We pay too much attention to TV boxes, because they are designed to make our life better. Moreover, they come in a small housing, but sport many features that are even unavailable on ‘standard’ devices we used to use in daily life. I mean usually we buy tower PCs, DVD players, or mechanical watches instead of getting our hands on all-in-one PCs, TV boxes and smartwatches, respectively. The world has changed and we have to change our predilections. To fix this I have chosen another great gadget dubbed as the M9S MAX to review for your pleasure.
We have reviewed other similar products earlier and learned TV boxes can become very useful if correctly choose the one from many offers. The M9S MAX seems to be one of such options, as it comes with Android on board and a ton of specs that will provide you the best performance. But everything has its own standing order, so let’s keep it for this review.
M9S MAX Design
That’s not a secret manufacturers don’t pay too much attention to design of TV boxes, because unlike mobile devices, TV boxes are put at unseen places and it’s a waste of time to think on how a gadget will look if no one will see it or give value to it. However, you can even find TV boxes with eye-catching design.
As similar devices come in regular design, let’s see what features it carries on the body. First, the power button and the LED display are located on the front. I have seen many TV boxes carrying the power button on the back and even some of those buttons were very difficult to get. But M9S hasn’t complicated the things and put the most important button on the front. There is also the LED display, as I said, which can serve as a digital clock.
The right side of the M9S MAX carries an external TF card slot and three USB 2.0 ports. Thus you won’t meet any problem when plugging a peripheral. The same can be said for the memory expansion as well.
Well, let’s take a look at the back side of the M9S MAX, as it is full of different features. Here we can find SPDIF port, an A/V port for connecting the box to TV, RJ45 slot, a HDMI port and a WiFi antenna. Thus here are all the necessary ports to connect the box to different devices and to be connected to internet either via LAN or WiFi. The last supports IEEE 802.11b/g/n as well as 2.4G+5G WIFI.
M9S MAX Hardware
When looking inside the M9S MAX we understand we are dealing with one of the best TV boxes. To ascertain let’s dig deeper. This TV box is powered with an Amlogic S905. This the latest octa-core chipset of 2016, thus the manufacturer has packed its product with the best option. It runs at 2.0 GHz frequency. The M9S MAX is equipped with a quad core Mali-450 GPU, and these two features are enough to provide 4K content viewing. However, it sports only 2GB of DDR3 RAM, but those who have used this TV box claim it is enough for the deal. The ROM is 16GB, but as I said it can be expanded via a TF card slot. As for the last hardware feature, the M9S MAX comes with a 3D graphics accelerator, so you will meet no problem when loading heavy 3D games and playing videos. Though we talked about connectivity in details, we missed one feature – the M9S has comes with Bluetooth 4.0 as well.
M9S MAX Software
This TV box comes with Android 5.1 Lollipop pre-installed, and though it gives an additional charm to the gadget, there are many other features making it to stand out. The M9S MAX supports 3840×2160 (4KX2K) Ultra HD resolution. This means our hero has a real advantage in comparison with other Android TV boxes, as it provides the best viewing experience. As you can guess, it supports for Hi-Fi audio decoding, full HD 1080p and 4K video decoding as well as output. No matter what video files you want to play, it supports all the available formats. The complete list is below:
HD MPEG1/2/4,H.265,4K-HD, HD AVC/VC-1, RM/RMVB,Xvid/DivX3/4/5/6 ,RealVideo8/9/10
Avi/Rm/Rmvb/Ts/Vob/Mkv/Mov/ISO/wmv/asf/flv/dat/mpg/mpeg
[email protected] Hz video decoding 10-bit HEVC and AVS+ codec support; H.264 up to 4K 30 Hz
The same can be said for audio formats:
MP3/WMA/AAC/WAV/OGG/AC3/DDP/TrueHD/DTS/DTS/HD/FLAC/APE
Google’s operating system and custom UI make it easy to navigate and manage your content easily. There are several useful apps available right in the box: ES File Explorer , Google Search, Google Maps, Browser, Gallery, Clock, Play Store, Calculator, Calendar, Video, Email, Gmail and so on. Thanks to preinstalled KODI 16.1 media center you can manage your shows, YouTube videos and own library.
M9S MAX Availability
This Android TV box is already available for purchase and it costs $79.99. While you can think there are more affordable options, look at the key features of the M9S MAX one more time.
Cons
- 4K video playback
- Penta-core GPU
- Latest quad-core chipset
- Many ports and slots
- Good connectivity options
Pros
- 2GB of RAM
- Price
Conclusion
It becomes more and more difficult to choose any device from millions offers, as the market is almost full of different manufacturers coming many outstanding devices at different price tags. But we always try to find the best options and look deeper to explore all the deals worthy to be mentioned. The M9S MAX is one of such devices, undoubtedly. So take it into account when buying an Android TV box.
