Mini pc mk802 для чего microsd card

Review of the MK802 (Android mini PC)

The MK802 is a series of extremely small computers (the size of a USB stick) running Android (also compatible with Linux). They are also extremely cheap and use little power, which makes them an interesting gadget if you want a low consumption computer in your house, and/or turn your dumb TV into a smart TV. After a friend recommended one of these devices, I bought one, and this is my review.

The MK802 is a computer the size of a USB stick, with 2 usb ports, a mini hdmi output, and a micro SD slot. There are several versions in the series (MK802, MK802+, MK802 II), with some variations in the performance of the CPU or the amount of Ram. The main selling points of the device are its extremely low price (I got mine for $52 + shipping) and low power consumption, which, coupled with a reasonably good GPU (the Mali 400), makes it an interesting device for watching digital videos, or having a small multi-purpose computer constantly on.

The model I got appears to be an MK802+. I say “appear” here, because the MK802 is a popular Chinese device that has dozens of clones, and it is easy to get fooled. Although the one I bought was advertised as an MK802 II, what I got looks closer to the specifications of the MK802+. The insane amount of clones of the MK802, but also the increasing popularity of those mini PCs, actually makes it difficult to choose the one that fits you the best, but I’ll discuss other options at the end of this review. If you are interested into getting the MK802, make sure you get a model with at least 1GB of Ram, and double check the CPU (some clones have a Cortex A7 instead of the advertised A8 or sometimes A9. This is the case for mine, and could explain some of the issues I am running into).

My goal with this device was to use it the way it is advertised for: turn my TV into a smart TV by connecting it to an Android computer that I would use mostly to play videos and music, a bit to read emails and browse the web, and potentially as a bittorrent client that would run overnight.

Long story short, for $50 you get what you pay for. The MK802 is a very interesting concept, which fails in some areas because of the limitations of its CPU, but gets the job done if you don’t mind tweaking it a little bit, or if you accept some of the slowness it comes with.

First impressions

The first impression is that the device is indeed really small (feels like a big USB stick, basically). It got me extremely excited initially because I was convinced this could replace my current media center (a Sony Vaio laptop connected to the TV) and free lots of space around the TV (Yes, when you live in Tokyo, the space taken by a laptop close to the TV *does* matter).

Besides the device, the package contains a few accessories such as an HDMI cable, a mini-usb to usb adapter, the AC adapter. Each of these would easily cost 5 bucks in your typical store, and contribute to make the device feel even cheaper (I mean this in a positive way).

Set up

You will need to plug the computer to your HD TV with the provided cable, and find a way to control it. This can be done either by plugging a usb mouse to the device itself, or, more conveniently, get a wireless keyboard/mouse system to plug with the device. Other people use an app called “DroidMote” to control the device with their phone, which I didn’t test.

I personally bought the Logitech K400, a small (but not too much) keyboard with an integrated touchpad, which is used to “simulate” the touch screen you would usually have on an Android tablet or phone. Integration of the MK802 with this keybaord was instant, it simply worked out of the box.

Other than that, there’s basically nothing to do to setup the device. Plug it in to your TV, and plug in the A/C adapter, that’s it (side note: the MK802 does not have a power button, you just unplug the power if you want to turn it off…)

Real plug and play is always nice ��

Since it shipped from China, my device was preinstalled with some Chinese apps (including a P2P video application called PPS, which happens to also have American movies… I might keep that one…). An old version of youtube was also preinstalled… The Play store is accessible from this device, although not all applications will accept to install directly (for example Netflix) and might need to be sideloaded (download the apk from someplace else and install it directly). On that subject, the device is rooted, so tinkering with it, or installing custom roms is extremely easy.

After playing a few hours with the device to get used to it, I got mixed feelings. At a first glance the device promises a lot (“smart TV”, “HD video”, “games”, “internet browser”…), but when actually using it, I ran into multiple issues. Not everything is bad though, the device has lots of good points, so read along.

Forget about multitasking

The first problem was that the device is slow every time the CPU needs to be used. This is frustrating when switching between applications, starting a new application that wasn’t already running (you’ll get a “This application is not responding, do you want to close it?” more than you want to), loading a webpage, typing (autocompletion is slow), reading emails…

Basically after a few days of thinking about this, I found a goodt way to summarize this: Every activity that requires lots of interaction between you and the device takes too long and brings frustration (typing, clicking,switching a lot between apps, reading many emails…).

Some of you might want to decide this makes it a crappy device and stop reading here. I know I almost decided to throw the device away at that point. But then again, I realized this is not what this device really is for. There are actually lots of things that can be done with a computer which don’t require too much interaction with the user. In particular, I’m thinking of watching videos (you start your movie once, then enjoy the movie without having to interact with the computer for then next 90 minutes), or a more “passive” usage such as an ftp server or a bittorrent client.

Local Video playback

After all, the MK802 is mostly advertised as a video player rather than a computer, so I decided to focus on this, and use it for “browsing” and email only when I have no other device handy.

I was overall satisfied, but not impressed, with the video playback performance of the MK802. Let me give details.

The MK802 ships with the Mali400 GPU a low cost GPU with good performances in video decoding. If you remember my review of the DroidX360, the MK802 is actually roughly the same hardware without the screen and the gamepad.

The MK802 is average at playing local videos from the memory stick or the internal memory. I would say it’s hit and miss, depending on the player you use and the video format. Overall, it’s been a frustrating research (I would expect any device nowadays to play any video I throw at it, without me having to reencode the video to the “perfect” format or whatever), but I believe I found a player that works well with most of my videos.

VLC was overall disappointing. For some reason, some videos that play extremely fine in VLC on my 2 year-old android phone, are very laggy/pixelated on the MK802 with VLC. I blame it on the software decoding engine, and the fact that the CPU (+ probably the whole device’s hardware) is not really great. I would not recommend VLC (as of today) for this device.

The integrated video player (called Super HD, I don’t know if it is available on the Store) has been doing ok. I was initially confused by its interface (couldn’t find a way to quit playback), but now that I understood it, I am quite satisfied with it. That being said, one of my high bitrate MK movies though kept “pausing” for 2 seconds every five minutes for no good reason though. It wasn’t even HD video so I am a bit worried.

BS Player was promising, and it has a cool “auto download subtitles” feature which is really nice for tv series, but I couldn’t find a combination of settings (Hardware decoding / software decoding, etc…) that didn’t not have audio sync or pixellisation issues.

In the end, I was recommended MX Player, which so far has been the best player on this device. It offers some customization that seemed to work great for the MK802. In particular, using hardware video decoding in combination with software audio decoding got rid of some of the audio sync issues I had been running into with other devices. Sadly, some specific video files refuse to play in hardware mode, such as the m4v files created with the iPhone4 profile in handbrake.

MX Player offers good movie playback on the MK802, even for HD

In conclusion, local video playback on the MK802 seems to work generally ok as long as you find a video player that works for you. MX Player has given me perfect results so far. Other players shouldn’t be dismissed as I suspect the results can also depend on your specific hardware and the Android rom running on your device

Video Streaming

I’ve been using mostly 2 video streaming services on this device: Youtube, and Netflix. Basically Youtube was disappointing and Netflix was surprisingly good given my situation.

The youtube app is preinstalled on the device, but you’ll want to upgrade it, as it is a very old build. Sadly, in my many tests, Youtube playback had severe A/V sync issues. Audio plays too early, or too late, or gets progressively delayed… it seems to depend on the video, sometimes it’s barely noticeable, and sometimes it’s just impossible to watch. I wouldn’t say it’s all bad, but it can become frustrating. I have read on some forums that this could depend on the Android version installed on the device, and it’s possible that a different firmware could solve this. I think this could be related with how I had to set up hardware video playback %but* software video decoding in MX Player… Since the youtube app does not have such advanced settings, I cannot test if that would help.

I was gladly surprised by Netflix on the other hand. Since I live in Japan, I am going through a VPN in order to access my Netflix subscription. For those of you outside of the US who might not know, Netflix is a monthly-fee based video streaming service, they offer an “all you can watch” service for $8 a month, with an ok catalog and a few recent movies and tv series (I’ve spotted a few movies that just made it to the theaters here in Japan). To this $8 monthly subscription, I need to add $5 a month for my VPN, which allows me to access the service through and American IP. (Netflix is in theory reserved to US residents).

Netflix is slow to start, but once the movie is started, it’s great!

Despite accessing the service through a lowend device, with a VPN, Netflix works fine for me. Movies take a little while to start, but once in, I haven’t seen any problem. In particular, they have a relatively clever system that switches automatically between SD and HD when the system detects your bandwidth is low, and this is relatively smooth. For $13 a month this is an extremely good deal as a foreigner in Japan, compared to the local offers that start at about $20 a month and don’t have a selection comparable to that of Netflix in terms of American movies (although both Japanese offers and Netflix have a terrible lack of French movies, but what can you do…)

It’s worth noting that Netflix over Wifi is one of the reasons I chose the MK802+ rather than the MK802, as the MK802+ is supposed to have a better Wifi hardware, at least from what I read in some reviews and product descriptions.

Two tricks were involved for me to get Netflix to work on the MK802. One is that I had to sideload the apk because the Google Play Store would tell me my device is not supported. The version that was recommended to me is Netflix 1.8.1, and a quick google research will help you find it. Once installed “manually” like this, I had no problems running it. The second trick was that my Android firmware did not have the “VPN” menu in its settings. This was simply solved by downloading a free app called VPN-Menu, which simply puts a shortcut to the VPN settings on your main screen.

If you live outside the US, a VPN subscription will make the MK802 much more interesting as a connected media player

Note that I didn’t try Hulu as I read the Hulu Plus app does not support this device. In addition it is my understanding that Hulu Plus has advertising despite being a paid service, which is not the type of stuff I am looking for (plus, I had already made my mind on going with Netflix)

Using the MK802 as a passive “always on” computer

The MK802 is advertised as a Media player, but I’ve also been successfully using it as a local FTP server in my house, as well as a low power consumption bittorrent client. For this, I have been using respectively apps names FTPServer and aDownloader New from the google play store.

Both worked fine, although initially they were not able to write on the SDCard, just on the internal memory. This is a simple permissions problem which was solved by following this guide.

Note that if you have a good internet connection, the writing speed to the external SD card might be slower than your download speed on bittorrent. This is not a real problem, just a sign that you could even be downloading faster

Gaming

I haven’t tested the MK802 for Gaming. However, it ships with the same hardware as the DroidX360 (see my review here), which to me means it could be a great device for Emulators, but will not be good enough for recent Android games that are demanding lots of 3D resources. The flaw of the DroidX360 was its integrated gamepad, but since the MK802 doesn’t ship with controls in the first place, it can probably be coupled with a USB controller for some nice old school emulators. The following pads have been reported to work with the MK802: Logitech Rumblepad 2, Classic USB Super Nintendo

Other uses

Technically, the MK802 is a fully working ARM computer. This means lots of cool stuff can be done with it. I’ve talked to people who tested both the MK802 and the Raspberry Pi, who ended up being more impressed by the MK802 than the Raspberry Pi. As most gadgets these days, Linux distributions are already available for the MK802, and appear to be pretty stable. It seems however that a few things need to be ironed out in regards to the graphics drivers.

Running Linux on the MK802, as a low cost, low power consumption server is just one of the additional uses one can have with the MK802. You can only think of it as your portable computer, that tiny usb stick you bring to your friends’ place whenever you want to show them some pictures or movies on their own TV, without having to bring your laptop, etc…

Additional hardware considerations

The device has 2 usb ports and supports usb hubs (here’s a cheap one from Amazon that works well with the MK802). Nevertheless, it is a really low power device and will not be able to provide power for too many usb devices connected to it. I have a usb drive with no external power (relies on the usb connection for power) which works but regularly disconnects from the device because of the lack of power. If you plan on connecting many usb devices to the MK802, you will want to make sure their have an external source of power (I’m thinking of hard drives in particular)

I’ve mentioned that the device is slow. However in some attempts I’ve seen that connecting the MK802 to my network with a LAN cable rather than Wifi (with a USB to Ethernet adapter – this one works) made some things obviously faster, such as the browser. My guess is that this reduces the load of the CPU, and allows it to spend more time on the browser without having to compete with the Wifi. Just a wild guess, I’m just saying it can help with performance. I decided to not go with this, because I really like the idea of this device not being full of cables all over the place (the A/C cable and the HDMI cable already feel like one too many cables… not that the MK802 II directly has a male HDMI output which allows you to plug it in directly in a TV without the need for a cable)

Alternatives

When I mentioned the MK802 to some friends, I discovered that many clones or alternate devices are available. Some of them look extremely promising (with dual core CPUs rather than a single core like the one on the MK802, which could solve most of the issues I’ve ran into with the MK802), while others are just clones of the MK802 that are simply redesigned and sold at twice the price. Here are a few that are worth mentioning:

The XIOS DS Media Play has been recommended to me as an “MK802 Killer”. Reading the Amazon reviews and its specs, I can see it has a possibly faster processor (Cortex A9 rather than mine which is an A7), but that overall it is running into similar issues. The XIOS seems, like the MK802, to be a nice idea with lots of potential, that could be wasted because of the amount of research one has to do in order to find the right apps that would work for it. It seems the latest firmware fixes lots of issues, but at more than twice of the MK802, I am not sure if I want to get another “so so” product

The UG802 is definitely the same concept as the MK802, but it has a better processor which is dual core. Seeing a few videos on youtube, the UG802 is significantly faster than the MK802. It is also a bit more expensive, but still below the $100 bar (note that the MK802 can be found for as low as $44 these days). If money is not too much of a concern, I would say the UG802 would be a better bet than the MK802, unless you are looking for a device with a big community. The MK802 has already a large community of users, which means more custom roms, etc… that was one of the reasons I chose it over the UG802.

Assuming you don’t get a lemon, the UG802 seems like a better choice than the XIOS above. If you care about linux support, custom roms, help from the community, the MK802 might be a better choice. Rikomagic also announced an MK802 III, which will have roughly the same specs as the UG802, with hopefully the same amount of community support as the MK802. That would be the best of both worlds.

Conclusion

The MK802+ is an extremely cheap device that can be very interesting if you want to transform your TV into a smart TV. If, like me, your PS3 has become a glorified media player, I really suggest you give a try to the MK802 or one of the other Android Mini PCs described above. In terms of multimedia, the MK802 does much more, much better, and at a lower power consumption, than the PS3.

I would strongly recommend the MK802+ for the following:

• HD Video player for your own local files (MKV, MP4) – MX player recommended.
• Netflix
• as an overnight Bittorrent client. Leave the device on all night for downloads (aDownloader New recommended)
• FTP Server in your house. Low power consumption, couple it with either a reasonably big SD card (sadly the max supported seems to be 32GB) or an external USB hard drive
• Emulators (GBA, SNes, N64, etc…), if you add a wireless or usb pad to the device.

I would not recommend the MK802+ for the following (note that it is not terrible at doing most of the things below, just not convenient enough compared to my current setup):

• Youtube: video is good, but too many audio sync issues (this might change, depending on the Android firmware installed on your device)
• Browsing the web or reading emails. Typing is too painful, and the loading times are terrible
• Advanced gaming with the latest Android games. The device simply does not have the horse power
• Hulu plus has been reported to not work fine with this device
• Multitasking: again, the lack of horsepower will make switching between applications a nightmare. Don’t hope to run the bittorrent client in parallel with your movie player, for example…

For these use cases, the UG802 or the upcoming MK802 III will be better choices.

Recommended accessories for any Android USB stick:

• A Wireless keyboard/mouse system will make the device your perfect smart TV. I am very satisfied with Logitech’s K400.
• If you plan to connect many devices to your MK802, a USB hub will be needed
• Many people complained about a weak Wifi power, an Ethernet to USB adapter has helped me with performance and network
• If you want to use it as an FTP Server or a Bittorrent client, an external hard drive (works fine but in my experience disconnects once in a while because of the lack of power provided by the MK802).
• For gamers, a compatible gamepad such as this one

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October 18, 2016

[…] of you might remember my Reviews of the Droid X360 (a Vita clone) or the MK802 (a Mini PC that makes a Smart TV out of your regular HD TV). Well, it’s always nice to read a […]

Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 II Review

For less than the cost of a night at the movies, this Android computer-on-a-stick lets you enjoy Android apps and stream multimedia to a monitor or TV.

Pros

• + Smallest computer you can buy
• + Full Android 4.0.4 OS
• + Two USB Ports
• + Full-size HDMI

Cons

• — Resolution limited to 720p (without hacking)
• — No power-on button
• — Modest performance

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Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

Android computers-on-a-stick just keep getting smaller, cheaper and more functional. An upgrade to the Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 we reviewed earlier this year, the second-generation MK802 II provides a slightly faster processor, an additional micro USB slot and a male HDMI out jack in lieu of the female mini-HDMI port on its predecessor. At just $55, is this USB key-size computer good enough to serve as a set-top box for consumers or as a pocket-friendly PC for early adopters?

Editor’s Note: Portions of this review were adapted from our review of the nearly identical Android 4.0 Mini PC (MK802).

[sc:video width=»575″ height=»398″]

Design

Click to Enlarge At just 3.5 X 1 X 0.25 inches thick and a mere 1 ounce, the MK802 II is lighter than many USB flash drives and, with its rectangular shape, could easily be mistaken for one. Compared with its 3 x 1 x 0.4-inch predecessor, the Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802, the MK802 II is noticeably thinner, but just a little bit longer.

The black matte plastic chassis on our review unit didn’t look as attractive as the original MK802 and did not have the appealing Android logo of its predecessor. However, we’ve seen other sellers, such as Rikomagic, offering the MK802 II with a slightly different chassis that has the logo.

The MK802 II’s front surface contains a full-size HDMI male jack, an improvement over the mini HDMI female port on its predecessor. That’s because you don’t need any extra wires to attach the device to your screen. The device’s right side houses a full-size USB port for peripherals and a micro USB port for charging, which is a much more common connector than the mini USB charging port on the original MK802. The left side holds a microSD card slot and a second microUSB port for connecting peripherals.

The Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 II does not provide a lot of power through its USB ports, so if you plan to attach a hub, make sure you use one that has more than enough AC power to juice all the devices you plan to connect. When we tried to connect a mini hub with a mouse and keyboard plugged in without any AC power, the MK802 II shut off. When the hub was connected to an outlet and we plugged in a USB hard drive that exceeded its power limits, the system also crashed.

Setup

Click to Enlarge The Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 II comes with just two attachments: a micro USB cable and a short HDMI extension cord. To power the MK802 II, you have to provide your own AC adapter and attach the micro USB cable to it.

Unfortunately, the first adapter we tried — a 5-volt/700 milliamp plug taken from a Samsung phone — didn’t provide stable power and the device powered off after just a couple of minutes of use. However, when we grabbed a Casio adapter with a slightly higher 850 milliamp output, the device worked fine.

Click to Enlarge You must attach the MK802 II to a TV or monitor via its HDMI port. To make life a little easier, the device comes with a short HDMI extension cord, but we found that it didn’t always work. For example, when we plugged the MK802 II into an HDMI switchbox, it didn’t provide a signal with the extension cord attached, but worked fine when plugged in directly.

When we powered up the Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 II for the first time, it took us to the Android 4.0 desktop in 30 seconds — no setup or login required. When we wanted to use Google services, such as the Google Play market or Gmail, we were prompted to enter account credentials, but if we just wanted to surf the Web or use one of the handful of preloaded apps that don’t require Google membership, we could do so.

In order to navigate through the operating system, you’ll need to connect a keyboard and/or mouse to the MK802 II via its USB port. We used a Favi mini wireless keyboard/touchpad for most of our testing, because it’s compact and uses a 2.4-GHz wireless dongle, rather than Bluetooth, which the MK802 II does not support.

OS and Software

Click to Enlarge Like its predecessor, the Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 II runs a pure version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, without any kind skins or enhancements that might mar the pure Google experience.

The software build is completely free of bloatware as well. In addition to some key Google apps (Gmail, YouTube and the Google Play market), the MK802 II comes with a file manager, stock browser (not Chrome), music player and HD video player. Because the Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 II accesses the Google Play store, we were able to download and install a variety of apps, including system benchmarks, screenshot apps, games and more.

Boot, Shutdown and Sleep

Click to Enlarge One of the biggest problems with the prior-generation Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 was the lack of a shutdown button. If you wanted to turn that system off, you had to yank the power, potentially resulting in data loss. With the MK802 II, there’s now a shutdown button close to the middle of the button bar. After clicking it, we were prompted to save any unsaved work. The device then powered down within 10 seconds. Using the control panel, you can also set the system to go to sleep after a certain period of inactivity.

Unfortunately, the Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 II still does not have an On button, so the only way to turn it on is to disconnect and reconnect the power cable.

Usage Scenarios

The Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 II won’t outperform most Android devices, but because of its video playback ability, support for external storage devices, and built-in browser, the MK802 II makes for a compelling set-top box, particularly when it’s paired with a wireless keyboard. Just make sure you attach the MK802 II to an AC-powered USB hub if you want to connect it to an external storage device such as a USB hard drive or flash drive, because the system will crash without adequate power to all devices.

With the MK802 II attached to your home theater, you can watch streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu Plus, view your offline video files, play «Angry Birds» or even check your mail on the big screen.

If you attach the Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 II to a monitor, it can serve as an Internet station and secondary PC that you keep in the kitchen or the kids’ rooms. One of the most compelling uses of the device is as a truly portable computer. Security-conscious users can carry the MK802 II in their pockets and plug it into a screen and keyboard only when they want to use it. Because they’ve kept the device physically secure, all the data and even the OS itself remain secure.

The Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 II is more than powerful enough for basic office tasks. When we created a new document in Google Drive, the typing experience was smooth and seamless.

Controls and navigation

Because we’re used to navigating through Android via touch, controlling the MK802 II’s Android 4.0 operating system via mouse and keyboard didn’t always feel natural. To long-press an object, we had to hold down the mouse button; to swipe, we had to hold down the mouse button and move the pointer at the same time. Rather than launching a context menu like it does in Windows, the right mouse button simply returned us to the home screen.

Users can type using the mouse alone, but the experience of navigating from letter to letter on the virtual keyboard was slow and frustrating. Stick with a physical keyboard.

Any app that requires an accelerometer will not work properly. For example, when we tried to play the Jet Ski racing game «Riptide,» we were unable to turn. However, changing a setting in that particular game allows you to use a compatible controller, if you have one.

Multimedia playback

Click to Enlarge The Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 II is supposed to be capable of displaying content at 1080p or higher resolutions. When running its preloaded Ice Cream Sandwich OS, however, the device cannot output at any higher than 720p (1280 x 720). Fortunately, some hackers have been able to run the MK802 II at 1080p by using a custom ROM or booting into Ubuntu or another flavor of Linux.

The good news is that the desktop still looked sharp even on a 55-inch Samsung TV. Considering that most Android apps aren’t written for 1080p or higher resolutions, we doubt most users will notice the difference, unless they’re trying to play full HD videos.

When we played a 1080p QuickTime trailer for the movie «Pusher,» motion was smooth and images sharp, though the system had to downscale it to 720p. We had trouble using the current version of Netflix (version 2.01 as of this writing), because it force-closed every time we launched it. However, after we installed an earlier version of Netflix (1.81), we were able to stream HD movies such as «Captain America,» which looked smooth, colorful and free from noise.

Performance

Click to Enlarge Like its predecessor, the MK802 II is powered by a AllWinner A10 CPU and 1GB of RAM. The earlier MK802 had a rated processor speed of 1.5 GHz, but actually clocked only 912 MHz, but the MK802 II’s CPU is listed at 1 GHz and clocked 1.08 GHz.

Because of the extra clock speed, the MK802 II is a little bit faster, both in real-world use and synthetic benchmarks. However, neither device is as fast as today’s average Android tablet, though they are both fast enough for Web surfing, casual gaming and watching HD video.

When we played «Riptide GP,» images were a bit jagged, but noticeably smoother and sharper than when we played the game on the original MK802. Navigating around the OS and opening apps felt just a little bit punchier too.

On the synthetic benchmark Linpack, the MK802 II scored 13.6 in single thread mode and 14.8 in multithread mode, which compares favorably to the Mini PC MK802’s scores of 12.6 and 12.8. However, the LAPTOP Linpack category averages for tablets are currently 39.1 and 62.7.

On the graphics-oriented An3DBench, the Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 II and its Mali 400 graphics chip scored a mediocre 6,377, better than the 5,413 offered by the original MK802, but below the 7,311 tablet category average. On the Benchmark CPU test, the MK802 II returned a score of 279.3, which is far better than the MK802’s mark of 199.8, but also falls behind the 270.6 category average.

Hackability

Click to Enlarge Advanced users will appreciate the MK802 II’s ability to accept a wide variety of hacks. First, the device comes rooted, which means users should have no problem installing alternative Android ROMs. You can also install an OS on a microSD card and use that to boot the Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 II into Ubuntu, ArchLinux or other Linux flavors. With the right hack, you can enable 1080p resolution as well. In our experience, the best places to search for hacks are the forums at miniand.com and rikomagic.com.

Using an image file and some brief instructions from the miniand.com forums, we were able to create a 4GB microSD boot disk for Lubuntu, a lightweight version of Ubuntu. Though the Lubuntu version we installed was a little slow to boot and load apps, we were able to use a variety of Linux software including the Chromimum browser and GIMP image editor. We suspect a higher-speed microSD card or another version of Linux might have made the experience snappier.

Competition

Like its predecessor, the MK802 II is sold under several different brand and model names. Our review unit comes from Timing Power, which sells the product on Amazon.com, but other versions are sold by other sites with the same components and OS but slightly different casing and packaging.

Over the next few months, we expect to see more Android sticks hit the market, including the recently announced $50 Favi SmartStick, which will run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and the $199 FXI Cotton Candy, which thus far is only available as a developer kit.

Verdict

Click to Enlarge With a faster CPU, an extra USB port and a regular HDMI male port, the new Android 4.0 Mini PC MK802 II provides a small, but noticeable step up from its predecessor. At just 1 ounce, this svelte system isn’t powerful enough to replace your phone or tablet, but it provides a completely different usage scenario. At just $55, the MK802 II is so inexpensive and portable that it makes for a fun secondary computer or set-top box for average consumers, while early adopters and hobbyists can hack it just for fun.

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Android 4 Mini PC MK802 II Specs

CPU	1-GHz Allwinner A10
Card Readers	microSD
Company Website	http://www.timingpower.com/
Ports	microUSB, USB, HDMI
RAM Included	1GB
RAM Upgradeable	1GB
Size	3.5 X 1 X .25 inches
Storage Drive Size	4GB
USB Ports	2
Weight	1 ounce

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Friday, August 10, 2012

Android 4.0 MK802 Mini Computer

Application: Micro Computing
Function: Apps, media player, Smart TV, Linux, Android
Rating:****
Price: $75.00

If your a regular fan of my blog you know that I don’t write much about hardware. The site is primarily dedicated to Marine Apps. In this case I could not help myself. This little device has captured my attention and imagination. The Android 4.0 MK802 is a tiny computer that fits in the palm of your hand. It is a little larger than a USB memory stick but it also has a processor, RAM, storage and I/O ports which makes it a mini computer.

The device is designed to run Android 4.0 on a AllWinner A10 1.0 GHz processor. It also has 512Mb or 1 GB RAM and an optional 4 or 8 GB of solid state memory. The AllWinner A10 processor is used in many lower priced tablet that are presently on the market so it does a fair job running the operating system. It is not a speed demon but it can be used to check email, surf the web, play some games and play music and video files in 1080P.

To use the device you will need to connect it to some kind of monitor or TV, keyboard and mouse. The unit comes with several options to make these connections. This model has a micro HDMI for connecting it to your monitor. A micro USB is provided to provide power to the unit. A full size USB is provided for connecting additional storage, keyboard and mouse. A microSD card slot will also let you provide additional storage up to 32GB.

The device has WiFi capability which will allow you to connect to the Internet or wirelessly to your onboard network NEMA server.

• OS — Android 4.0
• Main Chip — Allwinner A10/ 1GHz Cortex-A8
• Memory — 1GB
• Storage — 4GB
• Graphical processor — 2D/ 3D/ OpenGL ES2.0(AMD Z430)/OpenVG1.1(AMD Z160) 27M Tri/sec
• Network — Wireless 802.11b/g/n, WAPI(Ralink8188)
• Expand Memory — Micro TF 2-32GB
• IO/Ports — Micro 5pin USB/ USB2.0 data transfer/ OTG and host expand
• Keyboard — Support virtual keyboard,support 2.4G wireless keyboard, fly mouse
• Audio — AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI, M4A
• Video — WMV/ASF/MP4/3GP/3G2M4V/AVI/MJPEG/RV10/DivX/VC-1/MPEG-2/MPEG- 4/H.263/H.264/1280*720P HD 30 fps, 1080P/720*480 D1 30fps
• Android APP — Youku, Tudou, QQ, Youtube, Twitter, AngryBird, Office, Gmail, Browse, Skype.
• HDMI — 1080P&2160P
• Power Input — 5V2A
• Size — 8.8*3.5*1.2cm
• Weight — 0.2kg

• Support the latest HTML5, Flash10.3, etc.
• Netflix, Angry Bird, Gmail, YouTube and more
• HDMI output port, support Full HD 1080P/2160P.
• USB2.0 Host high speed data interface and T-Flash card slot.
• Support install applications & games, will bring you best entertainment.
• Can connect wireless mouse, keyboard, etc.

The device primarily runs the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich version. Hackers and modders are already providing customized Android version to give the device better performance.

The processor is capable of running the Linux operating system also. There are alot of resources out there of people already running Linux on these devices. The Linux image simply has to be copied to the removable microSD card and then inserted into the device prior to powering it up.

To revert back to Android, simply unplug the device, remove the SD card and power it back up with the Android operating system.

My little mind started working overtime to come up with uses for this device onboard our boats. We are all looking for low power consumption computers for use onboard. The less battery power we use means less charging needed from generators and alternators. This little computer operates on 5 volts and draws only 2 amps. The largest power draw will be from your monitor or big screen TV.

There are several great charting apps that will run on Android. Getting GPS to the device could come from a USB GPS or through a TCP/IP NMEA link over WiFi.

The addition of this device to any TV instantly gives you a smart TV capable of connecting to the Internet, downloading or streaming music and movies, books and much more.

I am familiar with many Android apps that are being use on mobile phones and Android tablets. All these apps can now be used on this device over a big screen TV or monitor. The versatility to boot up with Linux gives you another full blow operating system with OpenOffice for word processing and spreadsheet applications and many other Linux programs.

Most of these devices are made in China. Once one company puts out a device others seem to copy it and put it out under their own name. Zero Device is another company that has their own version called Z802 and their newer Z902 models. FXI Technologies has the Cotton Candy USB Stick. You can see and purchase them all at Allied Express. Amazon.com has many of these devices for sale also.

Well, if you want to experiment or like to tinker a little like me, pick one up and let me know how you plan to use it. I see this as a whole new developing area of computing. I am sure future versions will have bigger and faster processors and more features. Did I mention that it was only $75.00, I might buy two!

If that is too expensive you can buy a Rasberry Pi for $25-$35 bucks.

Posted by Mark at 9:38 PM

4 comments:

I had similar idea last year and purchased a similar item: DreamPlug from GlobalScale Technologies ($179). I’ve integrated it into our boat. It provides WiFI access for our laptops (we have a Ubiquiti WiFi access point on the top of our mizzen mast). Since we are overseas where internet is often charged by the byte, it runs a web cache. We have disk drives hanging off it for hourly backups on MacBooks and access to movies. We run our NMEA/AIS through it to our laptops and iPads running our SEAiq app.

I’ve been pretty happy with the DreamPlug, but I can say it took a bit of effort installing Debian Linux on it and getting everything configured. I’m not sure a run-of-the-mill cruiser would have been able to make it work. For NMEA access, I had to write some small programs. It would be great to have one of these you could buy that was targeted for the needs of the live-aboard cruiser.

Mark,
I should have known that you, the master programmer was already aware of devices like this. Interesting to hear the applications that you have running on it. You must be one of the most wired boats that I have heard of. What other cool hardware are you using?

I also think there would be a huge market for a yacht friendly version. It would have to be pretty versatile to allow the many configurations needed.

This area of computing seems to be just taking off. We live in exciting times! Can’t wait to see what new products will be coming out.
Mark Reply Delete

I’m sure many of your readers have much more experience than we do since we’ve only been at this a few years, but here are some of the tips we’ve picked up along the way that your readers might find useful.

We keep all sorts of gear on our boat. We got an iPad as soon as they came out and found it useful to have onboard in tons of ways. We have upgraded with each version. It is nice having several since you often need some charging.

We found that mostly when you get internat and wifi working that is 90%. For that:

We have a Ubiquiti wifi antennae on the top of our mizzen mast. That works great. it is not uncommon for us to be be the only boat in an anchorage with internet access. We have a 12v wifi router inside our boat that then shares the connection to other devices.

In the area we have been cruising the last couple of years (NZ, Fiji, Australia, Indonesia) the best way to get internet has often been using data access over cell phone. For that, we have found unlocked iPhone 4s to be really good. The personal hotspot feature lets you tether multiple laptops and other devices using USB cable, bluetooth, or wifi. The unlocked iPhones are expensive but they tend to pay for themselves in all the things they can do (phone, data, flashlight, camera, scanner, etc).

We keep an inexpensive flatbed scanner and portable printer on board. We scanned all our boat manuals and have the PDF on all our devices. very handy when working on the something or when shopping and you want to refer to a manual for a part number.

We watch movies using the iPad Air Video app. allows you to watch any movie stored on your iPads.

We make a point of only purchasing USB powered devices whenever possible so we can avoid having to locate AC adaptors which seem to proliferate.

Every year we tend to buy a couple of portable USB hard drives for storage and backup. We avoid the drives with the really small USB connectors since they disconnect too easily.

My wife and I both have MacBooks and we try to keep a bunch of AC adaptors on board so we have one for each cabin, keep ones in our backpacks, etc. Disconnecting and reconnecting adaptors gets old real fast.

Rikomagic MK802 III Android 4.1 Mini PC Stick Unboxing Review , ROOT Method , Firmware Update

Rikomagic company just release their new model : MK802 III, we Geekbuying.com have got the sample and do the first review.

We got total 4pcs sample, they are :

So which one do you like? ��

Part 1 Appearance Review

It do like the MK802 II, use the male HDMI Port, and easy for use, the whole body is still using the plastic,and add some holes for heat radiation. The heat radiation is better than MK802 and MK802 ii.

For the port, it only come with one micro USB port and one USB 2.0 port, and one micro sd card slot, the micro usb port is for charger this MK802 III, and you can insert your wireless remote control receiver in the USB Port;

About the micro sd card slot, we have tried the 16GB Micro SD card,it worked, haven’t got a chance to try 32GB, will try that later, also will try to connect with the external HDD driver to check.

This time, Rikomagic use the green box for this MK802 III, and it is same size as MK802 II Package, if you own the MK802 II, then you should know the size.

For the accessories, it only has two accessories, one usb cable, one hdmi cable, no charger, no manual, no OTG cable.

Part 2: System Review

Rikomagic MK802 III use the official Android 4.1.1 JB OS, with Google Play store pre-installed.

When you turn on this MK802 III, you will see the Rikomagic logo and site URL on the boot menu.

Do you notice the bottom bar, Rikomagic MK802 III really did a good job, they add the sound control and the downward arrow is used for hid the bottom bar, so you don’t need to worry that the screen can’t get in full mode now! Great New Function!

Antutu test result:

For this score, maybe you think it is not very high, in my opinion, this antutu test score just can use for reference, and we test a lot of device, we find, the device in ICS firmware get higher score than in JB firmware. when we place this device, we don’t feel the lags.

Antutu specification: CPU frequency is up to 1.6Ghz.,and screen resolution is 1280*669,should be 1080P support.

Here is another setting menu which is important for the buyer:

HDMI output can be changed by yourself, it support 1080p ,720p, 576p, and 480p.

The Rikomagic MK802 III has the google chrome preinstalled, and here is a photo for using the chrome to browse our site.

BIG BOMB

XBMC, maybe most of you guys will ask if XBMC work on it, our answer is YES!!

We test it,and working great,here is the screenshot

Part 3: Disassembled photo:

Also we find some bugs in this firmware:

1 When we click “Connet to PC” choice, the wifi will shut down directly, so it means when you connect this MK802 III with your PC, you can’t get wifi work, it’s annoying when i try to root this device yesterday,and i have reported this bugs to factory, they will release the new firmware to fix.

2 The google play store is not the full version,we find some app can’t find in the pre-installed Play store, but it’s not a big problem, we know lots of this chinese device has this problem, it can be fixed by flashing the custom roms.

So this is the only two bugs we find now.

And we have planed to arrange one sample to our US ROM DEVELOPER Team, they will help us to make the Custom ROM first, the geekbuying customers will get this custom rom first.

Later we will do a deep review for the wifi signal ,and the other problem you guys may ask.

Geekbuying is the best,professional Android MINI PC seller here. we will try our best to offer the lastest Android MINI PC news, the best quality android mini pc, and the professional review, and good customer service.

See you later, guys! we will update the ROOT Method, and the Firmware download link and Firmware update method for you. Wait for us!

How to ROOT Rikomagic MK802 III

I suggest you connect the Rikomagic MK802 III with your TV and your laptop together, so you can root it easily; we already tested to root Rikomagic MK802 III sucessfully with the following method:

Use the DC port to power on the Rikomagic MK802 III , and use the OTG Port to connect your Rikomagic MK802 III with your laptop.

2) Download TPSarky-VonDroid-Root.zip and unzip into a folder.
TPSarky-VonDroid-Root.zip

3) Install Moborobo and open it

4) Make sure USB Debugging is enabled on your Rikomagic MK802 III ( you should go to “setting” –”USB”–choose” connect to pc chooice” and then go to “Developer options”–open”USB debugging”choice)

5) Wait for Moborobo to see the device and install drivers. It will detect the device as Rikomagic MK802 III.

6)Run TPSparkyRoot.bat and follow the on-screen instructions.Your Rikomagic MK802 III will reboot 3 times during this process.(please remember, after each reboot, you should choose “connect to pc” every time in the Rikomagic MK802 III , if not, the root will be failed, that’s the reason why ask you to connect the Rikomagic MK802 III with TV and laptop together)When complete move on to the next step. (this root tool is based on the window n101 tablet, but please don’t worry,it can use on your tv stick, because they are the same chip)

7)Install SuperSU from Play Store.(If not installed in previous step)

8)Optional Install BusyBox from Play Store.

If all went well you should be rooted.

After rooted, you will see a app called” root explorer” in all of your apps, click that, you can manage all of the files and built-in apps, Please remember don’t delete any system apps, it will make your OS die. and if you are make sure some built-in app is useless, just open root explorer, choose ‘system” folder,and check” app” folder, then you will show all of the built-in app, remember to choose ” Mount R/O“ ,then you can choose the app you want to delete, click for a while (about 3-4 seconds), there will be a menu ask you to delete, copy or others, then you can do anything you want to do.

Firmware Release

Original firmware from 31 Oct 2012 for MK802 III

New firmware release for Rikomagic MK802 III–Update on 15th Nov.

1. Unzip the file. Zip file and copy the update.zip on the root of MicroSD card (1GB minimum)
2. Insert the microSD card with the MK802-IIII on, then opens a dialog to update the firmware
3. Click “Yes” to begin the update. During the firmware update, please do not remove the MicroSD card or turn off the device 4. After a few minutes the device is auto-restart only. 5. Once rebooted remove the MicroSD card.

This deletes all device data:

It is recommended to reset the device.
From Settings> Backup> “Factory data reset” to complete the upgrade to 100%.

The new features are:

1. Added wifi direct (peer to peer);
2. Improved wireless signal