Choosing the most powerful Android smart TV boxes! IPTV, 4K torrents online and heavy games

A few years ago, I thought that in order to watch media content conveniently and easily, you need to buy an expensive TV with Android TV. I couldn't afford such a purchase. And one fine day I accidentally came across a TV box on the Internet. At that moment I realized this is what I was looking for. After which I began to select for myself. The choice was not an easy one; many nuances and characteristics had to be taken into account. Despite the huge selection on the market, I have identified for myself the five best TV boxes with a price of up to 6 thousand rubles. Today we will look at these five boxes in detail and point out their advantages and disadvantages. I would like to immediately note that we will select the Android TV box for watching video content and not very demanding games. Such a box must have at least 2 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal storage, a USB port, an HDMI port, support voice search and have custom firmware, which sometimes works better than stock, Bluetooth and dual-band wifi are also desirable.

Tanix TX9S fifth place in our ranking

tanix tx9s
This is the cheapest box from our entire rating, but this does not mean that it is the worst, in some respects it is even better than more expensive boxes. The box is quite impressive in size and let's see what's inside it.

Characteristics

• OS: Android 9.0
• Chip: Amlogic S912
• Processor: ARM Cortex-A53 with frequency up to 3GHz
• GPU: ARM Mali-T820MP3
• RAM: 2 GB DDR3
• Storage: 8 GB
• WIFI: 2.4 GHz, 802.11a/b/g/n (download and upload approximately 48 Mbit)
• Bluetooth: No
• Interfaces: HDMI 2.0, USB 2.0, LAN: 1000M, SD card
• Decoder support: 4K, H.265, MPEG1/2/4, H.264, HD AVC/VC1, RM/RMVB, Xvid/DivX3/4/5/6, RealVideo8/9/10
• Video formats: [email protected] , H.265, AVI, H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4, DIVD/DIVX, Real8/9/10, RM, RMVB, PMP, FLV, MP4, M4V, VOB, WMV, 3GP, MKV
• Audio formats: MP1, MP2, MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, M4A, FLAC, APE, AMR, RA, WAV
• Image file formats: JPEG/BMP/GIF/PNG/TIFF

As you can see, for 2 thousand rubles we get an eight-core processor, a 1000 Mbit LAN port, support for 4K video, several USB ports and 8 GB of internal space, and there is also HD audio forwarding . You won't find a better TV box for that kind of money. Therefore, if you have a very limited budget, then I advise you to take a closer look at this box. The only thing in this box is that there is no Bluetooth and WIFI 5 GHz , so you won’t be able to play games or connect Bluetooth headphones on it. When purchasing, pay attention to the remote control that comes with the kit; some remote controls do not have voice search. If you are interested in custom firmware or prefer Android TV, then there is no problem here either; there are many different firmware available for this set-top box. You have Root rights and you can install AFRD ( a free application that provides auto-frame rate for Android TV devices). I looked at reviews where they performed throttling tests on Tanix tx9s and here the situation is twofold, some throttle the box, and some don’t. If you use this box to watch movies/torrent movies or TV channels, then it will be enough and, in addition, the temperature when watching videos does not exceed 70 degrees.

Buy Tanix tx9s at the best price

Installing emulators

I hasten to please you, installing the emulator is as easy and quick as installing Kodi itself, in addition, you don’t even need to download anything, everything is already built-in. Let's move on:

1. Open settings.
2. Click Add-ons and go to Install from Repository.
3. Select "Game Addons"

then the “Emulators” section:

1. Select the emulator you need and install it. Let's look at Sega as an example. You can install any other one.

By and large, we have everything ready. All that remains is to download games for the emulator, of which there are plenty on the Internet. To simplify everything as much as possible, I have collected an archive containing 100,500 games for Sega and Dandy. You can download it from this link from Google:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G0KCBwqHqjs1v_J3AcJrGWk5M6koaTNr/view

Xiaomi Mi Box S fourth place in the ranking

Mi BOX S

The already well-known Chinese company Xiaomi has attracted a huge number of users with its quality. Of course, Xiaomi did not ignore TV boxes, releasing several of its set-top boxes with good characteristics and capabilities. In this post, we will review the Xiaomi Mi Box S. The console can be said to be on par with MECOOL KM9 Pro Classic 2/16. is installed on board the set-top box , it comes with a remote control with voice search , broadcasting the screen from various devices works great, and can play 4K 60 fps . There is support for 2k HDR and audio decoding Dolby Audio, DTS, dual-band wifi and autoframe rate and, accordingly, there are no problems with playing torrents online. It is worth noting that there are no custom firmwares for this box and no Root rights.

Characteristics

• OS: Android 8.1
• Chip: Amlogic S905X
• Processor: ARM Cortex-A53 1.5 GHz
• GPU: ARM Mali-450 750 MHz
• Core: 4
• RAM: DDR3 2 GB
• Storage: 8 GB
• LAN: No
• WIFI: 2.4GHz/ 5GHz
• Bluetooth: 4.1
• Decoder format: H.263, H.264, H.265, HD MPEG4
• Interfaces: DC 5V, HDMI 2.0, USB2.0 (you can connect a hub), jack 3.5
• Supported video formats - MOV, VOB, AVI, MKV, TS, MP4
• Support - 3D Video
• And audio – Dolby Audio, DTS-HD
• Supported audio formats - MP3, FLAC, APE

Buy Mi BOX S at the lowest price

MECOOL KM9 Pro Classic third place in the ranking

MECOOL KM9PRO Classic

This already certified Android TV box out of the box supports voice search, casting the screen from your phone , and operates at an ideal temperature of no more than 55 degrees under load. Overheating or throttling is out of the question. Also, this box already has a Bluetooth module, so we can already play not very demanding games on it, such as Asphalt 9, Real racing 3, Limbo, etc. The only thing I didn’t like about this box is the WIFI module; it gives us no more than 15 Mbit for downloading and uploading . Therefore, if you are going to watch 4K content, then the box will need to be connected via a cable and then there will be no problems. Boxing is available in various configurations 2/16, 4/32. All this of course affects the price. There are Root rights and custom firmware

Characteristics

• OS: Android 9.0
• Chip: Amlogic S905X2
• Processor: ARM Cortex-A53
• GPU: ARM Mali-G31 MP2
• Core: 4 cores
• RAM: DDR3 (2/4)
• Storage: 16/32 GB
• TF card: up to 64GB
• WIFI:
• Bluetooth:
• Decoder format: H.263, H.264, H.265, HD MPEG4
• Support 5.1 Surround Sound Output: Yes
• Interfaces: AV, DC 5V, HDMI 2.0, TF card, USB2.0, USB3.0
• Video formats: [email protected] , H.265, AVI, H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4, MKV, WMV, ISO image, TS, RM, TP, MOV, TRP, M2TS, MP4, IFO , FLV, ASF, M2T, DAT, MPG, RMVB, VOB
• Photo formats: JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, GIF
• Music formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, APE, OGG, M4A, FLAC, WAV

Buy Mecool KM9 Pro Classic at the lowest price

Installing games

After we have configured and prepared everything, unpack the archive with games and upload it to your Smart TV or TV Box using a flash drive. Now open the main Kodi screen and select the “Games” section by clicking on it:

We need to select our games folder, so click “Add a game...”. In the window that opens, click browse, then find your games folder. When you open the folder, it will be empty, and that's okay. Click “OK”, then “OK” again. Done, upon completion you will be transferred back to the menu, which will contain your games folder.

TOX1 second place in the Android TV box ranking

TOX1

A console with excellent characteristics and a good price. frame rate support , which allows you to adjust the frame rate when viewing content. And also support for HD sound , which is certainly a big plus for audio files. also possible to install Android TV and get Root rights ; there are a huge number of custom firmwares. The set-top box has very good characteristics for its price, in addition there is an external antenna to enhance Wifi, but it’s a pity that the kit comes with a regular remote control without voice search, so when purchasing you will need to buy an additional remote control or choose a slightly more expensive set. In this box, I liked the great idea of ​​expanding the internal memory using a microSD card up to 128 GB, there is a Samba server, 1000 Mbit Lan port, dual-band Wifi, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0. 4K content is reproduced without problems.

Characteristics

• OS:Android 9.0
• Amlogic S905X3 chip
• Processor ARM Cortex-A55 CPU 1.9 GHz
• ARM G31 MP2 GPU
• Cores: 4
• RAM: DDR3 4 GB
• Storage: 32 GB
• LAN: RJ45 1000 Mbit
• Bluetooth: 4.2
• WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4 GHz/5.0 GHz module RTL8822BS antenna 2T2R, 1 internal and 1 external.
• Extended Storage: SD card, up to 128GB (SD2.X,SD3.X,SD4.X, eMMC ver5.0)
• Power supply 5V/2A DC.
• Interface: HDMI (1.4 and 2.0) to support maximum output 4K@60fps (HDCP2.2) USB 2.0 OTG, USB 3.0 host
• Decoder formats: H.263, H.264, H.265, HD MPEG4
• Video formats: [email protected] , HDR, AVI, TS, VOB, MKV, MOV, ISO, WMV, ASF, FLV, DAT, MPG, MPEG-4, VP9-2, etc.
• Photo formats: JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, GIF
• Music formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, APE, OGG, M4A, FLAC, WAV

Buy TOX1 at the lowest price

Android Smart TV set-top box X96 mini - budget and stable

A very compact Android TV BOX with very good hardware and stable operation. In our Geekbench tests, the X96 mini achieved a multi-core score of 1403. A very good result for a budget TV set-top box based on Android. Over the course of a week of testing and use, no freezes or glitches were noticed when watching movies and TV channels.

Pros: smooth operation of the interface, 4K support, HDMI CEC support. Of the minuses: it does not support voice control out of the box and there is no 5G WiFI. However, even without the latter, wireless Internet was stable in the apartment behind the wall from the router.

I really liked this Android TV set-top box. For a low price you will get a stable and very miniature media player. And if you buy an airmouse with voice control support, then searching for films, channels and videos on YouTube will become a real pleasure. It supports such devices. We tested with the Vontar model.

Just try not to save too much and be sure to buy one with 2GB of RAM.

Characteristics of Android TV set-top box X96 mini:

• processor: Amlogic S905W;
• graphics: Mali-450 MP;
• memory: 2 GB DDR4 memory + 16 GB;
• operating system: Android 7.1.2;
• additionally: 4K resolution support, H.265 decoding support, Dolby Vision, HDR10+,
• 2.4 GHz WiFi.

Read a full and detailed review of the Android TV set-top box here.

Ugoos X3 PRO first place in the Android TV box rating

Ugoos X3 PRO

This small box has everything you need for high-quality viewing of media content, it reproduces all formats, including 4K HDR , has an auto-frame rate , stable and frequently updated Android 9.0 (AOSP) firmware from Ugoos, which has interesting goodies, for example, already built-in Root rights, Samba server , various information panels , there is an official application on the phone with which we will control the set-top box. Excellent dual band Wifi and gigabit Lan port . In stress tests, the box does not heat up or throttle, and of course we can play games on this box.

Characteristics

• OS:Android 9.0
• Amlogic S905X3 chip
• Processor ARM Cortex-A55 CPU 1.9 GHz
• ARM G31 MP2 GPU
• Cores: 4
• RAM: DDR3 4 GB
• Storage: 32 GB
• LAN: RJ45 1000 Mbit
• Bluetooth: 5
• WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4 GHz/5.0 GHz module RTL8822BS antenna 2T2R, 1 internal and 1 external.
• Expanded storage: microSD, microSDHC
• Power supply 5V/2A DC.
• Interface: USB 2.0 Type A, USB 3.0 Type A, stereo audio output, optical audio output, composite video output, HDMI output
• Decoder formats: H.263, H.264, H.265, HD MPEG4
• Video formats: [email protected] , AVI, MKV, WMV, TS, RM, MOV, M2TS, MP4, IFO, FLV, ASF, M2T, DAT, MPG, RMVB, VOB
• Photo formats: JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, GIF
• Music formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, APE, OGG, M4A, FLAC, WAV

Buy Ugoos X3 PRO at the lowest price

I also want to note that the Android TV system, in my opinion, is more convenient to control using the remote control than pure Android (AOSP), but PlayMarket Android TV does not have all the applications and you will have to download them from other stores, such as Aptoide, and that's not all. Some applications refuse to work at all on Android TV .
Which system is best for you can only be found out through experience - try each one. And with this our next post has come to an end, I hope this information was useful to you, so do not forget to rate the article and share it with your friends on social networks.

Install Kodi

For those who are familiar with the Kodi media center, it will be a little easier, and for the rest who do not yet know, this is a universal cross-platform application that allows you to watch IPTV, movies, video hosting and everything else.

First, install the application and turn on the Russian language for convenience. I showed in detail how to do this here:

Kodi – setting up IPTV on Android and Windows

And in this video: