Introduction:
With the development of the times, TV is no longer just a display, its increasingly rich functions, making it gradually become a home entertainment center. But for the vast majority of families, it is obviously not realistic to change TVs for new functions, especially some higher-priced TVs, the screen is still top-notch, but the performance is somewhat backward, and there will often be stuttering. In this case, whether from the cost point of view or from the experience point of view, the TV box is a better choice.
So, the question is: "At present, there are many TV boxes on the market, how can I buy a better comprehensive experience?" In order to facilitate your purchase, I purchased 4 mainstream TV boxes with a price of 300-400 yuan, such as Xiaomi Mi Box 4S Pro, Tmall Magic Box 8, Dangbei H3 and Tencent Aurora 5, for comparative evaluation, and came to this conclusion:
Tmall Magic Box 8 has a better comprehensive experience among the four TV boxes, it has the "two cores" advantages of flagship processing chip and 4GB running memory at the same price, and the whole machine has strong performance; It has obvious advantages in the three key "speeds" of system fluency, App running speed, and online video opening speed; In terms of system, it has good system "scalability", as well as "multi-experience optimization" such as "fast island" and "App switching", and the software and hardware experience are very good, which can be called a "super box".
First, hardware configuration comparison
As an ordinary user, when buying a TV box, the first thing to look at must be the hardware configuration information of a certain product, the stronger the hardware configuration, the better the experience in actual use. Here I also checked the hardware information and some key indicator data of the four TV boxes of Xiaomi Mi Box 4S Pro, Tmall Magic Box 8Pro, Dangbei H3 and Tencent Aurora 5 for your reference and reference.
When looking at the hardware configuration, we can mainly look at the first three rows of the table, which are the processor chip, running memory and body storage. From the configuration comparison table, Tmall Magic Box 8 has some advantages in both processor chips and running memory. For example, in the running score of the Antutu TV version, the score of Tmall Magic Box 8 reached 76,027 points, which is 15,000 points higher than the second Tencent Aurora 5, which also shows from the side that Tmall Magic Box 8 has leading the performance of the whole machine.
Of course, in addition to the powerful performance of the processor chip, a large part of this is because of the difference in running memory, compared to the 2GB running memory of the other three TV boxes, Tmall Magic Box 8 directly doubled, reaching 4GB, which is a leapfrog existence in the same price TV box.
Many friends may not be very clear about the role of running memory, here is a brief introduction to you. Relatively speaking, the larger the running memory capacity, the faster it will be, which can effectively improve the "read and write speed" of App data, and also ensure that more Apps can continue to run in the background and start faster. For example, I am watching Bilibili, but suddenly remember that CCTV-5 has a live broadcast of Asian Games events, so I can temporarily switch to the live broadcast app, and after watching the sports program, when switching to Bilibili, I will find that it is still in the previous state.
This time, I also specially tested the [data preservation] situation of four TV boxes, using the four TV boxes to open 9 identical TV apps, and opening the four TV boxes from the background again every half hour to see which TV box has the most number of keep-alive apps.
From the test, it can be seen that thanks to the capacity advantage of 4GB running memory, Tmall Magic Box 8 has a higher retention capacity of TV apps in 0.5H, 1H, 1.5H and 2H, and 9 apps still have 7 keep-alive after 2 hours, so that when we switch between different apps, we save waiting time, which plays a decisive role in improving the user experience.
Overall ranking: Tmall Magic Box 8> Tencent Aurora 5> Xiaomi Mi Box 4S Pro> Dangbei H3
In terms of decoding capabilities, except for Dangbei H3, which only supports 8K@24fps decoding, the other three TV boxes all support the highest 8K@30fps, which has some advantages in comparison. In Dolby Atmos, DTS sound, HDR10+, WiFi6, etc., these four TV boxes provide good support.
Comprehensive ranking: Tmall Magic Box 8 = Tencent Aurora 5 = Xiaomi Mi Box 4S Pro > Dangbei H3
However, in terms of body interface, Tmall Magic Box 8 and Tencent Aurora 5 are equipped with RJ45 standard wired network ports as standard, compared with Xiaomi Mi Box 4S Pro and Dangbei H3 that are only equipped with wireless networks, they are better in terms of network speed and stability.
Comprehensive ranking: Tmall Magic Box 8 = Tencent Aurora 5> Dangbei H3 > Xiaomi Mi Box 4S Pro
【Summary】Among the four TV boxes, the hardware configuration of Tmall Magic Box 8 has more obvious advantages, especially the 4GB running memory provides a leapfrog experience.
Second, performance comparison
In the hardware configuration, everyone has roughly had a relatively basic understanding of the overall performance difference of these four TV boxes, and the performance score data of Tmall Magic Box 8 is higher, so in the actual experience, how about the performance of these four TV boxes? Here, I conducted detailed tests from third-party app opening speed, online video launch playback speed, etc. by simulating daily use.
【Third-party App Open Speed Test】Here are the three video apps we usually use, Cool Meow, Kiwifruit and Tencent Aurora TV, as examples.
First of all, the cool meow App, Xiaomi Mi Box 4S Pro takes 2.764s, Tmall Magic Box 8 takes 2.465s, Dangbei H3 takes 2.828s, Tencent Aurora 5 takes 2.701s, Tmall Magic Box 8 takes the shortest, Dangbei H3 takes the longest. In the opening speed test of the Kiwifruit App, Tmall Magic Box 8 is still the fastest, taking only 2.097s, while Dangbei H3 takes 3.029s. This speed difference also continued to the test of Tencent Aurora TV App, and Tmall Magic Box 8 still took the shortest time.
Overall ranking: Tmall Magic Box 8> Tencent Aurora 5> Xiaomi Mi Box 4S Pro> Dangbei H3
【Online Video Startup Playback Speed Test】We used Kumeow App as the test "quantitative" to test the time-consuming time of four TV boxes from clicking on the video to starting playback. From the test results, Tmall Magic Box 8 still takes the shortest, and Tencent Aurora 5 ranks last.
Overall ranking: Tmall Magic Box 8> Dangbei H3> Xiaomi Mi Box 4S Pro> Tencent Aurora 5
【Summary】With the advantages of the "two cores" of flagship processing chip and 4GB large running memory, Tmall Magic Box 8 ranked first in the two tests of third-party App opening speed and online video startup playback speed, which once again confirmed the poor performance presented by Antutu running score, Tmall Magic Box 8 does have leapfrog performance.
Third, picture quality and sound comparison
In terms of picture quality and sound, thanks to the improvement of the decoding ability of the processor chip, these four TV boxes have reached the current mainstream level.
In terms of hard power, in addition to Dangbei H3 only supports 8K@24fps, the other three TV boxes support 8K@30fps decoding, if you usually like to watch 8K video, then these TV boxes can also be played. In terms of output, the four TV boxes are more consistent, all support 4K@60fps video output, and there is no difference in clarity. At the same time, they also provide HDR10+ support, which can better show the advantages of HDR video (requires TV to support HDR).
In actual testing, using four TV boxes to watch "Transformers: Rise of the Power Warriors" (video specifications: 4K/2160P, HDR+ Dolby Vision dual version), from the final TV presented picture, 4K clarity, picture color and picture texture are all good, and the naked eye can hardly see the gap.
In addition, taking Tmall Magic Box 8 as an example, the Allwinner H618-H used not only provides support for 8K decoding, but also provides anti-aliasing, image enhancement, picture denoising, intelligent sharpening and other functions, for users who like to watch Blu-ray original disk videos, under the premise of smooth video playback, the video has been optimized to make the viewing effect more excellent.
In terms of audio, these four TV boxes also provide support for Dolby and DTS sound effects, and their sound effects are basically the same when using the echo wall as output.
Fourth, functional comparison
In addition to performance and audio and picture, for TV boxes, some differentiated functions play a crucial role in cultivating user stickiness.
For example, among the four TV boxes, Tmall Magic Box 8, Xiaomi Mi Box 4S Pro and Tencent Aurora Box can not only install Apps through the built-in app store, but also install them through external App installation packages, and the openness is very good. Although Dangbei H3 is also a veteran TV box manufacturer, it has made restrictions in the open installation of the App, and the experience is worse.
During this experience, my personal favorite three functions are the "Express Island" function of Tmall Magic Box 8, the "App Switch" function, and the "Broadband TV" function that both Tmall Magic Box 8 and Xiaomi Mi Box 4S Pro have.
【Quick Island】Quick Island is a unique feature of the Tmall Magic Box series, which is somewhat similar to the menu function, but compared to the menu, it integrates functions including settings, media playback, application drawer and application switching. And its call mechanism is more flexible, compared to other TV box menus many can not be used in the application of the shortcomings, the shortcut island can be quickly called out under any interface, with the excellent smoothness performance of Tmall Magic Box 8, it is more convenient for us to switch back and forth between various functions.
【APP switching】APP switching is somewhat similar to the background management on the mobile phone, through the button on the remote control can be quickly called, card-style interaction is also very convenient, not only can you see the current applications are open, but also thanks to Tmall Magic Box 8 up to 4GB of running memory, eliminating the trouble of needing to return to the application list every time you switch apps.
【Broadband TV】Although more and more TV users are now more accustomed to the "on-demand" viewing method, for some elderly people, especially users who are accustomed to watching live TV, stable live TV is still a rigid need. The Tmall Magic Box 8 and Xiaomi Mi Box 4S Pro just integrate such functions in the box, users do not need to buy additional set-top boxes, you can open broadband TV services, convenient for real-time live TV viewing, recently coinciding with the Asian Games, it is very appropriate.
summary
Through this comparative evaluation, Tmall Magic Box 8 has a better comprehensive experience among the four TV boxes, whether it is hardware configuration, performance performance, or actual experience.
If you happen to buy a TV box and the budget is in the price range of 300-400 yuan, then Tmall Magic Box 8 is undoubtedly a better choice.