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Beelink AP34 Ultimate Mini PC Review: Much More than a TV Box

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Beelink is best known for its Android TV boxes, but their newly-released Beelink AP34 Ultimate, which comes with an Intel Celeron N3450 quad core Apollo Lake processor, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and Windows 10 OS, is definitely not just another regular TV box. How does this device fit into our daily life? We will try to answer this question in this review.
Main specs of the Beelink AP34 Ultimate
Operating System: Authorized Windows 10 Home
Processor: Intel Celeron N3450 quad core Apollo Lake processor
CPU Frequency: 1.10 GHz (base) to 2.20 GHz (turbo)
GPU: Intel HD 500 graphics
RAM: 8 GB DDR3
Storage: 64 GB eMMC flash, SD card slot, M.2 SSD slot up to 320 GB
Video Output: HDMI 1.4
Audio: 3.5mm audio jack
Internet: Gigabit Ethernet, dual band 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, & Bluetooth 4.0
USB Ports: 3 x USB 3.0 Type-A ports
Button: Power Button, Reset Hole
Power Supply: 12V/2A
Shell: Cool Blue Metal Case
Unboxing
The Beelink AP34 Ultimate ships with very compact retail package.
Inside the retail package we have the Beelink AP34 mini PC, a 24Watt power brick, 2 HDMI cables of different lengths, a wall mount bracket, some screws and some documentation.
Design and build
The Beelink AP34 looks like a regular TV box at first glance, thanks to its small size. In fact, it is even smaller than most of the Android TV boxes we have reviewed, including the Jide Remix IO. The cool blue metal case gives the device a chic and premium feel.
You can find the Beelink logo on the top surface of the device. The font side plays host to an LED indicator, which will light up when the device is booted.
The right side hosts two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a SD card reader, and some vents.
The back side of the device is the busiest, it contains a power button, a 3.5mm DC port, a USB 3.0 Type-A port, an HDMI 1.4 port, An RJ45 network port, an audio jack, and a reset hole.
The left side sports a Wi-Fi antenna and also some vents.
On the bottom side of the device you will find four rubber feet and more vents.
The build quality of this device is great, it feels extremely robust and sturdy, no matter how hard I try to squeeze it with my hands, it stays the way it is. Also, the cool blue coating on the surface is very resistant to scratches. After 4 weeks of reviewing the device and moving it around constantly, I still haven’t found any marks on its surface.
System & Apps
Setting the AP34 up is as easy as any TV box, connecting the device to a socket, a display and input devices (a mouse and a keyboard) and you are good to go. After some first-boot settings (language, Wi-Fi, PIN) and you will enter the familiar Windows lock screen. Unlock it and there is the desktop.
The AP34 Ultimate ships with a clean version of stock Windows 10 Home OS, there are no preinstalled 3rd party applications and bloatware, which is good news for the majority of users.
There are thousands of apps available in the Windows Store, if they are not enough, you can also install traditional PC apps on the AP34. Not only can the device serve as a media center in your living room, it can also get some lightweight productivity tasks done.
You can install the mobile versions of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint from the Windows Store for free, and use them to browse your documents or do some simple editing. If you find their functions too limited, you can also buy the PC version of Office 365.
We connected the AP34 to my 65-inch HDTV, and did a lot of media consumption, web-browsing, social networking. Everything looked amazing on the 65-inch display. We feel like we can never really go back to our old Android TV box, as there are too many things which the AP34 can offer but average Android TV boxes can’t.
Performance
The Beelink AP34 Ultimate is powered by an Intel Celeron N3450 quad core Apollo Lake processor (1.1GHz – 2.2GHz) and 8GB RAM. It won’t match those powerhouse laptops and desktops PCs when it comes to horsepower, but it is very capable of handling those basic everyday tasks.
Like always, we ran some benchmarks on the device, and compared the points to the scores of similar products we have reviewed.
In the Antutu V6 Benchmark, the AP34 Ultimate scored 112,567, ranking behind the Core-i3 powered ASUS Vivomini UN62 and the Pentium N4200 powered Voyo VMAC-V1.
In the Cinebench R10 test, the Beelink AP34 Ultimate scored in 1,846 Single core, 5,470 in multi-core, and 2782CB in OpenGL.
In the Cinebench R15 test, the AP34 was returned in 119cb CPU performance and 11.50 fps in OpenGL.
The Fritz Chess benchmark returned a score of 3,411, which even beats the 3,177 snatched by the Pentium N4200 powered Voyo VMAC-V1.
In the PCMark 8 Work Accelerated 3.0 test, the AP34 scored 1,614.
Although the device is capable of outputting 4K resolution (3840*2160px), we won’t recommend people to set this resolution as default on the AP34. As there is no discrete graphics card under the hood, 4K will be too much for the integrated Intel HD 500 to handle sometimes, 1080P is still a more reliable choice on most occasions.
The AP34 Ultimate was capable of handling all the media files we threw at it, including some 4k clips. We also had no problem streaming full HD and 4K YouTube videos with Google Chrome. Thanks to the 8GB of RAM on board, the AP34 can even handle some serious multi-tasking. We did feel the heat coming out of the vents when the AP34 was under heavy loads, but it still didn't get loud, thanks to the fanless design, and the CPU temperature never got too high to trigger a warning from Ludashi.
We also did some gaming on the device, games installed from the Windows store generally worked fine, with decent frame rates and responsiveness. Lightweight desktop games such as Plant vs Zombies, Chicken Shoot and Stealth Bastard also ran smoothly on the AP34. However, the device is definitely not built for graphic-intense titles such as the Metro 2033, GTA 4 and StarCraft, as it took forever to load, and the frame rates were totally unacceptable during gameplay.
The good news is, the AP34 Ultimate is upgradable. Opening the device with a screwdriver is quite easy, inside the shell you will find A M.2 slot, which is available for up to 10Gbit/s data transfer rates with a maximum capacity of 320GB.
Connectivity
The AP34 Ultimate has dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 on board. Placed in our living room, the AP34 was able to find more hotspots than the Remix Mini and Remix IO could. Wi-Fi connection was pretty solid as well. We put the both AP34 and Remix Mini on the TV cabinet (the WiFi router was positioned in another room), the AP34 was able to download files at the speed of 6MB/s, but the Remix Mini’s download speed was only around 300KB/s.
The AP34 can be connected to a mouse, a keyboard or external sound systems (headphones or speakers) wirelessly via Bluetooth. We connected the AP34 with my Bang & Olufsen S3 speakers and enjoyed a lot of music and movies, the connection remained uninterrupted most of the time. Unfortunately, the AP34’s Bluetooth doesn’t support AptX, listening to lossless music with wireless headphones and you will notice the difference.
There are 3 full USB 3.0 ports on board, but one thing I need to mention is that, when we plugged in a mobile drive and a mouse at the same time, the AP34 sometimes failed to output enough power supply to the receiver of the mouse, and there were lags and delays while we were moving the mouse on the screen. This is one of the few issues that have been constantly bothering us, and we really hope that it can be solved with some software patches.
The SD card reader on the right side is also a nice touch, as you can browse photos and videos taken by your digital camera easily. And if you want to get access to files in a micro SD card, all you need is just an adapter.
Verdict
Beelink has done a pretty good job with the AP34 Ultimate. We really like its size and overall look, which make it well suited for any situation. The hardware is also pretty up-to-date and you can expect to get lots of things done - that is to say office productivity, media playback, surfing the Web, and playing light games. With a wireless keyboard and mouse, this could be a very neat home theatre PC.
Priced at $269.00, the AP34 is affordable to the majority of consumers, and is certainly better investment than the ASUS VIVOPC-VM40B-04, which comes with a weaker processor (Intel Celeron 1007U Processor 1.5 GHz) but a higher price tag ($319.00).

Ubuntu runs well on this device as well

can you use steam streaming http://store.steampowered.com/streaming/ without issues too ?
Do you recommend it over Beelink S1 ?
Thanks

Although the device is capable of outputting 4K resolution (3840*2160px), we won’t recommend people to set this resolution as default on the AP34. As there is no discrete graphics card under the hood, 4K will be too much for the integrated Intel HD 500 to handle sometimes, 1080P is still a more reliable choice on most occasions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the 4GB version which is an excellent value - it is 'adequate' for most applications if you are not trying to use to multi-task.
I have upgraded to the latest Intel Drivers - Only 30Hz rate is available at the 4K resolution - this makes pretty much any video quite choppy if display adapter is set to output this resolution
It is indeed much happier set to 1080.
My understanding (please correct me if I''m wrong!) from searching is that the N3450/HD500 Graphics set is only capable of 60Hz refresh on Display Adapter Output and 30Hz on HDMI
But of course there is NO Display Adapter Output Connector on the AP34

Hello
how do you compare AP34 with AP42 Mini PC http://www.kodlix.com/349/ ? AP42 seems to be much better ? Am I wrong ?
Thanks

Difference is barely discernible - https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=n3450+vs+n4200&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

decosse said:
Difference is barely discernible - https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=n3450+vs+n4200&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok but It's something chepear

graziano68 said:
ok but It's something chepear
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
??
The Ap34 should be cheaper - make sure you are comparing 4GB RAM with 4GB RAM models

Beelink GS1 TV Box Review: a Beauty and a Beast

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The GS1 is the latest release of Beelink, a brand well-known for making quality TV Boxes and mini PCs. Equipped with an Allwinner H6 SoC., it is also Beelink’s first product that supports 6K video decoding. But how does it really perform in our daily life and how does it fare against the more hyped Beelink A1 and Jide Remix IO? We will try to answer these two questions in this review.
Main Specs of the Beelink GS1
Operating System: Android 7.1
Processor: Allwinner Quad-Core Processor (4*[email protected], Mali-720MP2 GPU)
RAM: 4GB DDR3
Storage: 16GB eMMc Internal Storage, TF Card support (up to 128GB)
HDMI: HDMI 2.0a output up to [email protected] + HDMI 3D video formats
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.1
Internet Access: dual-band WiFi 2.4G / 5.8G, 1000M Gigabit Ethernet
Ports: Ethernet port*1, SPDIF Port*1, DC port*1, Micro SD card slot*1, USB 3.0 Port*1, USB 2.0 Port*1, HDMI*1.
Dimension: 96mm*96mm*16mm (L x W x H)
Weight: 190g
Chassis: Black, ABS Plastic
Retail Package: TV box*1, Remote control*1, HDMI cable*1, Power adapter*1, User manual*1
Retail Package
The GS1 arrives with very beautiful and compact packaging which also feels very high-tech.
Inside the packaging you will find a GS1 TV box, a remote, an HDMI cable, a power adapter and an English user manual.
Design
Measured at 96mm*96mm*16mm, the GS1 isn’t the smallest TV Box we have ever reviewed, that crown still belongs to the Beelink A1 (77mm*77mm*17mm).
However it still has a much smaller footprint than the likes of Jide Remix IO and the Zidoo X9s (187mm*127mm*27mm).
While lacking in size, this device still offers a slew of ports and slots. On the back side of the box you will find a SPDIF audio port, an RJ45 Ethernet jack, an HDMI 2.0 port, a USB 2.0 Port and a DC port.
On the left side of the device, you will find a USB 3.0 port, and a Micro SD card slot which supports cards up to 128GB.
An IR receiver and an LED indicator are hosted on the front side, but they are almost invisible, only when you boot the device you will see the LED light up in blue. The tiny casing is made of white ABS plastic, which gives the device an elegant and premium look. A huge “6” (which indicates 6K video decoding) and a “Beelink logo” sit comfortably on the top side of the device.
There are some vents on the bottom side to keep the box from overheating. The 4 rubber feet are short, but still do a very good job at protecting the box from scratches.
The build quality of the GS1 is extremely good, even though the device is thin and with a plastic shell, it still feels quite sturdy.
The supplied remote is the same as the one that comes with the A1. Although with a predictably lightweight, plastic finish and limited mouse pointer functionality, it feels very well-built, and the box responds quickly to its commands and the infra-red range are acceptably long and broad.
Setting it up
Setting up the Beelink GS1 is extremely easy. Connecting it to a TV set (or projector) via HDMI, plugging in the charger and you are good to go.
System & Apps
The Beelink GS1 ships with Android 7.1 Nougat, with a tailor-made Beelink skin on top. The launcher has everything laid out beautifully and is very easy to navigate. The date and time is located at the top left with the temperature widget below. In the center of the screen you have a link to the media center, internet browser and Google Play Store, There are also shortcuts to “clear memory”, app drawer, and settings laying below. To the right is an area where users can pin their most commonly used apps. Finally at the bottom left you have shortcuts to power, volume, at the bottom right you have shortcuts to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth.
The navigation bar at the very bottom is defaulted to be hidden, but you can bring it up with a mouse. It has many virtual keys, including a back key, a home key, a recent apps key, a screenshot key, a volume- key, a volume+ key, a hide-bar key and a power key.
The GS1 doesn’t come loaded with bloatware, but there are some preinstalled apps. Besides the stock Google Play Store, Android Web Browser, Calculator and Gallery, you can also find Beelink’s very own App Store, Bee Files Explorer, Media Center and Bee Music in the app drawer.
As a TV box, the GS1 is designed mainly for media consumption, and you can find a great number of media playback apps in Google Play, including YouTube, Netflix, Kodi and Hulu. The GS1 has no problem streaming 4K videos smoothly on YouTube, and I rarely notice any hiccups playing local videos with the stock video player.
I complained about Beelink’s stock video player while reviewing the A1, but the one preinstalled on the GS1 works really fine, not only is it loaded with useful features, it is also very responsive to the remote control.
The PiP (Picture in Picture) function allows you to watch a video and do other things at the same time, but it did take me a while to figure out how to return to full-screen mode.
Running on Android 7.1 Nougat means the GS1 can also handle tasks such as E-Mails, Web-browsing, social networking and even gaming.
Like the A1 and other high-end Android-based TV boxes, the GS1 supports OTA (Over-the-Air) firmware upgrades. Beelink is known for its excellent support for its products, the A1 I had reviewed received 5 updates within just 1 month, and I am expecting nothing less from my GS1.
Performance
The Beelink GS1 is powered by an Allwinner H6 processor, which contains 4 cores of Cortex-A53 CPU and two cores of Mali-720MP GPU. There’s also 2GB RAM under the hood to handle multi-tasking. You’d probably think that the GS1 is no match for the A1 in terms of performance as the latter comes with 4GB RAM, but the benchmarks tell a different story.
In Antutu V6 benchmark test, the GS1 scored 44,207, putting it in front of the A1 (33,992) and other competitions such as the Jide Remix IO (32,981), the Zidoo X9s (33,990) and Jide Remix Mini (23,919).
In Geekbench 4 CPU test, the GS1 notched 681 in single-core, 1,703 in multi-core, and 1,247 in computing.
In the PCMark 8 Work 2.0 test, the GS1 snatched 3,393, which is on par with the scores of many entry-level smartphones. The GS1 may not be able to compete with flagship Android smartphones and tablets, but it is quite powerful by the TV box standard.
As for the real-world performance, like many other Android-based TV boxes, the GS1 is pretty smooth when we set the HDMI output at 1080P resolution. In fact it handled most tasks faster than the A1. At 4K, the GS1 was still generally smooth and responsive, but there could be stutters every now and then. The slowdown in speed became the most noticeable while opening image-heavy webpages in the stock browser, as my unit failed to finish loading a few webpages in 4K.
The GS1 is also better at decoding videos than RK33X8 powered TV boxes such as the A1 and Jide Remix IO. In the Antutu Video Tester Benchmark, the GS1 scored 952 , compatible with almost all of the video formats included in the test. The GS1 also naturally supports 6K H.265 video decoding. Although it doesn’t make much sense to play 6K videos on a device which only supports 4K output, 6K playback is a useful feature whenever you are faced with 6K clips and no other options.
Limited by the 2GB RAM, multi-tasking was challenging for the GS1. There was normally slightly more than 1GB available RAM after startup. Not many apps could stay in the background simultaneously (the OS will kill apps automatically to free memories for apps running on the screen). Also, the box became slow and less responsive when playing videos in PiP mode. For example, it took a lot longer to launch new applications. I found myself clicking the memory cleanup shortcut on the homescreen quite often, which I never felt that much compelled to do when using the Beelink A1.
Generally speaking, the Beelink GS1 performs quite well as a media playback device. In fact it is faster than the A1 when handling most tasks. The RAM is somewhat a letdown, and prevents the box from reaching its full potential as an HTPC, but it is not really a deal-breaker, as most people wouldn’t need their TV boxes to run too many applications in the background.
Connectivity
The GS1 offers a slew of connectivity options. It supports 2.4GHz/5GHz dual band Wi-Fi. Although without an exposed antenna, the GS1 still has very solid reception, it could pick up more Wi-Fi hotspots than the Remix Mini and Remix IO when the three boxes were placed right next to one another. The RJ-45 Ethernet jack can also come in handy when you want more stable connection via a network cable. There’s also Bluetooth 4.1 on board to take care of local data transfer and connecting with audio and input devices. I connected the GS1 with a pair of Bang & Olufsen Beoplay S3 speakers and they worked fine together. If Bluetooth audio transfer doesn’t offer satisfying sound, the SPDIF port supports direct wired connection with most soundbars and speakers designed for TV.
The HDMI 2.0 port on the GS1 can output videos up to [email protected], and should support most TV sets, monitors and projectors. The 2 USB ports support external USB storages of up to 4TB. The Micro SD card slot had no problem reading my 128GB Transcend card.
Verdict
I loved my experience with the Beelink GS1, although slightly let down by Beelink’s choice of putting only 2GB RAM inside of the box. Still, it has found itself as a permanent resident of my living room. It’s also great to be able to carry around a cheap and small device that can be plugged into any HDMI monitor and play all of my favorite movies and TV shows. I am certainly looking forward to what Beelink has to offer in its future products.

real life experience
Hi,
Because of your review, which I liked, I bought this GS1.
And though the looks of it are good, performance and user experience are weak.
Installing Netflix through Google Playstore is not possible. And when you succeed to install it through Beelinks own Appmarket or sideloading it, you could not scroll through the movie list, at least, not up or down. After latest firmware update of 2018-01-12, the scrolling problem is solved. Its still not possible to install or update through Google Playstore though.
Also installing other apps in Goole Playstore fails. When searching for a app it just keeps searching.... I only managed to install apps by using my app library or scrolling through suggested apps. Apptoide just works fine by the way but is not the appstore I prefer, I just want to us Playstore.
The interface is a bit laggy and it is hard to see where you are - which is the active part on your screen. You have to use both cursor keys on your remote as well as the mouse function on it to be able to fully navigate.
I think the GS1 has a lot of potential but at the moment the firmware is just not good enough.

get playstore working after updating the firmware
redbrickbernie said:
Hi,
Because of your review, which I liked, I bought this GS1.
And though the looks of it are good, performance and user experience are weak.
Installing Netflix through Google Playstore is not possible. And when you succeed to install it through Beelinks own Appmarket or sideloading it, you could not scroll through the movie list, at least, not up or down. After latest firmware update of 2018-01-12, the scrolling problem is solved. Its still not possible to install or update through Google Playstore though.
Also installing other apps in Goole Playstore fails. When searching for a app it just keeps searching.... I only managed to install apps by using my app library or scrolling through suggested apps. Apptoide just works fine by the way but is not the appstore I prefer, I just want to us Playstore.
The interface is a bit laggy and it is hard to see where you are - which is the active part on your screen. You have to use both cursor keys on your remote as well as the mouse function on it to be able to fully navigate.
I think the GS1 has a lot of potential but at the moment the firmware is just not good enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just to report that to solve the google playstore issue after incremental update it is necessary to reset the box. once you do that, google playstore will work again. That was my experience.

GS1 very low quality netflix - DRM L1
I'm very disappointed! I bought and will not use because of this TVBOX (of 6k) not to run Netflix in FullHD. The quality is poor, especially on big TV. My intention was to use with Netflix on my old
52".
Only SD...480p max!!!
It would need to have DRM level 1 to Rum FullHD, but it only has level 3, ie, Netflix / Amazon only in SD
I'm already with the latest FW 106N0...
I hope Beelink solves this fast or I'll buy from another brand with DRM L1.

I was hoping to be able to use this device for powering a smart infoboard, however there's a huge flaw in the device and that is that screen rotation is completely disabled making it impractical for the use with portrait orientationed infoboards.
Found the explaination in the build.prop, "ro.sf.disablerotation=1". Too bad there's no root method available for this box as I can't change it without root or twrp/cwm recovery.

pitrus- said:
I was hoping to be able to use this device for powering a smart infoboard, however there's a huge flaw in the device and that is that screen rotation is completely disabled making it impractical for the use with portrait orientationed infoboards.
Found the explaination in the build.prop, "ro.sf.disablerotation=1". Too bad there's no root method available for this box as I can't change it without root or twrp/cwm recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This box should be pre rooted if I'm not mistaken.

Mine wasn't pre-rooted. However I contacted Bee-link about the problem, and they were kind enough to offer me a special version of the latest rom with support for portrait mode and it worked flawless using Kiosk Browser Lockdown-app from play-store. Must say I'm quite impressed by their respons. [emoji4]
Skickat från min ONEPLUS A3003 via Tapatalk

Hi,can you puth the link,I haw to, gs1 issue? Thanks

Can anyone post link to ACTUAL support for this box?
Beelink might as well be a criminal enterprise. My box now can't connect to google to sign in to play store.
Someone here should have warned wat a POS this box was.

Ratteler said:
Can anyone post link to ACTUAL support for this box?
Beelink might as well be a criminal enterprise. My box now can't connect to google to sign in to play store.
Someone here should have warned wat a POS this box was.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try contacting them directly, they do have a working website.

And from my experience excellent support. I actually got them to send me a special rom with vertical screen support for this box, this was however about one year ago so thins might have changed.
Skickat från min GM1913 via Tapatalk

In-depth review of the ABOX A4: a fine TV box, but nothing more

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The good:
Fine crafted design.
Nice build quality.
Solid media playback performance.
Useful voice control functions.
Reasonable price.
The bad:
Poor support for mouse and keyboard.
Unstable overall performance.
Most icons in the app drawer look blurry, regardless of the output resolution.
The remote doesn’t always work with smartphone apps.
No dual-band Wi-Fi (ABOX promised to add 5GHz Wi-Fi in the next batch of the A4).
GooBang Doo is a Shenzhen-based company known for making quality TV boxes, mini-PCs and projectors. The ABOX A4 TV Box, which comes with an Amlogic quad-core processor, 2GB RAM and stock Android TV UI, is one of their latest offerings.
Main Features
OS: Android 7.1.2
CPU: Quad core Cortex A53 2.0GHz 64bit
GPU: Penta-Core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750MHz
RAM: 2GB DDR3
ROM: 16GB EMMC Flash, expandable with a Micro SD card
Bluetooth: V4.0
Power Supply: DC 5V 2A
Power Indicator (LED)：Blue(ON); RED(Standby status)
3D: Hardware 3D graphics acceleration
HDD file system FAT16/FAT32/NTFS
Support Subtitle: SRT/SMI/SUB/SSA/IDX+USB
High Definition video output: 4k*2k
LAN: Ethernet: 10/100M, standard RJ-45
Wireless: Support 802.11 a/b/g/n at 2.4GHz
Size: 105mm*105mm*20mm
Retail Package
The ABOX A4 comes with simple but beautiful packaging.
Besides the ABOX A4 TV box, we also found an HDMI cable, a power adapter, a remote and a user manual which is printed in English after unboxing.
Design and build
The ABOX A4 is a beauty, it is in fact one of the best-looking TV boxes I have ever tested. The design is simple and sophisticated at the same time. The jet black chassis gives the box a premium feel, and the ABOX LOGO sits comfortably on the top side of the device.
When you power on the A4, the LOGO will light up in sapphire blue, making the box look extremely high-end and futuristic.
The front side of the A4 is a digital display which shows the time, date and connection status when the device is powered on.
Despite its compact size, the A4 still offers many ports and slots. On the left side you will find 2 full size USB Type-A ports, both are of USB 2.0 standard. There is also a Micro SD card slot which supports cards up to 32GB.
On the back side of the device you will find a 3.5mm SPDIF audio port, RJ45 Ethernet jack, an HDMI 2.0 port, an AV port and a DC port.
There are some vents on the bottom side to keep the box from overheating. The 4 round rubber feet are quite short, but still do a very good job at protecting the box from scratches.
The build quality of the A4 is extremely solid, it feels sturdy and durable, and there are no ugly mold lines on the shell.
The supplied remote of the A4 looks far more premium than the remotes paired with Jide or Beelink TV Boxes. Although it is lightweight and made of plastic, it does have a metallic-alike finish on top to give it a high-end look. The remote also feels very well-built and robust in our hands, the buttons have reasonable travel and rebound fast.
Unlike most remotes that’s based on infra-red, The ABOX A4 remote is actually based on Bluetooth 4.0, and has a pretty long and broad control range. According to ABOX, you can use the remote to control the TV box from up to 15 meters away. In my own test, the remote has no problem sending voice commands to the box from 7-8 meters and a wall away. Also, the A4 responds quickly to the remote’s signal.
Setting up
Setting up the ABOX A4 is extremely easy. Connecting it to a TV set (or projector) via HDMI, plugging in the charger, loading two triple-A dry cells in the stock remote and you are good to go. There are some settings needed when you boot the A4 for the first time. Since it is running on Android TV UI, you are required to connect the device to the internet and login in your google account before you could use any of its functions.
System and Apps
As we mentioned earlier, the A4 runs Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box, with stock Android TV UI on top. The UI is simple and easy to navigate, with a voice control icon on the top of the screen, an array of shortcuts for recommended content, notifications, and two rows of shortcuts for favorite apps. There are also shortcuts to settings, Wi-Fi, and app drawer on the bottom. The UI even offers automatic previews of content from the homescreen.
The voice control function worked like a charm, I could use it to find, launch, and control content. For example, I can ask the A4 to “launch YouTube”, then to “search for the videos about the latest match of Rafael Nadal”, and to “play the first video” with only my thumb staying on the voice button on the remote.
The TV version Play Store has been preinstalled, you can find thousands of apps optimized for a TV screen in it. The A4 also allows you to install apps you can’t find in the Play Store with the built-in apk file installer.
There are a few other preinstalled applications as well, including YouTube (TV version), YT Kids, Netflix, MX Player and ES File Browser. Most of these apps are quite useful. But if you live a region where you don’t need or can’t even get access to Netflix or YouTube services, you can always uninstall them.
Unfortunately, most icons in the app drawer look quite blurry. I initially thought it was probably due to the output display resolution, but then I realized that’s not the case since the icons always looked blurry, regardless of resolution I was using.
The lockscreen of the A4, however, looks beautiful and artistic.
Running the Android TV UI means that the A4 is designed as a TV box, and it is supposed to be used as one as well. Mice and keyboards are still supported, since it is still Android underneath, but don’t expect the experience to anywhere near it is on a Jide Remix Mini. Some TV apps and the A4’s on-screen keyboard don’t even support a mouse at all. For example, when you use your wireless keyboard to type in the words in the search box in YouTube, you cannot just press enter and then expect to get your search results, it doesn’t work like that. You can’t even use your mouse to click the “search” button on your on-screen keyboard. The only way to get the results is for you to use your remote. While the TV apps aren’t always friendly towards a mouse and a keyboard. Normal apps don’t always support the remote. Needless to say that you can’t not ways use a remote to navigate in a smartphone app which was only built for tapping with your fingers. Also, when you are in a smartphone application such as a benchmark, you cannot always expect the A4 to instantly go back to the homescreen or to the last screen by pressing the home and back button on the remote, it simply doesn’t work. I constantly found myself switching between the mouse and remote when testing the A4. Fortunately, if you only use it as a TV box and only has TV apps installed, you won’t be faced with this problem.
Like many of the modern smart TV boxes and mini PCs, the A4 supports over-the-air (OTA) upgrade. And GooBang Doo is known to keep their devices updated.
Performance
The ABOX A4 is powered by an Amlogic quad-core processor, which contains 4 cores of Cortex-A53 CPU and 5 cores of Mali-450MP GPU. There’s also 2GB RAM under the hood to handle multi-tasking. It is definitely not the cutting-edge internal setup you normally find in flagship smartphones and tablets, but it is supposed to handle TV box tasks well.
As usual, we started the performance test by running some benchmark tests on the A4. The video playback performance of the A4 is great, and it has been certified by the Antutu Video Tester Benchmark with a decent score of 875.
Only 4 clips were rated “partially supported”, most of the video clips were smooth and without issues.
In the Antutu benchmark test however, the A4 for some reason couldn’t finish the Graphics test, resulting in 0 point in GPU score. The overall score was shown as 21,360, which is definitely not the result the A4’s hardware was supposed to be returned.
In Geekbench 4, the A4 was returned 498 in single core test, 1,388 in multi-core test and 919 in computing. Those scores were nowhere near the points a modern flagship smartphone could get, and not even impressive by TV box standards.
Using a relatively old GPU ends with a low score in 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited test. So don’t expect to play graphic-intense 3D games on the A4, it won’t be able to deliver the frame rate and responsiveness needed for an enjoyable gaming experience.
Fortunately, the benchmark scores didn’t entirely translate to real-life performances, as the A4 was fast and responsive with most of the TV box tasks I threw at it. Playing high-quality videos on YouTube and other online video apps was smooth, and it didn’t run into any problem playing any of the local video files stored in my portable drive. With that said, it did struggle with more demanding tasks such as compressing a zipped file, or loading image-heavy web pages. And there could be stutters and delays if you have too many apps running in the background.
Connectivity
The A4 offers quite a number of connectivity options. It supports 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-FI at 2.4GHz. Although without an exposed antenna, the A4 still has solid reception, The RJ-45 Ethernet jack can also come in handy when you want more stable connection via a network cable. As most high-end TV boxes support dual-band Wi-Fi now, it’s really a shame for ABOX not to follow the trend. I did personally write an Email to them explaining this issue, and they replied by saying that dual-band Wi-Fi will be added to their second batch of A4. There’s also Bluetooth 4.0 on board to take care of data transfer with your mobile phones and connecting with audio and input devices. I connected the A4 with my Harman Kardon Aura Studio and they worked fine together. If Bluetooth audio transfer doesn’t offer satisfying sound, the 3.5mm SPDIF audio jack can get most speakers plugged in.
The HDMI 2.0 port on the A4 can output videos up to [email protected], and should support most TV sets, monitors and projectors. The 2 USB ports support external USB storages, and they have no problem reading my 4TB portable drive. According to ABOX, the next batch of A4 will be equipped with a USB 3.0 port and a USB 2.0 port, instead of two USB 2.0 ports we have here. The Micro SD card slot, however, can only support cards with storage no bigger than 32GB. This is a real shame since all of the other TV boxes I tested in recent years have the ability to support Micro SD cards up to at least 128GB.
Verdict
Priced at $79.99, the A4 offers a beautifully crafted design, lots of connectivity options, a simple and user-friendly UI, a nice Bluetooth remote with useful voice control functions, and it handles everyday TV box tasks with ease. If ABOX could really add dual-band Wi-Fi and a USB 3.0 port on the device as promised, it will be an easy recommendation for those who need a new TV box. But if you are expecting an HTPC that is more capable of handling more complex tasks such as social-networking, web-browsing and editing, the A4’s lack of mouse and keyboard support may be a problem. If I am to sum it up by one sentence: the A4 is a designed as a media-playback device, and it works ideally as designed, but no more.

I just found a 25% discount code for this device on Amazon, and it should be valid till the end of 2018. The price after dicount is $59.99.
Claim code: ABOX2018
The purchase link: https://www.amazon.com/GooBang-Doo-Android-Innovative-Bluetooth/dp/B07CTBJC3W

No one interested in this?

Fantastic review
Really well written and relavant review.

I can't get past the initial sign in. After logging in to my Google account, The "Prove you're not a robot" (Captcha) is partially hidden and I can not type in the correct letters. I have tried many times.

jw_randall said:
I can't get past the initial sign in. After logging in to my Google account, The "Prove you're not a robot" (Captcha) is partially hidden and I can not type in the correct letters. I have tried many times.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's odd

Beelink GT King Pro review: the best TV-box gets better

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The good:
Attractive design and great build quality.
Top-end hardware and impeccable performance.
Lots of connectivity options.
Dual ESS ES9018 Hi-Fi DAC.
DTS Listen and Dolby Audio support.
Android 9 Pie.
The bad:
No Netflix or Amazon Prime Video in HD.
32-bit version Android OS.
The UI doesn’t match the design of the box.
Much more expensive than the GT-King.
Being the first TV box to run on Amologic’s most powerful S922X processor, the Beelink GT-King has attracted a lot of attention, but also stirred a bit of controversy among its users. The beefy chipset may have helped the box become the new benchmark and performance king, but software-related issues with this new SoC. weren’t solved until recent updates. Fortunately, after the latest firmware upgrade, the GT-King is finally performing steadily as designed.
The recently released GT-King Pro is the upgraded version of the GT-King, and the latest addition to Beelink’s TV box lineup. The Amlogic S922X-H chipset (Hexa-core big.LITTLE CPU, Mali-G52MP6 GPU, 12nm manufacturing process) in the GT-King Pro is almost identical to the S922X inside the GT-King, the only difference being that the former has DTS Listen and Dolby Audio licenses. The Pro variant has a new metal case, a few more ports and most importantly, dual ESS ES9018 HiFi DAC which can drive headphones with an impedance of up to 600Ω.
Main Specs
Operating System: Android 9.0 (32-bit)
Processor: Amlogic S922X-H chipset
CPU: big.LITTLE Hexa-core CPU (4*[email protected], 2*Cortex-A53*1.8GHz)
GPU: Mali-G52MP6
RAM: 4GB LPDDR4
Storage: 64GB eMMc Internal Storage, SDXC Card Support
HDMI: HDMI 2.1 Output up to 3840*[email protected]
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.1
Audio: DTS Listen and Dolby Audio
DAC: Dual ESS ES9018 32bit audio DAC
Internet Access: Dual-band WiFi 2.4GHz/5GHz, Gigabit Ethernet
Ports: Ethernet port*1, DC-in port*1, SD card slot*1, USB 3.0 port*4, HDMI 2.1*1, RS232*1, 3.5mm audio jack*1
Dimension: 119 x 119 x 17.9mm (L x W x H)
Power Supply: 12V DC/1.5A
Weight: 380g
Chassis: Blue, aluminum
Retail Package: TV box*1, remote controller*1, HDMI cable*1, power adapter*1, user manual*1, service card*1
Retail Packaging
The Beelink GT King Pro comes with refined retail packaging, the highlighted skull on the front of the black box looks extremely cool.
In addition to the GT-King Pro tv box itself, inside the box you’ll find a 18W DC Adapter, an HDMI cable, a remote and a user manual. The user manual offers instructions in many different languages: English, German, French, Chinese and Japanese.
Design and build
The GT-King Pro looks like a completely different device when lying side by side with the GT-King. With a more premium metal case and bright blue finish, the Pro variant has the form factor more of a mini PC rather than a TV box. Only the skull on the top side, which looks identical to the one on the famous Skull Canyon mini PC, reminds us of its relation to the GT-King model.
Audio performance is a major selling point of the GT-king Pro, so you can also find “DTS Listen” & “Dolby Audio” licenses on the top side.
On the box’s front side, you will find a black plastic bar, which looks very much like a display. Beelink’s brand slogan “Connect to a wonderful life” is marked here.
A slew of interfaces can be found on the GT-King Pro. The front plays host to an IR receiver, which works well with the stock remote coming with the box. There’s also a tiny LED indicator, which will light up in white when the box is booted.
The left and right sides play host to 4 USB ports (3 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB 2.0 port with OTG), 1 SDXC card slot and some vents.
The back side of the box sports a DC-in port, an RS232 port, an HDMI 2.1 port, an Ethernet connector, and a 3.5mm audio jack. There’s also a beautiful red power button, just like the one found on some Beelink’s mini PCs.
The GT-King Pro measures 119mm x 119mm x 17.9mm and weighs 380g. The build quality is excellent. Not only does the box look extremely polished, but it also feels pretty sturdy， and may even survive some occasional falls.
The supplied remote is predictably lightweight, and feels very well-built as well. The box responds quickly to its commands and the infra-red range are acceptably long and broad. The remote also comes with a 2.4GHz USB receiver, which seemed somewhat unnecessary at first. Then I realized that, with the receiver plugged in the GT-King pro, this remote can also be used as an air mouse, which is quite helpful when you use the box to browse webpages and do some productivity work.
The remote also supports voice control, and allows you to ask the Google Assistant to launch apps, play videos, mount web searches simply by saying “OK Google” followed by your command.
Setting it up
Setting up the Beelink GT-King Pro is as easy as setting up any TV box. Connecting it to a TV set (or projector) via HDMI, plugging in the DC power adapter and you are good to go.
After being powered on, a skull will show up on the TV screen, with its eyes blinking in different colors. The startup is quite fast, as the familiar Beelink homescreen will show up seconds afterwards.
System & Apps
The Beelink GT-King Pro ships with Android 9.0 Pie, with the very familiar Beelink skin on top. The launcher has everything laid out beautifully and is very easy to navigate. The date and time are located at the top left with the temperature widget below. In the center of the screen you have a link to the media center, internet browser and Google Play Store. There are also shortcuts to “clear memory”, app drawer, and settings laying below. To the right is an area where users can pin their favorite apps. Finally, at the bottom left you have shortcuts to power, volume, at the bottom right you have shortcuts to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB Mounted storage and Network Storage.
The navigation bar at the very bottom is defaulted to be hidden, but you can bring it up with a mouse. It has many virtual keys, including a power button, a back button, a home button, a recent apps button, a screenshot key, a volume- button, a volume+ button and a hide-bar button.
I’ve shared my opinion in the GT-King review, and I have to say it again: Beelink should design a set of skins and wallpapers more in line with the design of the device. The ASUS ROG phone, the Xiaomi Black Shark phone, and the nubia Red Magic phone all have themes in line with their looks. Even though developing a skin completely different for one device may not be cost-efficient for a small operation like Beelink, adding a few wallpapers won’t be much of a difficulty.
Fortunately, the TV box allows you to set other pictures as wallpapers. I’ve just found some Skull images to customize the GT-King Pro.
Like all Beelink tv boxes, the GT-King Pro doesn’t come loaded with bloatware, but there are some preinstalled apps. Besides the stock Google Play Store, Chrome and Gallery, you can also find Beelink’s very own App Store, Bee Files Explorer, Media Center, Movie Player and Bee Music in the app drawer.
The Google Play Store is the normal phone and tablet variant instead of the TV version found on many other Google certified TV boxes. Although there are more apps in the tablet-version Play Store, you won’t get most of your favorite TV apps here.
Still, you can install the TV version of YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video from Beelink’s very own App Store, those apps work better with a remote. If these are still not enough, there’s always an option to directly install the .apk files of the apps you want.
One thing I need to mention is that the GT-King Pro runs on the 32-bit version of Android 9 Pie. There are some apps which won’t run properly on the device, but it is not a concern for average TV box users.
Performance
The Beelink GT-King Pro is powered by the all new Amlogic S922X-H chipset, which contains 4 cores of Cortex A73 clocked at 2.21GHz, 2 cores of Cortex-A53 clocked at 1.8GHz, and a beefy Mali-G52MP6 GPU clocked at 846MHz. There’s also 4GB LPDDR4 RAM under the hood to handle multi-tasking.
In Antutu V7 benchmark test, the GT-King Pro scored 127,833.
In Geekbench 4 CPU test, the GT-King Pro notched 1,462 in single-core, and 4,072 in multi-core.
In the PCMark 8 Work 2.0 test, the GT-King Pro snatched 5,901, very close to the score of the mighty Nividia Shield TV.
In the more graphics-focused 3DMark test, the GT-King Pro scored 1,582 in Slingshot.
The Ice Storm Unlimited returned the GT-King Pro with a score of 22,753.
In the Antutu video tester benchmark, the GT-King Pro scored 1094, out of the 30 tested items, only one video codec is not supported.
As can be seen from the scores above, the GT-King Pro slightly edged the GT-King in all benchmarks. But the differences weren’t significant, and probably would not be felt when translated into real-life experiences. The GT-King Pro still offers less horsepower than top Android smartphones and tablets, but it has very few competitions in the world of Android TV boxes. Probably the only box more powerful is the Nvidia Shield TV, but it is more marketed as a gaming console and priced much higher than the GT-King Pro.
When it comes to day-to-day TV box tasks, the GT-King Pro is more than capable. Even when the HDMI output was set at 4K, I still experienced almost no hiccups, lags or delays.
As a pure media streamer, the GT-King Pro does as well, if not better, than most competitions. I played many video clips of different formats in Kodi, the GT-King Pro never struggled with anything I threw at it. The GT-King Pro supports Dolby Vision, Advanced HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, and PRIME HDR, with the right videos and a nice TV, it is capable of delivering satisfying video playback experiences.
Streaming 4K videos in the YouTube TV app was also extremely smooth.
Unfortunately, although the GT-King Pro supports Widevine L1, you won’t be able to stream HD videos in Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, the highest resolution you can choose is 540P. Looks like Beelink still hasn’t got the licenses from those two streaming services yet. This might be a deal-breaker for many devoted Netflix fans.
The GT-King Pro is by no means just a streaming box. It has more than enough power for most of the graphic-intense games you can find in Google Play Store. I tested Asphalt Extreme, Defender III, Snowboard Party and World of Tennis, all of them ran smoothly at maximum settings. But a joystick is necessary if you want to fully enjoy gaming with this TV Box.
Browsing the web was also a nice experience. With multiple image-heavy webpages loaded in Chrome, and the box remained smooth and responsive.
The device is obviously designed as an entertainment hub, just like the Nvidia Shield TV, but it’s not impossible to use it for some lightweight productivity tasks. With a keyboard and the right apps, it is easy to write Emails, and even edit some photos and documents on the GT-King Pro. But I would not recommend anyone to use this as your main PC, unless your computing needs are very basic.
Audio
One of the major improvements on the GT-King Pro is the audio performance. The dual ESS ES9018 HiFi DAC offers DNR up to 135dB, –120dB THD+N, and enables the box to support headphones and speakers with high impedance (up to 600Ω). I plugged in my Panasonic HD605N headphones and listened to a lot of music during the 7-day break (China National Day), the sound coming from the GT-King Pro was significantly better than the sound from my Huawei Mate 20 Pro.
The S922X-H processor has DTS Listen and Dolby Audio licenses, and the box is compatible with 7.1 audio systems. Although the SONOS Playbase speaker in my living room doesn't support DTS decoding, my non-audiophile ears still heard the differences. The GT-King Pro offered a much broader soundstage and better separation compared to average TV boxes. If you have an audio system certified by Dolby, you will be able to enjoy even more discrete surround sound from DTS-encoded movies.
Connectivity
The GT-King Pro offers even more connectivity options than the GT-King. It supports 2.4GHz/5GHz dual-band Wi-Fi. Although without an exposed antenna, the device still has solid reception, it could pick up more Wi-Fi hotspots than most of my other TV boxes and mini PCs. The Ethernet jack also comes in handy when you want more stable connection via a cable.
There’s also Bluetooth 4.1 on board to take care of local data transfer and connecting with audio and input devices. I connected the GT-King Pro with the Creative SoundBlaster Roar Pro speaker and they worked fine together. Although Android 9 naturally supports high-quality codes such as aptX, aptX HD and LDAC, this TV box can only stream audio in SBC and AAC, which is clearly a little disappointing, given that audio is such a major selling point of the device. One thing worth noting is that, if the box is connected to my Harman Kardon Aura speaker before it is shut down, it will boot up automatically afterwards. It is quite annoying since I must make sure the Aura is turned off earlier than the King Pro. I’ve also experienced similar issues with the Vifa Helsinki speaker, but Beelink promised to solve this problem in the next firmware upgrade.
The HDMI 2.1 port on the GT-King Pro can output videos up to [email protected], and should support most TV sets, monitors and projectors. In comparison, the Nvidia Shield TV and many other TV boxes are still using HDMI 2.0 or HDMI 1.4 ports.
The box comes with 64GB built-in storage, which is plenty of room for apps, games and media files. If that’s not enough, the SDXC card slot has no problem reading my 128GB Samsung card, and the reading and writing speeds were decent, too. In addition, the 4 USB ports support external USB storages of up to 4TB. Data transmission was reasonably fast with the three USB 3.0 ports, as I was able to play high bite rate 4K videos from my mobile drive smoothly. In comparison, the Nvidia Shield TV only comes with 16GB built-in storage, no memory card slot, and only two USB ports.
Verdict
Priced at $139.99, the Beelink GT-King Pro is not cheap. But its beautiful metal case, impeccable performance and support for high-quality audio can still make most buyers feel like they are getting more than they have paid for.
Gaming enthusiasts may find the Nvidia Shield TV more appealing, as it has a much more powerful GPU under the hood, and even supports streaming PC games from the box. For average users who want more than just a video streamer, the GT-King Pro is a solid and more affordable alternative to the Shield TV, and even betters the latter in certain areas. But if metallic build and audio are not things that you care about, the original GT-King, which costs $30 less, will be a more sensible choice for you.

Update: after a firmware upgrade on Oct, 10th, the auto-boot issue has been solved.

The Ugoos AM6 is inferior in all departments, and they even dare to price that device higher than the GT-King Pro, what a joke.

This box is temping but without full resolutions of 4K Dolby Vision, HDR on Netflix and Prime video it's a no go for me. I would mainly use the box for streaming so limited gaming but regular Android OS plus covering all the 4K and Dynamic range standards is oh so close. Even has the Shield beat with YouTube 4k support.

Any good ROM out there yet? Just got this b**ch in the mail.

Don_Pachuco said:
Any good ROM out there yet? Just got this b**ch in the mail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you should visit freaktab for beelink roms.

Jupit3r said:
The Ugoos AM6 is inferior in all departments, and they even dare to price that device higher than the GT-King Pro, what a joke.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you talking about the AM6 or the AM6 Pro & have you tested the boxes against each other ?
Thanks.

amdaley said:
Are you talking about the AM6 or the AM6 Pro & have you tested the boxes against each other ?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The AM6, I am just talking about the specs.

The new fimware made the box silky smooth even at 4K resolution.

Does the Beelink GT King Pro have light up eyes? It appears non pro version does. My Pro model does NOT light up!

Vipervic said:
Does the Beelink GT King Pro have light up eyes? It appears non pro version does. My Pro model does NOT light up!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The shell is all metal, nowhere for the eyes to light up.

Is the King Pro it capable of bitstreaming DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD? I've tried the official Kodi and also the build in Qudi (in the Beelink App Store), but it didn't work. Just to clarify, I'm talking about the steamer outputting the audio signal and the AV Receiver will decode the audio (the receiver will display DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD Logo).
If so, what are the right settings to achieve it?

Hi. I really like this box and am seriously considering it. However, the netflix issue is holding me back at the moment. I have looked around an saw some solutions with custom roms etc. but I would like for it to work out of the box. Does anyone know if Beelink is actually working on getting this done?

Hello Friends:
(1) Does this box come pre-rooted (root available) from the manufacturer? I like to install AdAway, which requires root as well as a few other tweaks.
(2) Will Nova Launcher work on this box? My concern is 32-bit Android Pie and if it will work.
Thank you.

Maximum External Hard Drives Capacity is 4tg, but what append if I put an wd hd of 5tg??
Or is there an solution to use an 5tg?

Beelink GT-King Pro , s922x h frecuencia inferior
Siendo exactamente igual a la que mostráis mi "Beelink GT-King Pro" "SN: SA9HH ......" le paso "Aida64" y dice en Arquitectura de núcleo:
2xARM Cortex-A53 @ 1800MHz
4x ARM Cortex-A73 @ 1704MHz
Rango de reloj CPU 500- 1800MHz
Estas frecuencias tan bajas es por qué me han vendido una falsificación?
o por qué necesita una custom ROM?
Gracias

Lachaine said:
Maximum External Hard Drives Capacity is 4tg, but what append if I put an wd hd of 5tg??
Or is there an solution to use an 5tg?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
U can try, my mobile drive is 4gb and it works on the gt-king pro.

nyceyes said:
Hello Friends:
(1) Does this box come pre-rooted (root available) from the manufacturer? I like to install AdAway, which requires root as well as a few other tweaks.
(2) Will Nova Launcher work on this box? My concern is 32-bit Android Pie and if it will work.
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is NOT prerooted, and nova launcher doesn't work on this box.

bucksbunny said:
Hi. I really like this box and am seriously considering it. However, the netflix issue is holding me back at the moment. I have looked around an saw some solutions with custom roms etc. but I would like for it to work out of the box. Does anyone know if Beelink is actually working on getting this done?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think they will land a deal with nexflix any time soon.

moralshixch said:
Is the King Pro it capable of bitstreaming DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD? I've tried the official Kodi and also the build in Qudi (in the Beelink App Store), but it didn't work. Just to clarify, I'm talking about the steamer outputting the audio signal and the AV Receiver will decode the audio (the receiver will display DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD Logo).
If so, what are the right settings to achieve it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
We are working on this issue and will add this feature to the next firmware version, at which time you can test and check if it is available
---------- Post added at 03:52 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:40 AM ----------
nyceyes said:
Hello Friends:
(1) Does this box come pre-rooted (root available) from the manufacturer? I like to install AdAway, which requires root as well as a few other tweaks.
(2) Will Nova Launcher work on this box? My concern is 32-bit Android Pie and if it will work.
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello，
1. In the latest firmware, we have added a ROOT switch button for GT-King and GT-King Pro. You can choose whether to turn on ROOT yourself.
2.Nova Launcher can be used normally
---------- Post added at 04:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:52 AM ----------
nyceyes said:
Hello Friends:
(1) Does this box come pre-rooted (root available) from the manufacturer? I like to install AdAway, which requires root as well as a few other tweaks.
(2) Will Nova Launcher work on this box? My concern is 32-bit Android Pie and if it will work.
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Beelink GT King II review: the TV box to rule them all

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The good:
Attractive design and nice build quality.
Top of the line hardware and impeccable performance.
Lots of connectivity options.
Google Play for Android TV.
Android 11.
The bad:
No Netflix or Amazon Prime Video in HD.
Beelink, a Chinese brand famous for making mini PCs and TV boxes, recently released a new streaming device called the GT-King II. This TV box comes with the new Amlogic A311D2 AoC, 8GB LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB eMMc 5.1 storage, and Android 11 operating system.
Main Specs
Operating System: Android 11
Processor: Amlogic A311D2 chipset
CPU: big.LITTLE Hexa-core CPU (4*[email protected], 4*Cortex-A53*2.1GHz)
GPU: Mali-G52MP8
RAM: 8GB LPDDR4 @4266Mbps
Storage: 64GB eMMc 5.1 Internal Storage, MicroSD Card Support
HDMI: HDMI 2.1 Output up to 3840*[email protected]
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 5.2
Internet Access: WiFi 6 IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4G 5.8G, Gigabit Ethernet
Ports: Ethernet jack*1, DC-in*1, MicroSD card slot*1, USB 3.0*2, USB2.0*1, HDMI 2.1*1, SPDIF*1, 3.5mm audio jack*1
Dimension: 108 x 108 x 15mm (L x W x H)
Power Supply: 12V DC/1.5A
Weight: 190g
Chassis: black, plastic
Retail Package: TV box*1, remote controller*1, HDMI cable*1, power adapter*1, user manual*1
What’s inside the box
The retail packaging of the Beelink GT-King II is simple but attractive, you can find half of a skull on the top side, along with the roman numeral II. This TV box also supports WiFi6, which is highlighted with a red logo. Inside the package you will find a TV box, a Bluetooth remote, an HDMI cable, a power adapter, a user guide, and a manual for the remote.
Design
The GT-King II employs the same shape and size of the original GT-King. The matte black finish of the chassis looks pretty nice, while the skull on the top side looks identical to the one on the famous Intel NUC Skull Canyon mini PC. The eyes of the skull will light up in green when the mini PC is booted, but the LED is a little dimmer than I would have liked.
As small as the GT-King II is, it still packs plenty of I/O, including two USB3.0 ports, 1 USB2.0 port, a MicroSD card slot, a Gigabit Ethernet jack, an HDMI2.1 port, a Toslink SPDIF port as well as a DC input.
The GT-King II measures 108 x 108 x 15mm and weighs 190g, compact even by TV box standards. The build quality is quite solid, not only does the box look extremely polished, with no ugly mold lines on the surface, but it also feels reasonably sturdy in my hands.
Setting it up
Setting up the Beelink GT-King II is as easy as setting up any TV box. Connecting it to a TV set (or projector) via HDMI, plugging in the DC power adapter and you are good to go. After being powered on, a skull will show up on the middle of the TV screen, with its eyes blinking in different colors.
The startup is quite fast, as the familiar Beelink homescreen will show up only seconds afterwards.
The included remote connects with the TV box via Bluetooth, and pairing them up is quite simple. Compared to the 2.4G remote of older Beelink TV boxes, this new remote is not only more responsive, but also less prone to the interference by other wireless signals.
System & Apps
The GT-King II ships with Android 11 Velvet Cake, with the very familiar Beelink skin on top. The launcher has everything laid out beautifully and is very easy to navigate. The date and time are located at the top left with the temperature widget below. In the center of the homescreen you have a link to the media center, internet browser and Google Play Store, There are also shortcuts to “clear memory”, app drawer, and settings laying below. To the right is an area where users can pin their favorite apps. Finally, at the bottom left you have shortcuts to power, volume, at the bottom right you have shortcuts to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth.
The navigation bar at the very bottom is defaulted to be hidden, but you can bring it up with a mouse. There are several virtual keys, including a power button, a back button, a home button, a recent apps button, a screenshot key, a volume rocker and a hide-bar button.
The GT-King doesn’t come with any bloatware, but there are some preinstalled apps. Besides the stock Google Play Store, Chrome, Calculator and Gallery, you can also find Beelink’s very own App Store, Bee Files Explorer, Media Center, Movie Player and Bee Music in the app drawer.
Unlike the first generation GT-King, which comes with the phone and tablet version of Google Play Store, the GT-King II comes with the Play Store for Android TV. If you want to install apps designed for phones and tablets, you will have to find them on 3rd-party app stores, or download .apk files from websites such as APK Mirror and APK Pure. Also, because the GT-King II is running on 64-bit version Android OS, I didn’t encounter any compatibility issues like I did with the original GT-King.
Besides Android, the GT-King II is also compatible with many ARM64-based Linux distributions, including Manjaro, Ubuntu and Debian. You can even run emulators of old and modern gaming consoles on this TV box. Its beefy processor should enable it to run most retro gaming titles smoothly.
Performance
The Beelink GT-King is powered by the new Amlogic A311D2 chipset, which contains 4 cores of Cortex A73 clocked at 2.2GHz, 4 cores of Cortex-A53 clocked at 2.0GHz, and a beefy Mali-G52MP8 GPU. There’s also 8GB LPDDR4x4266 RAM under the hood to handle multi-tasking.
In Antutu V9 benchmark test, the GT-King II scored an impressive 276,082, putting it way ahead of almost all the other TV boxes we have tested. It even outpaced the mighty Nvidia Shield TV (134,341).
In Geekbench 5 CPU test, the GT-King II notched 332 in single-core, and 1,444 in multi-core.
In the PCMark Work 3.0 test, the GT-King II snatched 6,974, which is on par with the scores of many mid-range smartphones, easily blowing most of the other TV boxes out of the water.
In the more graphics-focused 3DMark test, the GT-King II scored in 2,663 Slingshot, still falling short of the Nvidia Shield TV, which notched an incredible 3,897 in the same test.
When it comes to video decoding, the GT-King II really shines. It excelled all 30 subtests in the Antutu Video Tester Benchmark.
As for the real-world performance, the GT-King was more than capable of handling normal day-to-day TV box tasks. Even when the HDMI output was set at 4K, I still experienced no hiccups, lags or delays while navigating the user interface and settings, loading multiple image-heavy webpages in chrome, or lauching big streaming applications.
Streaming 4K/60fps videos in the YouTube TV app was extremely smooth, so was playing movies and TV shows in Tubi and many other streaming services. Unfortunately, even though GT-King does support Widevine L1, you won’t be able to play content in HD on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. I consulted Beelink’s technical team and was told that these streaming services required TV box makers to purchase their extremely expensive licenses, which Beelink doesn’t consider worthy investments at the moment.
The GT-King II is by no means just a video streaming device. It packs more than enough power for the all the titles you will find in Google Play Store. Once the GT-King II is paired up with a gamepad, you can enjoy graphics-intensive games such as Snowboard Party, Asphalt 8, and Bomber Friends. Genshin Impact, which is demanding even for midrange smartphones, could run smoothly on this TV box in 1080P and the lowest quality settings.
The GT-King II can also be turned into an Android PC by connecting to a mouse and a keyboard. Browsing image-heavy webpages in Chrome, editing photos in Snapseed, and working on your document in WPS Office will feel almost as smooth as using a midrange smartphone or tablet. However, I would not advise using the GT-King II as your main PC, unless your computing needs are very basic.
Connectivity
The GT-King II supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. Although the TV box doesn’t have an exposed antenna like some other streaming devices do, its connection to the wireless network is still more than solid, as long as you have a good enough router. You can stream PC games with the GT-King II wirelessly, without noticing any latency. The Gigabit Ethernet jack also comes in handy if you want to connect the TV box to the router via a cable for even faster data transfer.
The HDMI 2.1 port on the GT-King II can output videos up to [email protected], and should support most TV sets, monitors, and projectors. In comparison, the Nvidia Shield TV and many other TV boxes are mostly using older HDMI 2.0 or older HDMI ports.
The TV box comes with 64GB built-in storage, which is plenty of space for apps, games and media files. If that’s not enough, the microSD card slot had no problem reading my 128GB TF card, and the reading and writing speeds were decent, too. In addition, there are 3 USB ports to host multiple external storage devices. Data transmission through the 2 USB3.0 ports was quite fast, as I was able to play high bite rate 8K videos from my portable SSD smoothly. In comparison, most TV boxes only feature 16GB/32GB built-in storage, one or two USB ports, and no storage card slot.
Verdict
Priced at $189, the Beelink GT-King II is obviously not cheap, but its beautiful design, impeccable performance and superb networking capabilities still make it one of the most attractive TV boxes out there. For consumers who want a video streamer, a light gaming console, as well as an Android PC, the GT-King II is probably the best investment you can make right now.

Sorry, there is a way to have the play store app working for phones, because everything is almost impossible to install. or does it exist in custom firmware? thank you

Recently purchased this after connecting to the wifi I am now currently getting a black screen on boot up. No idea what the problem is. Anyone have any ideas?

davidetri said:
Sorry, there is a way to have the play store app working for phones, because everything is almost impossible to install. or does it exist in custom firmware? thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you can try to download the play store app on apkmirror and install it directly.

davidetri said:
there is a way to have the play store app working for phones,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could use lucky patcher to install play store but you will need Magisk module for full support.
davidetri said:
because everything is almost impossible to install
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you should enable install from unknown sources in the settings menu and check the development options...
There are many complaints actually about the firmware on this box, hope there will be an update soon..

okwhateverok said:
You could use lucky patcher to install play store but you will need Magisk module for full support.
Maybe you should enable install from unknown sources in the settings menu and check the development options...
There are many complaints actually about the firmware on this box, hope there will be an update soon..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your input.

Does anyone know if a pro version will come out this time?

Hi I have the GT-King II like in this post, it is still stuck on Android 9, which find a shame, as I love the Box, and Have been on Bee Link site I cannot find any Firmware updates past 2022, if any has a link for Android 11, could they please post it for me, and a Guide how to update Firmware, Many Thanks to those who chose to reply...

The GT-King II ships with Android 11 Velvet Cake, "has anybody got a link to this", as i cannot find
it on Bee Link Site, I would love to flash mine with Android 11

Can Linux be installed on this box at moment stuck on Android 9, and no firmware updates, from manufacturer ??

huey45 said:
The GT-King II ships with Android 11 Velvet Cake, "has anybody got a link to this", as i cannot find
it on Bee Link Site, I would love to flash mine with Android 11
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure it is GT-King II that you got? The original GT-King ships with Android 9.

huey45 said:
Can Linux be installed on this box at moment stuck on Android 9, and no firmware updates, from manufacturer ??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you can check Beelink's official forum

omniajet13 said:
Does anyone know if a pro version will come out this time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This one won't have a pro variant.