Cherry Mobile TV Box Review: Values Your Home Entertainment

Cherry Mobile TV Box Review: Values Your Home Entertainment

INTRODUCTION:

Cherry Mobile is a well-known brand in the tablet and mobile phone industry. Last year, they started testing the consumer-electronics market and diversify their business with the released of the Cherry Mobile TV Box.

About Device

The Cherry Mobile TV Box with model number TV100, is an Android set-top box powered by 1GHz quad core Allwinner A31 processor coupled with 1GB of RAM and runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It is a WiFi-enabled multimedia player that can beam contents on external display via its HDMI port.


UNBOXING:

Unboxing Video

Retail Package

Along with the set-top box, the retail package also includes a remote control, a proprietary power adapter and an HDMI cable. The AC adapter is a minor let down for us, since it is not interoperable with other charger, such as the widely available micro USB type. This means that if it is broken, most probably you have no replacement lying around in your home and the only option you have is to buy a new one. The free HDMI cable is a huge plus, since other competitors, even those from big brands do not have one and some like the WD TV only includes RCA cable.

DESIGN:

Front

The front has semi-transparent black plastic that hides the LED indicators for Ethernet and power as well as the remote receiver.

Back

The back is the busiest part of the box, carrying the power button and all sorts of ports, namely power, HDMI, Ethernet and SD/MMC.

Left

Right

The left side has nothing on it while the right side holds two USB ports and the WPS button.

Top

Bottom

The top has a glossy finish, which is a bit prone to scratches, so if you want it to be flawless, just leave the plastic cover on. Meanwhile, the bottom has four tiny rubberized footings, which help the unit to rest properly in placed.

Based on our own estimates, it measures 126mm x 81mm x 18mm, this is about the same width with the Cosmos One Plus, but shorter and thicker. Overall, it has a sleek design and good hardware finish.

Remote

The remote control has a minimalist design and quite slim profile. Being thin has its own consequences, for one, it does not use the regular AA or AAA battery, instead it uses a 3-volt CR2025 Lithium-Ion button cell. This kind of battery is a bit expensive and sometimes hard to find.


PERFORMANCE and USAGE:

Homescreen

The installation of the set-top box to your TV is quite simple, of course your television must have an HDMI port since the only means of connection is through it. Once connected, you will see the familiar Android Jelly Bean homescreen on your TV, it is like your TV has been transformed to a giant smartphone or huge tablet.

The navigation through the interface is via the supplied remote control, it is very easy to use and straight forward. The arrows on the circle correspond to up, right, down and left respectively, while the middle button inside is enter or OK. The "-" and "+" are for increasing and decreasing the volume. There are also back, menu and home buttons, similar to that found on your Android phone/tablet.

WiFi

The TV Box is WiFi capable, which means you can use it to browse the internet, watch YouTube, check email, etc. Now you may ask, how can I input alphanumeric characters for those apps? The answer is still with the use of the remote control. To do so, you need to press and hold the home button to enter the "mouse mode", then you can now select the characters one by one (that translates to 1 character per 2 seconds). If your patience is quite long this is good enough, but if not, better get a separate keyboard and mouse.

CPU Z

Antutu - 6883

Related: Cherry Mobile G2 Review: Get Going

As mentioned earlier, it is powered by an Allwinner A31 chipset based on 40nm process, with 1GHz Cortex-A7 processor and PowerVR SGX544MP GPU. In Antutu, in translates to a benchmark score of 6,883. This is not a powerhouse by all means, but it is more than good enough for web browsing and doing other things online. As a multimedia player, all I can say is that it is great! It can play all types of video files, such as .avi, .wmv, .3gp, .mp4, .mts, .vob and .mkv to name a few. It also a Miracast receiver and supports Air Play, both features are confirmed working.

Internal Storage

Device

In terms of storage, it has a total of 5.1GB available to users, you can utilize this for installing apps. For your multimedia files, you can insert up to 32GB of SD card and even use the two USB ports for external hard drives (1TB confirmed working).

Overall all, navigation and usage of the TV Box is as simple as any other Android device, so if you used an Android phone or tablet before, you will have no trouble in using it.


CONCLUSION:

The Cherry Mobile TV Box is a very capable multimedia player, it supports most, if not all kinds of video containers and render them seamlessly to your television. Being an Android-based set-top box is an added bonus, as you can customize and personalize everything from homesceen, interface to applications.


PROS:

1GHz quad core
1GB of RAM
WiFi enabled
Can be used for web browsing and streaming
Capable of playing different multimedia contents
Miracast and Air Play

CONS:

Proprietary power adapter
Button cell instead of standard AA or AAA battery


Specifications:

• Multimedia player
• Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• 1GHz quad core Cortex-A7 CPU, PowerVR SGX544MP GPU, Allwinner A31 chipset
• 1GB of RAM
• 8GB internal storage, expandable up to 32GB via SD/MMC
• 2 full-size USB ports
• Dual band WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• Miracast and Air Play support
• Ethernet port
• Bluetooth
• Price: Php3,999