[Android General] KloNom:
For the full review, updates and more information, visit my blog:

http://klonom.com/minix-neo-x6-review/

The Minix Neo X6 is an Android TV Box in the lower price segment running on Android KitKat 4.4.2. Here's a picture with the remote control:

Specs:

-Android 4.4.2

-Amlogic S805 Quadcore with 1,5 GHz

-Mali-450 Quad GPU

-8 GB eMMC Memory

-1 GB DDR3L

-802.11n WiFi

-Bluetooth

-HDMI Output (1080p)

-RJ-45 Network

-Headphone jack

-2xUSB

-MicroSD-Card Slot

The device was kindly supplied by Antelife. You can order for about 100$ at Antelife.

First Impressions:

For those, who studied or learned something in the direction Informatics or electrical engineering: No, I am not reviewing the Linux system Minix here :D . But now to the actual review. The box is delivered in a mostly black box. The box contains beside the TV box itself an infrared remote control (2xAAA batteries, not incl.), a wall plug (5V, 2A), a manual (multilanguage), an HDMI cable and an USB-cable (male-male). For the latter I still could not find out the actual purpose, I guess for connecting external devices like HDDs. The included HDMI cable surprised me positively, since this is often not the case with other devices.

The unboxing in motion pictures:

[YOUTUBE]v7Gwyewc23o[/YOUTUBE]

I personally expect from a TV Box a fully featured media player, as well as the oppertunity to run small games and emulators. I do not own a smart tv, since its additonal functions are mostly already present in other devices (gaming consoles, HDMI sticks à la Chromecast, etc.). This box should be able to give a greater performance than a classical smart tv, like for example by the oppertunity to play old SNES games (more on that in the review video).

The box itself:

From the outside the box looks a bit similiar to the FireTV from Amazon. It is a rectangular, matt black box with rounded edges, while on the top side the letters of Minix are embedded. On the sides the connectors are placed including the infrared port. Also the external WiFi antenna can be found on the side. The housing looks valuable and nice after my opinion, kind of like the upper part is made from one cast part. The remote control is comparably slim and offers the following buttons: direction cross, OK, power, Vol+, Vol-, back, home, menu und settings.

For pictures check the blog post ;) : http://klonom.com/minix-neo-x6-review-english/

First usage:

While booting the TV box shows a Minix boot animation. Afterwards you land in Stock Android 4.4.2 homescreen.

The first usage works flawlessly via the infrared remote control. The RC seems relatively strong, since the infrared port of the box does not require to be in direct visual line, the scattered signal seems to be enough. The box has installed many usefull apps for the media center usage out of the box, like for example AirDroid, XBMC, Netflix or Miracast. Also the Playstore is preinstalled. If a keyboard input is needed, an on-screen keyboard like you are used from normal Android pops up, which is controlled via the infrared remote control. Though this is ok for small inputs, for larger one this is quite annoying. For this purpose you can connect USB mouse and keyboard to the TV box. Android recognizes them without problems and you can comfortably surf from the couch. The two USB ports should be enough for the normal usage, although it still can be extended by using a hub.

Performance:

The Amlogic S805 SoC was unknown to me, why I could hardly predict the performance of the Minix Neo X6. To get a rough idea of it, I replaced the already installed version 4 of the Antutu benchmark with the newer version 5 and ran a benchmark test. The result were 17166 points. This means, that the box should be able to run the most of the average applications. While scrolling through the launcher no lags or similiar were noticable. Anyway, it happened a few times, that the system freezed after long usage and switching different apps. Here only a hard reboot by plugging out and in the wall plug helped. It seems the system has to be improved here a bit more.

Emulators:

Like already mentioned, one of the main application fields for an Android TV box are emulators for me personally. Although I already own a self built retro console which is based on a Raspberry Pi, it is not capable of running more hardware intensive consoles like the Playstation 1 or N64. But it would be great to play game classics on the TV, without connecting your Laptop or Desktop PC each time with the TV. This is the reason why I tried out PS1 (FPSE), N64 (SuperN64) and SNES (SNES 9x EX+). Because of legal reasons I have to emphasize, that downloading ROMs/ISOs is illegal and only self dumped games are valid. All three emulators worked smooth and without problems. Only the Playstation emulator freezed a couple of times for a few seconds, but I can not tell if this is an hardware issue, an emulator or a game issue. But this did not really influence the gameplay. As a controller I am using a bluetooth gamepad and I did not notice any connection problems. All in all the box fulfills my expectations to be useable as a small gaming stations for retro games.

Media-Center:

The box comes preinstalled with the Xbox Media Center (XBMC, nowerdays Kodi) in the “Minix Edition”. This skin looks nice and not too overloaded. I personally do not use the XBMC, so I can unfortunately not tell too much about. To at least test its functionality I transferred a 1080p video file into the library. The playback started immediately, without any lag. But after a few minutes, the video stopped randomly. It seems, the XBMC version is still a bit buggy. Anyhow, since XBMC save the last viewing point, I was able to resume from there.

Memory:

The box comes with 8GB of internal memory according to the product infos. But usable is just around 5.32GB, so definitely less. A “classical” division of phone memory and system memory like in Android phones does not exist. All availabe memory can be used for apps. The capacity obviously is not enough for a media center. The Minix Neo X6 officially supports MicroSD-cards up to 64GB, and external HDDs up to 2TB (MicroSD-card just tested with 32GB, external HDD not tested yet).

The Minix Neo X6 in Live-Pictures:

[YOUTUBE]4MGtpyJnekU[/YOUTUBE]

Summary:

Comparing to its price, the Minix Neo X6 offers good oppertunites. It is a small device which fits nicely beside a TV. It outruns a smart TV by performance and functionality, already simply because of having Android 4.4. Also the usage as a small gaming station is no problem. The WiFi receiption was constantly good during my test. But the device also has its downsides. The system seems partly immature, what can lead to system freezes from time to time. For example my SanDisk 32GB card was just recognized after a plugged it in for the third time. Hopefully Minix still improves it a bit. About “integrated” apps like the XBMC Minix Edition: There are enough stable alternatives in the Playstore. It also should be considered that the majority of Android apps a developed for touch, although a mouse is mostly a suitable replacement for it. Native Android games have to be remapped first, which is not for everybody. In general, I like the box for its price and its oppertunities.