Android for Dummies: MK809IV Android Mini PC & TV Dongle – a mini center …

When more than four years ago I became the happy owner of the so-called “smart TV” – I did not expect that it will quickly become just a lame prosthesis multimedia equipment. Likely not cheap, praised the possibilities tie to the global village with access to multimedia services. Many applications, YouTube, Internet radio, games, Skype and many others. The beginning was promising, but as happens in life to time. At present manufacturer waved me goodbye – Applications no longer be updated, and hence many of them stopped working. YouTube first stop play sound, now completely failed to connect with Google.

Fortunately, the main advantage of my panel, a good image – remained at the same high level. As for other opportunities online, it can be successfully replaced by a small komputerka, with a very great potential. MK809IV introduce Android mini PC!

horse in the mouth, or watch …

box with overall dimensions of 1.5 packs of matches looks quite nice, is neat and black On the shorter side grows gold HDMI, on the opposite side micro USB slot through which the supply of life-giving energy, while next to the full-size USB connector type A. On the long side found themselves a slot for micro SD memory card slot and a second micro USB OTG.

Active It is “fed” 5V with the supplied power adapter with an output current of 2A. The set we have 28cm HDMI extender, which can be flexibly socket to plug in our TV. The set included a tiny instruction – harmonica, describing basic functionality. All concretely and without waffling. The whole set packed in a rigid, black box – is simple, but what more could you want.

We look under the hood

Fura from the outside looks decent, but it’s time to open the cover and verify the promises seller. “Unit” is powered by a four-core processor Rockchip RK3188T a default clock speed of 800MHz to 1,4GHz with graphics Mali 400. Well, the seller did not mention that it is a model “T”, which is a lower clocked version. Over the SoC can be seen Tact Switch button called “recowery switch” or popularly Reset – gives it the ability to upload an alternative firmware. The set we get 2GB of DDR3 RAM consisting of 4 blocks on 512MB and 8GB flash memory branded by Hynix. For applications available approximately 2GB of space, and user data is left almost 4GB. As a communication module uses a Realtek chipset RTL8723BS (specification for auction talked about AP6210!) That supports Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.11 b / g / n to 72Mbps and Bluetooth 4.0 working on one small PCB antenna. The radio module supports Wi-Fi connectivity Direct, so you can quickly transfer data without AP. In case there is no sink, but fortunately I did not notice any ill effects.

Among the differences in the specifications we can see another model designation on the PCB – is “809III” … Well, but let’s go further – a section of the video output corresponds to the system ITE IT66121FN that sends the picture by single-channel compatible HDMI with HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) .

Supply is indicated by a blue LED, whose light comes out from the inside through the holes in the housing. Micro USB sockets are embedded quite deeply, which can be problematic when connecting some plugins that may be too short.
That’s all hidden in the middle, there is no any sensors or GPS module.

Green little robot on the cover reveals to us the secret soul hidden in a silicon heart. For all in regulating the Android version 4.4.2. The report as a tablet, but the image is displayed on our TV. Here we come to the sad truth, the image is rendered only at a resolution of 1280×720 (720p). You can of course set the 1080p, but the image is scaled and not just look good – so better to leave the native resolution. It is true that you can find on the net zmodowane roms to “walk” in FullHD, but not all who came installed them were fully satisfied because something was not working. Personally, I have decided not to change, but as someone wants it can try. Ultimately, my mini PC has to be plugged into an older TV that still has only a matrix HD-ready, so that higher resolution is not I need at the price of possible instability.

By default we launcher with large zaokrąglanymi icons and access basic Google. Worth the memories embedded applications are: Explorer, which is a very simple file manager with networking. We can use it to browse the shared resources of the computers on the LAN or multimedia NAS to the home. The second application is WIFI DISPLAY. It is the image receptor in the standards AirPlay / DLNA / miracast. After pairing a compatible device, you can play eg. Your desktop smartphone on the TV. Everything works as smoothly, though sometimes with a complex image (a lot of detail) of trimming happen. In the game, unfortunately, you can not just play because of the delay that is unlikely to exceed 1 second, but for dynamic scenes and required quick reactions – this is too much.

After doinstalowaniu decent application media center in the form Kodi , we get a great razor multimedia into the living room. Everything is smooth and nothing hangs. As befits Android, we need not be limited only to those few applications, and Google Play store will provide us a lot of interesting software – this is the real strength of this equipment, and more specifically the system. We can launch your favorite Web browser, music player, video or install your favorite games.

If you starts to bug us craving for spending a few moments with classics 8 or 16-bit machine, it is no problem we can install an emulator Commodore 64, PEGAZUS or Amiga . I have a soft spot for friends and immediately decided to start UAE4All2. The device runs smoothly and provides a lot of fun.

You probably wonder how to control our hero – fortunately this Android or what can be strapped to the USB and go. The standard mouse and keyboard to “work”, and gaming strapped PADA, which works great with Super Frogiem! Great fun for the whole family also guarantee fabulous pinball tables with unforgettable music in the background. If someone wishes may, of course, “grow” contemporary hits from the mobile scene. I would recommend addictive World of Goo, which is a great escape from so popular entertainment today dripping seasoned with violence and this and that. Here we have for that nice “gluty”, like modern Lemmings that we need to safely lead to the exit.

The advantages of universal serial connector allows you to connect any USB drive or memory stick, and various accessories such as external network adapter, TV tuner or a 3G modem. As a test I plugged my Huawei E156G and no problem was detected and running. Interesting is the ability to connect a USB web cam. Just install the camera application or a favorite communicator and have video conference. No problem has been detected my C310 from Logitech-a and gave to use both for image and sound. The microphone has been recognized and used throughout the system, which used the application Google Now – that is also speech recognition did not cause any problem.

They went to the horses on the concrete, namely efficiency and productivity

This small piece of silicon has sufficient the power of video playback in 1080p @ 60fps and is downloading at the same fraction of the energy it takes the classic PC. During video playback at full resolution Full HD from a shared directory on the local area network (flow flowing through WiFi), was 3-4W power consumption. Local watching from a file stored on a connected USB stick-ie, “pulls” ok. 2-2,5W
By squeezing the last juices while passing the tests 3DMark Icestorm, “Mikus” ate at the top of 5-6W energy, of which a little spat on’s warm – like a little toast contrast, in the IDLE power consumption drops to approx. 1,7W. Not bad whereas the average efficiency of the included AC adapter.

The yield obtained in the aforementioned 3DMark-u version of EXTREME have been converted into points, which my character was the 2385th Test Antutu finished with a score of over 21.5 thousand points, which is a few percent less than the Asus Zenfone 5 Atom Z2560 and PowerVR SGX 544MP2. At the end I checked that the speed reaches the WLAN when connected to the global village. Speedtest twisted over 30Mbit / s (the link 60MB), which is not breathtaking, but it is acceptable and should be enough for a standard rate of most film stocks, although some of my materials reaching approx. 25Mb / s – zarywały time to time. Trying to network with obstruction of two walls (plasterboard and reinforced concrete) are not fared best. MK had big problems with the connection to the router, let alone with a quick transfer. One could have expected after so flimsy antence as PCBs.

A Final Word

This little komputerek is not a speed demon, but for the tasks which it was created – is ideally suited. Despite emerging from time to time clipping in the operation of the interface, nothing hangs and restarts – it unreservedly. The cost of the device is small relative to the opportunities offered and despite a few shortcomings – I recommend a toy. The cost of such pleasure is approx. $ 35 (approx. 140 PLN), straight from the country’s thriving economy It is only right to question the specification because it does not necessarily get what he wrote seller, and even then we will not be 100% sure. On the market there are many variations of this type of “media pens,” which differ in detail, and as is known devil in the details. I apparently went to the ECO version.