Hello and welcome; thanks for visiting, and I'm pleased that you could join with me today
for another TV box stop review.
I have with me here today the second version of the Z28 TV box, and this one is called
the Alfawise Z28 Pro, Rockchip RK3328 quad core Android 7.1 4K TV box.
After this short message, I'll be doing a full review of its hardware and features,
along with my final thoughts and opinion, so stay tuned, I'll be back in a moment.
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Welcome back, and let's start with the box it comes shipped in.
The Z28 pro comes in this brown box with only a 4K branding at the top, and a serial code
that shows that this is the 2GB 16GB model.
So I'll fast forward this part of the video as I unpack the contents of the box.
So in the box, you have the Z28 Pro TV box unit itself.
You get an infrared remote.
And my advice remains the same, it may work well to control the basic functions of the
box, but a Bluetooth air mouse or mini touch-pad key board is a better option for advanced
navigation.
You get 1 HDMI cable.
A 5 volts 2 amps universal power adapter.
I live in the US region so the US pin type power adapter was shipped in my package, and
the appropriate pin type for your region will be shipped in your purchase.
And there's no users guide.
This is not a problem, because the guide really doesn't show you much than what you already
know about how to connect the box.
Let's examine the box.
The box is made of plastic, with the Alfawise branding at the top.
To the back, you have 1 HDMI port, 1 audio video port, you get 1 optical audio SPDIF
port, 1 RJ45 Ethernet LAN port, and a DC power input.
To the right, you have 2 USB 2.0 port, and 1 USB 3.0.
On the left, you have a micro SD card slot, and a reset pinhole button.
To the front, you have a LED power light.
And at the bottom, you have lots of ventilation holes.
So I'll now connect this box to my TV, and when I return we'll have the rest of the review.
So I'm back, and as I startup the box we have this Z28 Pro startup animation, and then you're
presented with its launcher.
From using this launcher I must admit, that the interface is fast and responsive.
The launcher has a nice design with easy access buttons.
The launcher doesn't come with a navigation bar at the bottom for easy navigation, a navigation
bar will be provided in a later update.
This is not much of a problem, because you can install a navigation bar from the Google
play store with similar features.
You can install the simple control navigation bar from the play store, and it will appear
to the bottom of the screen like this.
As we proceed, there's also a cleanup feature for freeing up apps running in the background,
and freeing up memory for better system performance.
Adding shortcuts to the launcher is simple, simply click on any of the add buttons, and
select any app you would like to add to the launcher.
That's all on the launcher, and let's talk a bit about the updates for this box.
From my observation, it appears that TV box developers have started programming their
boxes without root access, and then providing it later to the user via firmware updates.
So a firmware update was provided for this model, and I completed the firmware up date
prior to making this video, and it provided root access that wasn't there in the original
stock firmware.
Let's take a look at the apps section, after the firmware update, what we have here is
a selection of core system apps, social media and movie streaming applications.
So to add to this list, I'll install some system and hardware information apps, benchmarking,
and a couple more streaming media applications, and when I return we'll continue with the
rest of the review.
So I'm back, and to start this segment, let's check to see if the box is rooted.
And it shows that the box is rooted, running on Android 7.1.2 Nougat operating system.
This means that you have the freedom and full access to the Google Play store, to download
and install any app you like without restrictions.
Please note, the box becomes rooted only after a firmware update.
Let's take a look at the DRM information.
And it shows that this box doesn't have support for any of the DRM services, meaning premium
paid streaming services will not show in HD quality on this box.
Let's take a look at some system and hardware information.
Under system information, it shows that the manufacturer is Rockchip, and the model is
the Z28 Pro.
Below it shows that the box comes with 2GB of DDR3 RAM, and below is shows the available
memory and internal storage from the 16GB after the operating system and apps installed
on the box.
Under CPU information, it shows that the CPU is a quad core cortex A53, running on a 64bit
instruction set.
Its maximum clock range is up to 1.5 GHz and it has support for 64bit ABIs.
Under display information, it shows that the GPU is the Mali 450 MP GPU, with a refresh
rate of 60 hz.
Under Network, it shows that the box has dual band Wifi Support, along with signal strength
link speed and frequency information.
Under Android information, it shows here that the operating system is Android 7.1.2 Nougat,
and it also shows that the box is rooted.
Under thermal information, it shows the normal operating temperature to be around 45 to 65°C,
and this temperature changes depending on the level of activity on the box.
Under codecs information, we have codecs like H.264, HEVC, and VP9 decoding, these are essential
codecs needed for 4K video playback.
And that's it for system and hardware information.
We now have the benchmark results for this box.
And let's start with the results from the RAM and memory read an write speeds.
The results show that the box has a RAM copy speed of three thousand three hundred and
40 MB/s, The internal storage has a read speed of a hundred and 2 MB/s, and a write speed
of 36, and the SD card slot has a read speed of 15 MB/s, and a write speed of 10.
I'm beginning to see a trend with these Rockchip boxes, having high internal storage read and
write speeds when compared to Amlogic S912 boxes in its class.
Let's take a look at some WiFi speed results.
I've performed a total of six tests running 3 on each band, and selecting the fastest
local server, and the results show that on the both 2.4 and 5.8 GHz WiFi bands, the download
and upload speeds exceeded the threshold on my 30MB internet package.
We now have the results from the Antutu benchmark.
The Antutu benchmark performs a test on the box's 3D graphics, CPU an memory performance,
and user experience.
In the end, the Z28 Pro got an Antutu score of thirty four thousand two hundred and 68.
It's not the best score but it's consistent with other boxes in its class.
And now let's have a look at the Geekbench 4 CPU benchmark scores.
Geekbench 4 performs a series of timed test on the boxes CPU, the faster the box completes
each task, the box in turn will get a higher score.
Upon completion, the Z28 Pro got a score of five hundred and 88 single-core, and one thousand
six hundred and 22 multi core.
The last of the benchmark results is the ice storm extreme GPU benchmark.
Ice storm extreme is part of a series GPU tests under the 3D mark gamers bench collection,
and performs a test on the GPUs ability to render lots of pixels and vertices, and it
also performs a physics test on the box's ability to render high particle detail in
a 3D environment.
In the end the Z28 Pro got an ice storm extreme score of 2279.
This score is a bit on the low side, which means that this box is not much of a gamer,
and it's more tailored towards streaming.
Ok, so enough with the technical stuff, and let's look at the entertainment side of the
box, isn't that the main reason for wanting a TV box in the first place, Well let's start
with the Kodi media application.
We all know that Kodi has not been so popular lately, with all the pulling down of addons
repositories, things weren't looking so good for Kodi.
Well Kodi is back in the spotlight again with a couple of new developers keeping the Kodi
application from dying from sudden death.
I will not be discussing these new addons due to its sensitive nature, nonetheless,
I've tested them and they work sweet.
After the firmware update, you have Kodi preinstalled without any third party addons installed,
and you are free to install the latest version of Kodi from the Google Play Store.
Aside from Kodi, the APK world of streaming has been on the rise with some new and exciting
ways to stream your favorite movies and TV shows.
We have APKs like Terrarium TV, Mobdro, Showbox, Megabox HD, and Tea TV just to name a few.
These new APKs come with their own user interface, and they are loaded with HD movies and TV
shows in an easy to use environment.
Besides streaming movies online, you can enjoy your own personal collection of HD and 4K
movies and recorded videos stored on external devices, with support from codecs like H.264,
H.265, HEVC, and VP9 decoding.
So I will now run a couple of 4K video samples to see how the Z28 Pro handles the 4K video
playback.
The 4K videos played without any problems, and the full range of jellyfish videos ran
without sticking or freezing.
Let's open dugh YouTube application and play a 4K video.
It appears that the YouTube application only plays in 720p quality on this box.
For my final demonstration, we already know that this box is not as strong on 3D games,
so I'm running the world war 2 airplane shooting game called Air attack 2, just for a simple
demonstration.
So with the Z28 pro, you can still enjoy some low end gaming with games that the box can
handle.
So in summary, the Z28 Pro is a great TV box for streaming movies and TV shows online using
Kodi an via APKs.
The 4K video playback was good via the box's media player and loading from internal storage.
However, playing these 4K videos via flash drive, and playing them through Kodi produced
some negative results.
While I appreciate the firmware update to grant root access on this box, I would much
prefer that these updates be done utilizing wireless up dates, to save the user the trouble
of having to perform technical procedures.
So I've come to the end of my review of the Z28 Pro, Android 7.1 4K TV box.
If you are interested in this box, see the link in the description area for more information.
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