What’s happening everyone Nick here from TV Box stop
with a new TV box from the developers of A95X.
This is the A95X W2 Amlogic S905W2 TV Box. This model runs on 4GB of RAM and
64GB of internal storage running on Android 11 operating system with AV1 video decoding.
This model falls into the medium grade category, and priced below
$40 it affords everyone an opportunity to own a great TV Box at an affordable price.
So in this review we take a detailed look at its design and peripherals,
along with performance benchmarks and live demonstrations.
So don’t skip to the end that just yet, let’s see what A95X has to offer.
Stay tuned, you have that and more right after this.
And welcome back. So in the box you have nothing out of
the ordinary. You have the A95X W2 TV Box featuring an all new ergonomic design,
With the A95X logo to the top and it comes with an LED display to the front.
To its rear it has one HDMI port, one Ethernet LAN, one optical audio,
one AV port, and the port for the power adapter.
To its left I see here that it has two USB 2.0 ports and a microSD card reader.
It’s blank on the other side.
And below it has four antiskid rubber pads and some of cooling vents.
With this you also get one infrared remote control,
one HDMI cable, a 5V 2A power adapter, and a user guide.
The bootup process consists of the A95X splash screen and the
default Android animation followed by the launcher.
So this launcher is their default launcher,
featuring horizontal scrolling panels and it has shortcuts bar to the top here.
It has a one click button for freeing up system resources.
And this one does not have a navigation bar or status bar.
With this launcher You get 4K 10bit display up to 2160p
at 59.94 Hz, as detected here by my capture card.
You get HDR display with the option to set it to adaptive HDR.
You get HDMI CEC options.
And Surround sound audio options.
This firmware does not have the Root switch, Dolby Vision, built-in screen rotation,
power key definition options, hardware monitor, or client server options.
Upon connecting to the Internet you are prompted with a firmware update. However the update is
unsuccessful because it cannot connect to the server. But you can update it manually using
the Amlogic USB burning tool with the available firmware download see the link in the description.
After the update there were no changes in firmware features.
For preinstalled apps they included the Airscreen app and the official version
of Miracast. They installed two versions of Netflix, and it comes with the EXO player and
TVMC which is your custom Kodi build. You have Plex and the Android TV version of YouTube.
So I went ahead and installed all the apps I need to complete this review
and first let’s take a look at its system and hardware information.
So under system information here is the model of the mainboard,
and it shows that it runs on 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage,
from which this here is the remainder. Its Bluetooth version is 5.0.
The Amlogic S905W2 is a quad core cortex A35 CPU clocked at 1.8 GHz
with only 32bit ABIs support. This means it can only run 32bit applications.
Its GPU is the Mali G31 with open GL ES
version 3.2 support. Its network adapter provides 2.4 + 5 GHz Wi-Fi support.
It’s operating system is Android 11 red velvet cake, and this box is not rooted. This bit of
information here is incorrect. Under devices it shows that this box does not have Vulkan support.
Under temperature it shows that the box idles around 61°C. And under codecs it has all the
decoders for the playback of 4K videos, and I can identify the DTS HD and the AV1 decoders.
However I can’t identify any Dolby decoders in this list
but I will test for them later in the video. And that’s its system and hardware information.
So to confirm its roots status here the root checker app shows that it’s not rooted.
Also the DRM information shows that it only has Google Widevine L3 with no HDCP protection. Which
means despite it not to be rooted it does not have the digital rights to play premium movie services
such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon prime video above 480p resolution.
You can indeed install your favorite movie streaming services and login
with your subscriptions. However, regardless if you have HD account
due to its lack of DRM support you will still be limited to basic 480p.
For alternative ways of streaming you can use the Kodi media player
or you can download and install your favorite streaming APKs.
The TVMC Kodi custom-build is version 19.3 which updates automatically from the Google play store.
Here I’ve have installed my favorite add-ons
for streams of movies and TV shows with one click from my backup file.
To learn how to install add-ons and one click from a backup or if you would like
to use my backup see the link in the description below this video.
I also installed all my favorite streaming APKs without issues
and you can install these on your own, or links to them can be found with a simple Google search.
I also listed a couple of them on my blog see the link in the description.
It comes preinstalled with the Android TV version of YouTube and it plays in 4K
2160p resolution with HDR activating on my TV.
Please note it has the annoying Google assistant feature enabled
and to disable it you simply need to disable text-to-speech services under system apps.
You can also install the mobile version from the
play store that also plays in 4K 2160p resolution with HDR.
This version also features picture-in-picture while you search for other videos.
It comes with the official version of Miracast that can cast your Android mobile devices in
HD quality. Here I’m casting my Android cell phone and it works without issues.
For customization you have features such as the ability to change the wallpaper on
the default launcher from a preloaded selection.
You can use custom wallpapers but live wallpapers not work on this box.
You can use of alternative launchers Such as the ADW launcher 2
that provides features such as long click menu pop-ups and drag and drop shortcuts.
For those interested in screen orientation to portrait mode which comes in handy for
digital signage, you’ll be happy to know that this box supports screen rotation.
I installed the menu button alternative navigation bar and it works.
However the recent apps feature does not work due to the lack of root access.
I will now play my list of 4K videos and also be testing for AV1 decoding.
So the 4K HDR videos played okay on my TV and the HDR feature was triggered during the playback
And that this is the AV1 video sample.
So the AV1 video player smoothly but it’s recommended that you use
the included EXO player for AV1 videos.
So here I have it connected to my 7.1 audio receiver
and I’ll play my list of videos with surround sound audio formats,
and I’ll be testing for Dolby Atmos, DTS X, DTS HD-MA, Dolby surround, and Dolby TrueHD.
From previous testing its recommended that you use the EXO player for surround sound audio
as the VLC player and the Kodi player does not detect certain formats on this box.
So from this test It shows that The box produces Dolby Atmos,
Dolby surround and the basic DTS. It does not output DTS X, DTS HD-MA, or Dolby TrueHD.
I will now connect my gamepad via Bluetooth
and play one Android game to test its graphics rendering and for overheating.
So the game played fairly okay however the temperature rose into the 80s
resulting in some throttling during gameplay.
Let’s now take a quick look at some benchmarks.
It has a ram copy speed of 3364 MB/s. A read speed of 126 MB/s, and a write speed of 93.
Its Wi-Fi bands and Ethernet LAN speeds based on my network of 250 Mbps,
the 5 GHz band achieved 90%, the 2.4 GHz band achieved 14%,
and the LAN port achieved 36%.So the LAN port here is not a gigabit LAN port.
It scored 598 single-core and 1689 multi-core in the Geekbench 4 CPU benchmark.
It scored 5180 in the ice storm extreme test, and 535 in the slingshot test.
There was no slingshot extreme test because it does not have Vulkan support.
And the final benchmark is at the Antutu benchmark where it scored 72,740.
After entering the scores on my ranking chart the A95X W2
is at position 57 in reference to Antutu benchmark scores.
You can view this chart on my blog where you can compare various benchmark scores and I
also provide a price comparison links right here. See the link in the description below this video.
In summary this box is far from perfect but it does offer great
features ideal for streaming movies and TV shows.
I will not recommend it for gaming unless you have a cooling fan or intended to purchase one.
What’s exciting is in my next video, I will show you how to install the Android TV version
of this firmware and the features it provides. So you can look forward that exciting upgrade.
So I’ve come to the end of this review. Special thanks goes out to the AliExpress
retail brand called Reyfoon for supporting this channel and sending their box for review.
They also insured that the price they are selling this box for is the lowest online just below $40,
and you won’t find this deal anywhere else.
So if you would like to get your hands on this box
at this price range use the affiliate link I placed in the description below this video.
In doing so you provide monetary support to this channel and it creates more avenues
for me to acquire new boxes for review. So thanks in advance for your support.
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Thanks for taking the time to watch this video stay tuned and I’ll be seeing you in the next one.