New Beelink GT-King flagship (Amlogic S922X) Full review

Read the review at the end of the article.

Finally, our editors received the Beelink GT-King.We will try to tell you in detail about the new set-top box, its capabilities, advantages and disadvantages, and also try to find out whether it is worth buying.

Let's start with the technical specifications.

 

Technical specifications

CPU CPU S922X Quad core ARM Cortex-A73 and dual core ARM Cortex-A53
Instruction Set 32bit
Lithography 12nm
Frequency 1.8GHz
RAM LPDDR4 4GB 2800MHz
ROM 3D EMMC 64G
GPU ARM MaliTM-G52MP6 (6EE) GPU
Graphics Frequency 800MHz
Displays Supported x HDMI, 1 x CVBS
Audio Built-in DAC x1 L / R, x1 MIC
Ethernet RTL8211F x1 10 / 100 / 1000M LAN
Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.1
WiFi MIMO 2T2R 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac 2,4G 5,8G
Interface DC JACK x1 12V 1.5A
x1 USB2.0 Port, x2 USB3.0 Ports
x1 HDMI 2.1 Type-A
x1 RJ45
SPDIF x1 Optical
AV x1 CVBS, L / R
x1 TF card Seat
x1 PDM MIC
x1 Infrared receiver
x1 Upgrade Button
OS Android 9.1
Food Adapter Input: 100-240V ~ 50 / 60Hz, Output: 12V 1.5A, 18W
Size 108h108h17
The weight 189 grams

Supported hardware decoding formats and resolutions

Support multi-video decoder up to 4Kx2K @ 60fps + 1x1080P @ 60fps

Supports multiple "secured" video decoding sessions and simultaneous decoding and encoding

H.265 / HEVC Main / Main10 profile @ level 5.1 High-tier; up to 4Kx2K @ 60fps

VP9 Profile-2 up to 4Kx2K @ 60fps

H.265 HEVC MP-10 @ L5.1 up to 4Kx2K @ 60fps

AVS2-P2 Profile up to 4Kx2K @ 60fps

H.264 AVC HP @ L5.1 up to 4Kx2K @ 30fps

H.264 MVC up to 1080P @ 60fps

MPEG-4 ASP @ L5 up to 1080P @ 60fps (ISO-14496)

WMV / VC-1 SP / MP / AP up to 1080P @ 60fps

AVS-P16 (AVS +) / AVS-P2 JiZhun Profile up to 1080P @ 60fps

MPEG-2 MP / HL up to 1080P @ 60fps (ISO-13818)

MPEG-1 MP / HL up to 1080P @ 60fps (ISO-11172)

RealVideo 8 / 9 / 10 up to 1080P @ 60fps

Packaging equipment

The Beelink GT-King was packed quite simply, the entire kit lies in one box, unlike, for example, the Beelink GT1 Mini and the predecessor Beelink GT1 Ultimate, in the packaging of which all components were packed in separate boxes. The remote control is packed in a plastic bag, the HDMI cable is twisted with a proprietary cable tie, as is the wire from the power supply.

The package includes:

  • Beelink GT-King
  • HDMI cable
  • Power supply unit
  • Remote control (USB adapter hidden inside the remote)
  • Brief instruction (includes Russian)
  • Support Contact Ticket

 

Separately about the remote control. The remote control works on 2x AAA batteries (not included), connects to the console via a wireless USB adapter. All buttons on the remote control except the power button work only when the USB adapter is connected. The power button works through the IR receiver.

The remote has a built-in gyroscope and a button for voice search. The voice search button out of the box can only launch the Google Assistant voice assistant. About voice search in applications installed on the console, without additional settings we are not talking. But after spending the extra 10 minutes of time, everything can be configured

All buttons on the remote control work correctly, the power button can be configured for different modes, shutdown, sleep mode, reboot

 

Appearance

 

Beelink GT-King received some design innovations, firstly it became larger, a likely reason for the increase in case size in the presence of a top processor, and the lack of active cooling. Secondly, an engraving of the skull with luminous eyes appeared on the case, in the on state the eyes glow green, the backlight is purely decorative.

On the front side is the hole of the built-in microphone for voice search. On the left edge are the 2 of the 3.0 USB port and the memory card slot. On the trailing edge is the power connector, HDMI 2.1 port, USB 2.0 port, SPDIF port, AV port

There are no connectors on the right edge

On the bottom of the Beelink GT-King, there is a marking (serial number) and a hole for activating the update mode

 

Launch and interface

When you turn on the Beelink GT-King for the first time, like on all predecessors, the initial setup wizard starts, selects the language, time zone, etc.

Despite the updated version of Android 9, the console’s interface has not changed, the launcher and the home screen look the same

Prefix Settings Beelink GT—King

The following settings are available in the firmware version that is installed on our console:

Display - screen settings

  • Screen resolution - screen resolution settings
    • Auto switch to best resolution - automatically switch to the best screen resolution
    • Display Mode (from 480p 60 hz to 4k 2k 60hz) - manual selection of screen resolution
    • Color Depth Settings - color depth settings
    • Color Space Settings - color space settings
  • Screen position - screen zoom settings
  • HDR to SDR - automatic conversion of HDR images to SDR (recommended when connecting to a TV without HDR support)
  • SDR to HDR - automatic conversion of SDR images to HDR (recommended when connecting to a TV with HDR support)

 

HDMI CEC - settings for controlling the set-top box via the TV remote control (far from all TVs support it, basically there is support in TVs of recent years with SMART functions, but with those TVs that support this standard it works fine.)

Audio output - sound output options, you can choose between output via HDMI and SPDIF

Powerkey Definition - setting the action on the on / off button on the remote control, you can set the following actions: shutdown, go into sleep mode, reboot.

More settings - opens a complete list of device settings

Voice Search on Beelink GT-King

The console has a voice search, but unfortunately the search does not work inside the applications installed on the Beelink GT-King. When you click on the microphone on the remote control, Google Voice Assistant launches. To configure the search inside installed applications, you will have to spend time and change the internal settings of the console.

 

The test is

Traditionally, we start with a benchmark in Antutu, the Beelink GT-King prefix scored more than 105 points

Next Geekbench 4 test

3DMARK

It should be noted that not one Android TV Box has such indicators, this is really the new flagship of android consoles.

Heating and throttling

In stress-load mode, the temperature was kept at the level of 73 degrees, trotting during a long load was 13%

We want to note that if you apply primitive cooling systems to the console in the form of a stand with a fan or a large 120 mm cooler, trotting completely disappears, and the temperature remains at the level of 69-71 degrees

It is also worth noting that when using the console for its intended purpose, watching a video, there is no talk about any trotting, because CPU load does not reach critical levels for all cores at the same time. As for the games, then trotting is present, although not immediately, but in the gameplay it is not noticeable, because the processor itself is powerful enough, and even lowering the operating frequencies of the cores does not affect the overall performance of the console.

Network interfaces

As for the wired connection, there are no problems, the declared speed in 1 Gbit is true.

But Wi-Fi connection has certain limitations, at 2,4 Ghz the speed fluctuates around 70-100 Mbit, at 5 GHz, the speed is kept at 300 Mbit.

View video

Actually the essence of this device is video playback from any sources. When testing the video, Kidi and MX Player were used. As the video storage used NAS Synology DS718 +. The video material consisted of several video clips of different quality (4k, 1080p) and different sizes from 10Gb to 100Gb.

Local video playback, thanks to the top-end Amlogic S922X processor, works perfectly, there are absolutely no downloads, no slowdowns, all video formats play smoothly, rewinding instantly.

When viewing video on with a network cable connected, as well as playing locally, no problems were revealed.

But when testing the video over Wi-Fi, there were comments. When connected at a frequency of 2.4 GHz, only files up to 30 Gb in size were normally played, and rewinding had very long delays. When testing at the 5.8 Ghz frequency, no problems with video smoothness were noticed, although when rewinding the delays were longer compared to the wired connection.

Still, for complete comfort, use a wired connection as the fastest.

An important point, despite the fact that the manufacturer wrote on the forum that this set-top box does not have support for DolbyTrueHD, DTS, Dolby Atmos codecs, we still performed a sound forwarding test in these codecs. Testing was carried out on the NAD M17 receiver, the set-top box was connected via both HDMI and SPDIF. Unfortunately, there really is no support, but these codecs are installed in the device itself, it is possible that the situation will be improved in the next firmware, we will be full and wait. If we have news on this subject, we will definitely supplement this review, as well as publish the test results.

Games

This prefix can be called a game, on the console I work very well even very "heavy" games. The following games were launched on the test:

  1. PUBG Mobile
  2. Real Racing 3
  3. World of Tanks Blitz

As expected, no problems were noticed in the games, everything goes smoothly without friezes, just as no trotting was noticed during the game, it is possible with longer use of the game console the trotting will be more noticeable, but when testing the console for 1 hours at different In games, the prefix only warmed up to 65 degrees.

 

Conclusions

This is the first console that entered the market with the new top-end Amlogic S922X processor and of course it has flaws. Of course, Beelink will release a firmware update in the near future that will expand its functionality and fix errors, but for now, we can summarize the new flagship

Behind:

  • The fastest processor to date
  • Support for all video formats and codecs that exist
  • The ability to use the console as a game console
  • The ability to customize the console for yourself with changing the launcher and installing additional programs from Google Play
  • The presence of 2x USB ports 3.0
  • 5 Ghz frequency support by air

 

Against:

  • Price. Our editor’s prefix went for the price of $ 119, the current price of the console at the time of writing the review $ 109.99, maybe after a while the price will drop again. But in our opinion such a price tag is too big, the price for such a prefix should be around $ 100.
  • Heating and trotting. Although heating and trotting were observed only in the stress test, they were all the same and if the application loading all processor cores is launched on the console, then trotting can be repeated
  • Slow Wi-Fi connection. Given the fact that router manufacturers declare the data transfer speed over the wireless network on average from 500 Mbit / s to 1,2 Gbit / s, the results obtained during the testing of the set-top box can be considered unsatisfactory, even taking into account the fact that this does not interfere with the video and games.
  • Lack of support for DolbyTrueHD, DTS, Dolby Atmos (hopefully this will be fixed soon)

In general, we really liked the prefix, at the moment it is really a new flagship, but for how long time will tell. We can recommend this prefix, besides it has no competitors.

 

Addition

In this section we will publish additional materials and results of additional testing of the Beelink GT-King

 

HDMI-CEC

After a week of operation of the set-top box, the built-in control function via an HDMI cable, called HDMI CEC, stopped working, a reason was revealed during the trial. It turns out that the bundled HDMI cable does not have HDMI CEC support at all, and the fact that the console was initially controlled through this technology is a miracle. For this technology to work, you will have to buy a separate HDMI cable not lower than the 1,4 version, although we recommend the 2.0 version

Air update

Finally, 17.06.19 made the first update available for the Beelink GT-King, 20190614-1907. In this update, the manufacturer optimized the system and fixed some bugs. We are currently testing, we will report on the results separately.