![]() It is made of solid matte white plastic, and feels sturdy but not light, at 261 grams.Īnother point to note is that it does NOT include a storage expansion slot (SD or MicroSD). It is based on Amlogic S905X4 chipset, and is running Android TV 11 OS (while most boxes run phone/tablet version of Android).īox R 4K Plus mainly is for streaming services (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, HBO Max and so on) users.īox R 4K Plus comes in a small white and silver plastic box, with the logo on top, and a LED strip running around the edges. Homatics Box R 4K Plus is a special breed in the TV box market. Thanks goes to Ella from Homatics for this review sample! I’m not sure if this is Amazon’s fault or Google’s either way, it sucks.We return with a review of the new Box R 4K Plus Android 11 TV box from Homatics. It’s also disappointing to note that, while the YouTube app can play back 4K video, any copy-protected content you’ve bought from Google’s movie and TV stores is limited to a wretched-looking 480p. ![]() On the negative side, I had to fiddle with some settings before HD material on BBC iPlayer looked as good as it did through my TV’s app. It’s no better than my LG TV’s built-in processing with the same material through the native apps, but it’s likely to be an upgrade for owners of older, cheaper TVs. This did a solid job with 1080p movies and shows through Now TV and Netflix, delivering a slightly sharper picture with more clarity and detail when turned on. The Cube also offers upscaling and sharpening of 720p and 1080p material through its Super Resolution feature. Watching through the Fire TV Cube and my LG OLED TV’s built-in apps, I found Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, The Peripheral and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness looked equally sharp and vibrant through both, and sometimes better through the Fire TV Cube. Shows and movies on Disney+ look particularly brilliant but 4K Dolby Vision stuff on Amazon Prime can also be superb. The 4K rendering squeezes out all the vibrant colour and sharp detail you could wish for, with bright highlights and good visibility of darker areas and no signs of smudging, smearing or jerky motion. 4K HDR material looks and sounds fantastic, especially if it supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. When it comes to picture and sound quality, the news is mostly very good. I had no problem getting Asphalt 8 up and running, but don’t expect a powerhouse games machine. Where the Apple TV gives you access to Apple Arcade, Amazon’s app store only covers a subset of Android games and you won’t find major titles such as Call of Duty: Mobile or Genshin Impact represented. The other advantage – enough performance to play Android games – isn’t much of a selling point within Amazon’s ecosystem. ![]() Bear in mind, however, that rival Roku and Fire TV 4K Max products don’t exactly feel slow. If you have a relatively old or low-end 4K smart TV, the smoothness and snappiness will be a revelation. With the new octa-core CPU and 2GB of RAM, switching from screen to screen or menu to menu is limited only by the speed of the app or service and your internet connection. You have to be fairly careful and direct about the language you use but, as well as search, you can turn the volume up and down for TV speakers or a connected soundbar, or switch between the Fire TV and whatever source you have connected through the HDMI input, be it an Xbox or a TV set-top box. Otherwise, Alexa voice control can be a real time-saver. Sure, it works with Discovery+, but we need it for Netflix and Disney+ as well. ![]() However, I did sometimes find myself presented with a screen full of episodes to choose from, or even dumped at the profile selection page.Īnnoyingly, Amazon profiles still don’t sync up with profiles from most other services, which seems to me to be a weakness of the system. This worked brilliantly on Amazon series – it had no problems finding my place in The Peripheral or Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power – but only moderately well with Disney+, NowTV or Netflix content. The Alexa integration makes the content more accessible rather than browsing around with the remote control, it’s often simpler to use voice search to locate shows and movies or ask Alexa to play the next episode.
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