Anyone using an MXQ Pro 4K Android TV Box?

[giddyup]

After giving up trying to buy an Amazon Fire Stick in Thailand, I did a bit of research and settled on a MXQ Pro from Gearbest. Seems to have all the bells and whistles with mostly positive reviews, and for $24.99 delivered I decided to give one a try. Only ordered it today so it will probably take a couple of weeks to get here. Wondered what other owners think of it.

[userabcd]

I tried one from iplusstudio in fortune town. I think it was about 1500 baht but only 1gb ram and the device kept locking up. I had to reboot it every few minutes just doing a few simple things. Returned it in exchange for a himedia q30 with 2gb ram.

[Phuket Man]

Looks cheap with pretty low specs. 

You need at least 2G ram. 

Plenty available on Lazada. 

[giddyup]

18 minutes ago, Phuket Man said:

Looks cheap with pretty low specs. 

You need at least 2G ram. 

Plenty available on Lazada. 

Plenty of what available on Lazada? Lazada has plenty of TV boxes, but their prices are pretty inflated, and which one to choose? Anyway for $25 I'm not risking much.

[giddyup]

42 minutes ago, userabcd said:

I tried one from iplusstudio in fortune town. I think it was about 1500 baht but only 1gb ram and the device kept locking up. I had to reboot it every few minutes just doing a few simple things. Returned it in exchange for a himedia q30 with 2gb ram.

Have a look at all the reviews on youtube, all positive. How long ago was it you tried one?

[Phuket Man]

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

Plenty of what available on Lazada? Lazada has plenty of TV boxes, but their prices are pretty inflated, and which one to choose? Anyway for $25 I'm not risking much.

Plenty of decent boxes with more than 1G ram that will work. 

[giddyup]

5 minutes ago, Phuket Man said:

Plenty of decent boxes with more than 1G ram that will work. 

For $25? Quite honestly I wasn't prepared to outlay a $100 plus for something I may not get much use out of, or I find my internet isn't strong enough to run it. I won't use it for gaming, so if it streams well then it will suit my needs.

[janclaes47]

Mxq pro is about the worst box you can buy, but never mind, because you know better.

[giddyup]

2 hours ago, janclaes47 said:

Mxq pro is about the worst box you can buy, but never mind, because you know better.

My question was directed at people who own one, do you?

[userabcd]

11 hours ago, giddyup said:

Have a look at all the reviews on youtube, all positive. How long ago was it you tried one?

About 3 or 4 months ago. I have owned 1 or 2 of the 1GB ram boxes and all of them have perform poorly, they all lock up at one point and need frequent rebooting.

[giddyup]

10 minutes ago, userabcd said:

About 3 or 4 months ago. I have owned 1 or 2 of the 1GB ram boxes and all of them have perform poorly, they all lock up at one point and need frequent rebooting.

Don't doubt your experience for a moment, but there are many, many reviews online and none mention that. I suppose the proof will be in the pudding, I'll see how it goes once received.

[Peterw42]

Op, you dont mention what you want to do with the box ? I have a MXQ box on a TV in the spare room, runs Kodi, plays movies from NAS and some streaming, works fine. The android version cant be upgraded so I run an old version of Kodi etc. I have another noname box that hotspots the internet, I have a Minix box on the main TV that runs the main TV and movie library, 5.1 sound etc. 

Depends what you want to do with it. For basic streaming, an older version of kodi etc, it should work fine.

[janclaes47]

8 hours ago, giddyup said:

My question was directed at people who own one, do you?

 

Well I happen to know a bit more about Android boxes than the average man in the street.

 

I have one here on my desk, which I fixed for a customer, and he even don't want it back lol.

 

To start with, as others have pointed out it has 1Gb RAM, that means with Android 7.1 and Kodi 17.6 on idle, you have about 150 Mb free RAM.

 

How you expect that to properly work?

 

Secondly it has a S905W processor.

 

S905 was a very good processor, they then build the S905X which was a cheaper version and run a lot hotter, the they discontinued the S905 and build the S905D and W, which are cheaper versions of the X version.

 

As with everything, you get what you pay for.

[janclaes47]

18 minutes ago, giddyup said:

Don't doubt your experience for a moment, but there are many, many reviews online and none mention that. I suppose the proof will be in the pudding, I'll see how it goes once received.

Reviews are clickbait and nothing more, I just seen a review of a Vorke box which has Widevine L3, and the reviewer keeps claiming that the Netflix app on the box runs 4K.

 

Widevine L3 runs 480p and nothing more

[giddyup]

57 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

Op, you dont mention what you want to do with the box ? I have a MXQ box on a TV in the spare room, runs Kodi, plays movies from NAS and some streaming, works fine. The android version cant be upgraded so I run an old version of Kodi etc. I have another noname box that hotspots the internet, I have a Minix box on the main TV that runs the main TV and movie library, 5.1 sound etc. 

Depends what you want to do with it. For basic streaming, an older version of kodi etc, it should work fine.

I believe the version I have bought is fully loaded with Kodi apps, and that's all I want it for is to watch movies and TV series. This is the version I have just bought with Android 7.1. https://www.gearbest.com/tv-box/pp_728842.html

[janclaes47]

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

I believe the version I have bought is fully loaded with Kodi apps, and that's all I want it for is to watch movies and TV series. This is the version I have just bought with Android 7.1. https://www.gearbest.com/tv-box/pp_728842.html

It comes with TVMC installed, which is a Kodi fork, and is empty.

[giddyup]

7 hours ago, janclaes47 said:

To start with, as others have pointed out it has 1Gb RAM, that means with Android 7.1 and Kodi 17.6 on idle, you have about 150 Mb free RAM.  How you expect that to properly work?

Doesn't the highly praised Amazon Fire Stick only have 1gb RAM?

[janclaes47]

17 minutes ago, giddyup said:

Doesn't the highly praised Amazon Fire Stick only have 1gb RAM?

Yes it has, but however the quality of that device is in  a completely different category than the cheap Chinese Android boxes, it is also not recommended to run the latest Kodi version.

 

The firestick has also a Mediatek processor instead of the lowest spec Amlogic

 

 

[giddyup]

1 hour ago, janclaes47 said:

Yes it has, but however the quality of that device is in  a completely different category than the cheap Chinese Android boxes, it is also not recommended to run the latest Kodi version.

 

The firestick has also a Mediatek processor instead of the lowest spec Amlogic

 

 

Yes, and as I said, if I could have bought one here I would have.

[janclaes47]

Just now, giddyup said:

Yes, and as I said, if I could have bought one here I would have.

 

So what is your point?

 

That for the same price on black Friday you could have bought a less mediocre device, compared to the Mxq Pro?

 

You also could have spent 1000 Baht more and have a 2Gb device, that will give you much less issues, but people always think all Android boxes are equal so the cheapest will be the best buy.

 

Nothing could be further from the truth, because as with everything in the world, you get what you pay for.

 

A firestick is much overrated because it's from Amazon the biggest e-commerce site in the world, and was fine when we were still with Kodi 15.xx, but for the latest Kodi it is under-specced and a fire box is much better suited. But you will only be aware of this when you have one or read on the Kodi related forums everyday, otherwise you will just go with the hype.

 

Most people new to Android boxes also think that if Kodi is installed on it they are ready to watch whatever they like.

 

Again a complete misunderstanding, because Kodi is an empty media player, and you have to install all the addons in it by yourself and keep them updated otherwise it's nothing more than a paper weight.

 

 

[giddyup]

8 minutes ago, janclaes47 said:

 

So what is your point?

 

That for the same price on black Friday you could have bought a less mediocre device, compared to the Mxq Pro?

 

You also could have spent 1000 Baht more and have a 2Gb device, that will give you much less issues, but people always think all Android boxes are equal so the cheapest will be the best buy.

 

Nothing could be further from the truth, because as with everything in the world, you get what you pay for.

 

A firestick is much overrated because it's from Amazon the biggest e-commerce site in the world, and was fine when we were still with Kodi 15.xx, but for the latest Kodi it is under-specced and a fire box is much better suited. But you will only be aware of this when you have one or read on the Kodi related forums everyday, otherwise you will just go with the hype.

 

Most people new to Android boxes also think that if Kodi is installed on it they are ready to watch whatever they like.

 

Again a complete misunderstanding, because Kodi is an empty media player, and you have to install all the addons in it by yourself and keep them updated otherwise it's nothing more than a paper weight.

 

 

Maybe we all have to start somewhere and learn as we go along. If I've blown $25 on a piece of crap, so be it, it's only chump change. I already pointed out that I didn't want to spend too much on something I may quickly lose interest in, but if it piques my interest enough then I'll upgrade. Seems strange that what you find overrated millions of people love, but what do they know?

[janclaes47]

1 minute ago, giddyup said:

Seems strange that what you find overrated millions of people love.

I rest my case .

[skippy121]

I would avoid the mxq boxes, they are total crap, the ethernet and wifi both drop packets between box and router, this is due to driver issues, not the first time either, M8 boxes ( old ones not M8S) also had the same issue.

 

When you buy a android box, you need to look at the support and updates that the manufacturer provides,

do they provide updates for bugs and driver issues, 

any android update can cause driver and bug issues such packet loss on network or issues with certain codecs.

 

I advise spending over 3000 baht on a good Zidoo box or Fire TV box, both have plenty of power and are well supported, if your budget can go far enough then Nvidia shield is the official testing device for spmc ( kodi fork) this means it is very well looked after.

 

I have been watching the cricket in full fhd using a Zidoo X8 and it was still a cool as a cucumber after 5 hours.

 

If you like to download and keep movies and music as well, then the Zidoo X9 allows internal hard disk and has some great features, we use them at work for conference machines and skyping.

 

 

[giddyup]

1 minute ago, skippy121 said:

I would avoid the mxq boxes, they are total crap

Bit late for that advice.

[Jai Dee]

One spam post from a member promoting his own IPTV service has been removed from this thread, along with replies.