Ever wondered why we simply sit back and allow overpriced TV cable/satellite content providers to decide which channels are dished up to us? The reality is that 90% of what we get is usually garbage! But this is the 21st century and high speed internet (usually via FTTH) is the norm now in most built up urban areas. With so many streaming services (Netflix, YouTube etc.) to choose from, are we not simply stuck in a 20th century mindset?
It was time to take a deeper look into this and see if one could completely cut the cord. So decided to purchase a fairly cheap, "no name" brand Chinese made Android TV Box (online for just under $40) and set about to see if I would be able to fully rely on this instead.
Here is what I ordered:
An Android 13.0 based TV Box - X88 Pro 13 - Ultra HD 8K
1. 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM.
2. Fairly Average Quad Core Rockchip RK3528 Processor
3. WiFi + Ethernet Port + Bluetooth + 2 x USB ports
4. HDMI + SPDIF + AV Audio output
5. Memory Card Slot
6. Remote Control and Mini Wireless Keyboard
Connecting the Device to a TV via the HDMI cable was easy and powered it up after connecting it to a Sound Bar via SPDIF. Having connected the device to the WiFi, logged into a Google account and then inspected the various Settings/Options. All of this took only a few minutes. Fired up the pre-installed Chrome Browser and started testing a video on YouTube. This was appalling as the video quality was poor and was flickering and doing some other weird stuff. So uninstalled the Chrome Browser (was able to get rid of it completely by using the “Uninstall” option in the Settings/Apps section) and then installed a full featured Firefox browser as well a light and fast Duckduckgo browser and tested both of them with the same video on YouTube. This time I was getting excellent quality without any issues at all.
So the 1st test (Video via a browser) was successfully completed. Clearly the Chrome Browser was not up to par and one can replace it with either Firefox or Duckduckgo with excellent results. If one simply needs a basic Browser without too many bells and whistles, Duckduckgo is probably going to be your best option as it was fast and uncluttered.
Next step was to UNINSTALL or DISABLE a number of totally useless and unnecessary apps including a Chinese App Store program. Untrusting of the pre-installed Google Play Store, uninstalled that too and downloaded a new Google Play Store APK one instead. This to ensure that the installed one was not in any way compromised. I went a step further and installed a network monitoring app (PCAPdroid) and took a close look at the internet traffic. Once satisfied that this device looked fairly clean and was not trying to “call home” Installed MalwareBytes and did a full scan. The result was a clean bill of health. I uninstalled it and loaded BitDefender which too gave a clean result. Decided to leave BitDefender installed for now, this as they have one of the best Android Anti-Virus solutions out there.
With that done and feeling fairly satisfied, installed YouTube & VLC. Both apps worked extremely well and was very satisfied with testing about half a dozen Live News Broadcasts from France24, ABC, CBS, and SKY News etc. Was able to get a very decent resolution with no flicker or delay at all. Live News Broadcasts would be a Breeze.
Next was to take a high Resolution Movie and place it into the 64GB ROM and view it with the VLC Viewer. Moving files from a USB Memory Stick proved far too cumbersome with the pre-installed File Manager, so installed the popular X-plore app with it's user friendly dual-pane tree view instead. That worked like a charm and there no issues at all watching a movie. Still using VLC, loaded a xspf file (for a radio Station in Brazil) and proceeded to see how that link would behave. Once again there were no issues at all. So I had encountered no real problems with Video or Audio quality at all. Simply needed to toss out the pre-installed browser and use the Firefox, Youtube and VLC apps instead.
Now I started to focus on the entire look and feel of the built in
launcher page. It was pathetic and totally cumbersome. Moving Icons
around was pointless because when switched off, it simply would
return to a default position again. Nor would it allow me to change
the background colour let alone introduce a desktop theme or
background image at all. I could move some icons to the top of the
screen (Favourites), but they too would sometimes simply disappear.
It was clear that I needed to find an Android Launcher App. Here would come my 1st real challenge. All of the highly rated Launcher Apps on Google Play failed to work at all. I nearly found myself locked out of the device entirely because the device got stuck with no icons on the screen and no ability to gain access to uninstall the failed Launcher. Luckily eventually managed to get everything back to the default launcher and could access everything again. Now started to do some research and it became clear that there was not going to be anything of use on the Google Play Store. Instead had to download an APK file and manually install a launcher App. In this case, settled on the Emotn Ui App which gave me exactly what I was after. Something fast, efficient and uncluttered. Took quite a while to set it up exactly as I wanted, but the result was excellent and VASTLY superior to the unimpressive Launcher the product shipped with. Now there were even 4K animated wallpapers if one needed them too.
Another issue was that the Remote Control is fairly limited. It was necessary to connect a USB mouse to the Device for the entire setting up process. Although this particular TV Box came with a Wireless Mini Keyboard (which certainly speeded up entering url detail into the browser), the remote on it's own was very limiting and frustrating to work with. The mouse remains connected to the device and will continue to use it as it is vastly more efficient. The Mini Keyboard with it's multi coloured back light is quite fun to use, but not the greatest solution either. With that said though, trying to use the on-screen keyboard was rather painful so the mini keyboard is helpful for any text entry, specifically whilst using the Browser or Internet Search.
After two weeks of of use, the question was quite simple: Could I use an Android TV Box and dump my Cable/Satellite provider? The answer for anyone with a fair knowledge of Android (able to modify/change the default), is absolutely YES! One can get to chose what channels and material you want to view and don’t need to pay for it. All the streamed media during testing was FREE CONTENT! Whilst there were a few annoyances (too many ads on the YouTube app etc.), it was easy to access everything I needed. Best advise I could give would be to avoid loading Content Providers apps completely and rather rely on using a browser instead. Most of these apps are simply pushing advertising and are more disruptive than helpful. With a browser you can eliminate much of this and have far more privacy too. Will I continue to keep using this device? Yes. Will I dump my old 20th Century system? Absolutely. This product has met my expectation!
Will the average "Joe" be able to set all of this up themselves? That still remains to be seen as the factory installed setup still needs a lot of refinement. There no doubt will be customers out there who will be disapointed or frustrated. But the hardware is not the problem, the issue is that it appears that most of these Chinese brands ship with inferior and buggy apps that, with a little effort, can simply be uninstall/disabled and then replaced. Fortunately unlike some of the well known brands, this X88 Pro13 was not Blocked nor Restricted in any way. All of the above were easily achieved without having to jump though any hoops nor tamper with the Operating System at all!
Resources:
Google play Store APK (Be sure to select the EXACT version for your specific hardware).
