Ugoos AM3 - "mother of ports" for S912 devices review - Android Stick & Console AMLogic based Computers

Recently I got fresh S912 TV Box called Ugoos AM3.
Nice price and coupon make me buy this device. The other reason is numerous amount of firmware ports for other s912 TV Boxes with same SoC. Seems like Ugoos made a great work on software, so I decided to check it.
Ugoos AM3 on official website
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Technical specs:
CPU Octa-core ARM Cortex-A53 (DVFS)
GPU ARM Mali-T820MP3
SDRAM DDR3 2GB
Flash 16GB EMMC
Network IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4GHz / 5.0GHz
WIFI Module LTM8830
Equipment and appearance
Ugoos AM3 shipped in a white carton box. There is a brand logo on the top with model name and official support website.
Down there we can find tech specs and supported audio video info list.
Inside the box: power supply, removable Wi-Fi antenna, IR remote, HDMI cable and English instruction.
Box itself is not so big as Minix U9-H, it has average sizes by today’s standards: 117x117x18.5cm. Weight 294g.
Housing made of silumin, covered with soft touch matte plastic. On the front there is a small window for IR-receiver and LED indicator a little bit higher. During playback, LED turns blue and becomes red on standby.
Right side: heatsink holes and Wi Fi antenna connector.
Left side: 2 USB ports and, micro SD slot.
Behind: we can find power supply port, S/PDIF, LAN, HDMI OUT and one more USB port.
Down cover, there are a row of heatsink holes and rubber legs. Near the sticker from the right there is a hole which leads to a recovery button. Down cower fixed on its place by four screws.
Remote controller use IR interface and uses power of two AAA batteries (wasn’t in the box)
Power adaptor with European socket has 5 Volts and 2 Amperes
Device Disassembling
It is very simple to disassemble device. Unscrew 4 screws and lid can be opened.
Then a PCBA can be replaced.
PCBA has average size, closer to a bigger series, has CX-A12_v1.0 modification dated 09.19.2016. In the middle of the PCB there is a “screen” which holds most of the PCBA and cover processor and ROM. With thermos gasket “screen” connected with a small heat sink. Heat sink connected with upper cover via another two thermos gaskets. Also there is a WI FI antenna socket soldered to PCBA. Using a screwdriver, we very carefully pick the “screen” from each side and replace it.
Amlogic S912 SoC connected with heat sink via thin thermos gasket. Heat sinking works not bad, further device tests will confirm this. This side of PCBA there are also two Samsung chips. RAM based on eMMC KLMAG2WEPD-B031 made by Samsung, memory type – MLC (the same memory we can find in TV Boxes by Zidoo model names x9s and x10). Ethernet controller is Realtek RTL8211F. Wi FI controlled by LTM8830.
“Bug” or “Feature”?
During external HDD connected to TV Box (in my case there is an external HDD 3Q 500GB) we can see that TV Box turns off, looks like because of not enough power of standard power adaptor, so for those who wants to use external HDD I would like to recommend using more powerful adaptors. However, the question is not about this: if we add power for HDD, surprisingly I found out that TV Box can normally use the power from USB, where HDD 3Q connected. Notice one thing: no need to use standard pover adaptor after. So if you forget power adapter somewhere or had lost it, no need sorry about this, you always can power on TV Box using USB.
Firmware and OC, Root
We can talk a lot and with grace about firmware, because installed one on this device is a “father” of ports for many other boxes based on S912 Soc. AM3 Tv Box kernel used in devices of following producers: Beelink, Sunvell, Tanix etc. Only this can be a high mark of firmware quality. However let’s start from the beginning…
This Box has Android OC 6.0.1 version. This is a final version of this firmware on that SoC. Soon there is a news about stable Android 7.1 version stable release.
Many users, who choose Chinese TV Boxes, complain about Chinese programmers who works on firmwares. Ugoos team choose another way: European programmer team works on firmwares and updates.
As I said before in my review, on this TV Box works under Android 6.0.1. Firmware can be updated both locally and via OTA. But while current update there was incident: when you choose online update, server reports error: Check Failed! Check your OTA Server Agent.
Latest firmware dated to release of this review is 1.0.0. Android version is 6.0.1.
As a home screen (launcher) system uses Ugoos Launcher. I want to note fact that it is rather convenient to operate using PC mouse. Mouse Scroll switches categories in menu. But you always can choose another launcher, there are no any software limits for this
File browser
File browser is a standard app for that kind of devices, Ugoos didn’t show anything new.
Lower navigation bar can be hided. If panel hided, it can be easily showed up, just need to drag from any bottom side of the screen with mouse. Upper status bar automatically covered, it also can appeared using mouse.
Localization for English and Russian market is on the high level. Even a menu tab dedicated to Auto frame rate function translated correctly.
In Default settings “ROOT” access disabled, but you can activate it very easily.
Unique Ugoos software has special “features” – they are “Hardware control”, using it you can check device temperature, processor frequency, processor load, RAM load, LAN performance.
In the list of “features”, you can find Samba Server and Gamepad Settings.
Pressing off TV Box you can check one of four menu tabs.
Ugoos programmers even translate turn off tab in TV Box, seems like they work on firmware very carefully.
Remote Controller and HDMI CEC
RC is pretty small and ergonomic in hand. Weight without batteries about 43g.
Switching features are standard for that kind of device. RC have no gyroscope, so for those users who like to operate using aeromouse need to buy it.
HDMI CEC function works correctly.
Performance and device testing
Device based on Amlogic S912 SoC – 4 cores ARM Cortex-A53 up to 1.5 Ghz + 4 ARM Cortex-A53 up to 1 Ghz, GPU ARM Mali – T820MP3. This SoC is in a middle price level, but exactable for game performance (for recourse “hungry” 3D games is a good idea to put settings on middle level or looking for alternative option like Nvidia Shield).
System works very fast, no lags, no freezes or discomfort. Animation is very smooth.
All performance tests provided with 1920x1080 (fullHD) resolution.
A1 SD Bench
CPU-Z
AnTuTu 6.0
Geekbench 4
GFXBench
Bonsai
After all these tests we checked device temperature both using CPU temperature software and contactless thermometer UNI-T UT300S
CPU Temperature shows average 45 degrees
UNI-T UT300S
Audio formats support and audio out
If you don’t want to run into audio decoding things, just use KODI with default settings or MX Player (with additional decoders) in HW+ or HW modes with software audio decoding. In that case getting stereo with any video and sources guaranteed.
For other I can tell how it is going with HDMI and S/PDIF audio output.
Video source formats support and video out.
TV Box has HDMI 2.0a out supports video out rate resolution: [email protected] Ghz (10 bit per channel) and HDR, if TV screen can support can support that settings.
First, let’s talk about decoding.
Box easily handles with H.264 decoding. I checked 55 mb/sec bitrate and 1920x1080 resolution (max video bitrate for Blue-ray is 48mb/sec). No problems with Stagefright and Mediacodec libraries. Generic player, MX Player, KODI decode without any drops. Content was delivering over Wi Fi. Box can handle with any BD Remix and BDRip.
Max video bitrate on Ultra HD Blu-ray (4K) is 128 mbit/sec. In order to teat HEVC/ H.265 Main 10 I used list of files from 50 to 140 mbit/sec. MX Player can work with 140 mbit/sec flow (over Ethernet). No drops. Kodi handle with flow up to 100 mbit/sec without drops (over Ethernet). Over Wi Fi satisfying level was about 70 mbit/sec. In addition, I checked true 50p and 60p output. “fake” double frames I didn’t found, box trully showed 50 fps and 60 fps.
Autoframerate
Outoframerate works in each video player that uses Stagefright library. For example, generic player or MX player (HW). Content also matters. Autoframerate works with each sources/files, except HLS (HTTP Live streaming). But in KODI 17.1 Autoframerate unfortunately disabled.
HD VideoBox and Torrent Stream Controller.
Via using these apps, Ugoos AM3 shows stable and smooth performance without problems.
YouTube
No problems with playback, autoframerate disabled.
Web camera support for video conferences
My web camera Logitec HD Pro Webcam C525 works as it should – both sound and video. Skype and Hangout video chats work just fine.
Conclusion:
Surely AM3 is interesting TV Box – wonderful metal housing, excellent firmware with autoframerate from the box, stable device performance with stock firmware, absence of so called “green parts” gives a really good feeling about device. But, as always there is a “pig” among the “sheep”.
Online update error, disabled autoframerate in HLS sources and KODI 17.1 give a sign about small software bugs.
But the way of firmware realization gives us strong hope about next updates without those pesky “bugs”.
SoC S912 has no DTS/Dolby Digital support unlike its elder “brother” S912-H, but it is not a lack, but a request for producer to pay attention to major processor models with H addition.