Android TV Box 12.0 4GB RAM 32GB ROM AllWinner H618 Quad

The market is saturated with a proliferation of sellers (at different prices) of this product. It is also fair to say that the product itself is also repackaged into many different boxes. Seeing the best of the bunch is harder each day.
I have specific requirements for this ‘tool’ and I’m not easily swayed by trinkets. This box ticked all the boxes for my needs, including the right price. Included was a mini keyboard/mouse/touchpad add on, which looked okay visually.

I set the box up (simple enough as it was a replacement) and saw it perform to my requirements admirably. Now that part was satisfied I began looking deeper into the product as a whole. Loading aida64 and checked the specifications, big thumbs up there, all that is claimed checked out. Ran several tests to show performance of the CPU, Codex and Streams, 4k@60htz streaming was consistent and 99% flawless (I did have to set a 2GB cache manually). Colours were well saturated and crisp, albeit I do have a quality 4KTV and HDMI cable which helps, along with a Techniques audio system, neither were left wanting.

I personally do not like the Launcher and will look for ways to change that (if possible, albeit I have not looked too deeply how to achieve this), I also prefer to have greater control over my devices, I can see no clear way to get into the underlying engines (Android) settings, only the current launcher settings seem available, which are meagre at best. On the desktop I can see no way to remove/change icons, even after I uninstall the app, its Icon remains. For me the smattering of apps preinstalled aren’t that bad and some may find them useful, thankfully it is not fully loaded with every app available like some. Kodi is missing, which I guess most users will be looking to use, even when Stremio is far superior and much faster. One strange issue I had was with the time…. default is to use the network settings, however this made the clock show 1 hour less than true location time. When I set it manually, most apps that stream (iPlayer,YouTube etc) wouldn’t work saying the clock was not correct, to cure that problem and correct the clock on the front of the box, I set it to my actual time zone (GMT+1), however the desktop app still showed the wrong time, even after a reset. These are all of course an Android problem, not the hardware.

I found the remote basic but useable, would have liked it to be an airmouse, fortunately the one I have worked without issue.

When I tried the mini keyboard, mouse, touchpad, it was akin to typing on a 4″ mobile phone screen for me, moreso when both hands were needed (shift + key). The touchpad was crude in resolution but sometimes also indecisive to the touch. The ‘mouse’ only simulates the keys on a mouse (left/Right). Now to the most annoying thing about this keyboard/mouse/touchpad, without the keys being backlit, I found it difficult to focus on the keys needed, when enabling the backlights, (fn+F2), it begins with a Christmas trees of lights, next press it a wave of colours, followed by a series of colours scrolling across the keys, BUT none were static, so I couldn’t for instance work out how to have a blue or green backlight to the keys. It is just as well I am not epileptic or these lights could have caused me a problem.

Conclusion, Is it worth the money?
In my opinion it is worth the money asked for it.
So if like me, you discarded the keyboard/mouse/touchpad, you would be hard tasked to find the bare box and basic remote for a cheaper price.