finally, It comes with a navigation bar and status bar, but when you start for the
first time you have to enable them manually from within the settings area.
Also the status bar is not the full status bar with system controls.
Features of this firmware include.
Android 9 operating system.
4K display up to 2160p at 60Hz.
It is advertised as having 8K display but unfortunately, I do not have an 8K TV to test
that feature.
Dolby vision.
HDR display.
HDMI CEC options.
Dolby Atmos and DTS audio options.
It has a root switch.
Bluetooth options.
Wireless updates.
Hardware monitor settings.
And I already showed that you can enable and disable the navigation bar and status bar.
These are apps that come preinstalled.
You have a cleanup feature for killing apps running in the background, wireless updates,
Miracast, Netflix, the Google play store, and the android TV version of YouTube.
I will install some additional apps for this review and continue.
So first a look at its system and hardware information.
The Amlogic mainboard used in this box is the Franklin as seen in most S905X3 models.
It has 4GB DDR3 RAM according to the product description, and 128 GB of internal storage
from which this is the remainder after the operating system and apps installed.
The Bluetooth version is said to be 4.1 also according to the product description.
The CPU, the Amlogic S905X3, is a quad core cortex A55 processor clocked at 1.9 GHz.
And it has support for only 32bit ABIs meaning that it can only run 32bit applications.
The GPU is the Mali G31 graphics processor with a refresh rate of 60Hz and OpenGL ES
3.2 support which is good for gaming.
It has dual band Wi-Fi support and the 5GHz band is supported.
We already know the android version is 9 pie and the firmware is rooted.
The box runs between 60 and 70°C under normal operation and it can rise as high as 85°
under heavy activity.
So an active cooling fan is recommended for 3D gamers.
These are the list of decoders that are included for the playback of 4K media with digital
surround sound audio formats.
And in this list we can see H.264, HEVC, VP9 decoding, and Dolby vision.
And that is it for system and hardware information and let’s now take a look at some benchmarks.
First the RAM copy speed and the internal storage read and write speeds.
The K10 has a RAM copy speed of 1958 MB/s.
The internal storage has a read speed of 100MB/s and a write speed of 52 MB/s.
These results are a bit below average but not too bad for this model.
These are the results of the Wi-Fi bands and LAN speed tests.
The K10 has maximum bandwidth on the 5 GHz band and the LAN port.
However, the 2.4 GHz band has limited bandwidth 61% lower than the 5 GHz band.
So for maximum bandwidth use the 5GHz band or the LAN port.
In the Antutu benchmark which is the new version 8.4.4 now available on the play store, the
K10 got a score of 56,297.
This is another average score and we will just have to wait and see in a moment where
it places on the chart.
The Geekbench CPU tests resulted in 738 single core and 1364 or multicore.
These scores are consistent with the rest of models in its class.
In the graphics benchmark the K10 got a score of 5042 in the ice storm extreme test, and
448 in the slingshot test.
And again these scores are a bit below average for the CPU speed and the GPU model used in
this box so I don’t know what’s affecting these scores, but let’s now see where it
places on the chart.
So the scores are in, and the K10 took position number 26 in reference to Antutu benchmarks
scores.
And if you would like to see how the rest of scores compares to the other boxes in this
list, you can view this chart in full spreadsheet format on my website where you can interact
with it and compare various scores.
I placed a link in the description below this video.
Before I get to its primary function, I will first have a look at its root access.
The root checker app shows that the box is rooted, which is great news because when it
comes to TV boxes there are more benefits derived from it being in this state, as it
allows a lot more apps to run on them, as opposed to not being rooted.
However, if there are apps that you need to run it on this box that requires it not to
be rooted, then you have a root switch feature where you can simply switch it off.
The root switch in this box works instantly, however there are times when you simply need
to clear memory and then try again for the results to change.
Next is its DRM information.
This determines whether the box has the digital rights and the required protection by way
of encryption, to show premium streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon prime video to
play movies in HD and 4K quality.
If the box does not have the appropriate level of DRM support, it will only show these services
in basic quality.
So the information shows that the K10 has Google Widevine level 3 with no HDCP protection.
This level means that premium services will only show in basic quality, as it requires
Widevine level 1 with HDCP 2.2 protection.
However, this does not affect freeways of streaming from playing in HD and 4K.
Some users prefer to use their favorite launchers instead of the one that comes on the box,
and others like to change the wallpaper and the use their personal images or live wallpapers.
With the K10 you are free to install whatever alternative launcher you like, however not
all launchers are compatible with the S905X3 chipset.
Here I have installed the ADW launcher two that is a fully compatible, and you have all
the features working such as long click menu pop-ups and drag and drop shortcuts.
These launchers are mostly compatible and favors the use of a wireless AirMouse and
a mini touchpad keyboards with on-screen mouse pointer.
The stock remote that comes with the box, may have issues navigating these more advanced
alternative launchers.
The link to some of the best wireless AirMouse and mini touchpad keyboards can be found in
the description below this video.
I ran the screen rotation app and tried to rotate to portrait mode, and it failed.
For users of YouTube which is most of us.
The android TV version of YouTube which is the only version that can play videos in 4K
quality on TV boxes came preinstalled.
And here in this demonstration you can see that YouTube plays in 4K quality.
It also triggered the HDR icon on my TV
For those interested in a casting their mobile devices to this box, it comes preinstalled
with the official version of Miracast.
So here I am casting my cell phone to the box, and it works okay but there can be a
little latency at times.
Second to streaming movies and TV shows is the playback of HD and 4K videos with digital
surround sound audio formats.
This requires your box will have the necessary decoders and capable GPU to deliver smooth
playback with cinematic audio.
how
the K10 performs.
The 4K video samples played okay and in HDR format as the icon is triggered on my TV during
the playback, and now a test for Dolby Atmos, DTS-X master audio, and Dolby true HD audio
passthrough.
So this confirms that the K10 has Dolby Atmos, DTS X master audio, and THX, but similar to
all their boxes, it does not have Dolby true HD audio output.