Tronsmart MK908 - a new generation of mini-computers on a 4-core Rockchip RK3188 chip

After mini-computers with the RK3066 chip, a new generation is entering the market on a 4-core Rockchip RK3188 chip. The chip is made according to the 28nm technical process and consists of a 4-core processor architecture Cortex-A9 with a frequency of 1.8 GHz and a Mali 400MP video accelerator. The video accelerator remained the same from the RK3066, but was overclocked to a frequency of 600 MHz. Compared to the previous generation, the amount of RAM doubled and makes up 2GB of DDR3 memory (although it should be noted that the RK3066 also has one device with 2GB of RAM - this is the CX-803-II).
Today we look at one of the first devices on the updated platform - Tronsmart MK908. And also find out how convenient it is to use iPazzport wireless mouse-keyboard to control the Android system.

► Specifications

Mali 400MP quad-core video accelerator
Rockchip RK3188 quad-core processor with Cortex A9 architecture
2 GB of RAM
Android 4.2.2 operating system
8 GB user memory + microSD card slot
Connectivity: Wi-Fi (802.11 b / g / n), Bluetooth

Let's look at a small table of devices on the platform RK3188:

Model	Ram	ROM	HDMI connection type	USB ports	microUSB ports	Price
CloudnetGo CR9	2GB	8/16 GB	male	one	one	unknown
Rikomagic MK802 IV	2GB	8GB	male	one	one	$ 100
Ugoos UG802B	2GB	8 / 16GB	male	one	2	$ 98
Ugoos UG007B	2GB	8GB	male	one	2	~ $ 80
Ugoos MK809 III	2GB	8GB	male	one	2	~ $ 80
Measy u4b	2GB	8GB	male	one	one	~ $ 100
CX-919	2GB	8GB	male	one	2	~ $ 90
QC802	2GB	8GB	male	one	2	~ $ 75
iMito QX1	2GB	8GB	male	one	one	~ $ 90
MK919	2GB	8GB	female	one	2	~ $ 77
MK919A	2GB	8GB	male	one	2	$ ~ $ 77
Tronsmart MK908	2GB	8GB	female	one	2 miniUSB	$ 90
Tronsmart T428	2GB	8GB	male	one	one	~ $ 90

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Are you still dizzy from all this "diversity"?
After all, in fact, the basis for all is the same - the chip RK3188, 2GB RAM, 8 (16) GB ROM. Wifi and Bluetooth is built into all models. Some have an external antenna (iMito QX1, CX-919). The price difference is the use of different Wifi chips. Among all the devices, Tronsmart T428 stands out, which uses the Broadcom AP6330 Wifi chip, with the ability to operate at 5 GHz.

► Appearance and equipment

The shape of the box was slightly corrected during delivery:


The standard kit includes: HDMI extension cable, OTG cable, USB cable, charger.


MK908 rectangular shape with air vents in front:


And behind:


At the end there is a full-sized USB port and a miniUSB port through which power is connected:


On the side is the OTG port. To the word, through it, too, you can connect the power.

Through this very port the firmware is updated.

miniHDMI port

Accordingly, the device can be connected to a TV / monitor only with an extension cable.

The memory card is not fully inserted:

Although it does not look very good, but it is very convenient! No need to break your nails in an attempt to insert a card into the slot.

The dimensions are 88 * 31.5 * 15.8mm

► disassemble

Understanding the MK908 is very simple. Use a plastic card to pry the case and walk along the perimeter.
Part of the board covers a piece of metallic paper (for additional cooling):


Under it, there are 2 512MB of RAM module from GEIL:


HDMI 1.4 ITE IT66121FN transmitter:


On the other side is the radiator, which I could not remove. Very well glued it. But I can say that there is an RK3188 chip under it, another 2 RAM modules and an 8GB permanent memory chip.


Wifi module combined with Bluetooth - AP6210. Wifi 802.11 b / g / n and Bluetooth 4.0 are supported.

► iPazzport Air Mouse

Additionally, a mouse-keyboard with a gyroscope, the so-called Air Mouse, was ordered. IPazzport KP-810-16A keyboard with Russian layout was chosen for testing.
The keyboard comes in a blister:


Immediately we see a minus - Russian and English font are applied in one color:


Mouse control buttons: right click, left click. The location may first seem strange: the right button is responsible for the left click, the left - for the right click. But taking the keyboard in hand, it seems very logical.
In the middle is the button for switching the cursor modes, which works as follows:
1) you can hold and move the cursor, if you release - the cursor will stop
2) one click turns on the cursor, second click turns it off.


On the side are 3 buttons:

2 of them (in the form of volume control) work like scrolling the page in the browser, I could not figure out the functionality of the 3rd button.

On / Off switch, charger input:


Charges the keyboard from USB. OTG is also present, for connecting other USB devices (through USB port):


The keys are rubberized substrate.


Under the back cover is a 300mAh battery and USB receiver:

Connection takes place at RF 2.4G.

The keyboard itself consists of 4 parts: the case, the board, the rubber backing and the fixing spacer.


On the board, apart from the buttons and the transmitter, there is practically nothing:


To switch the keyboard layout, you need to use an additional keyboard application. I used the Russian keyboard . The layout is switched by the keyboard shortcut Shift + Space.
The mouse can work both in portrait and landscape mode. The mode is switched manually by a combination of Fn + Esc.
The movement of the mouse cursor is carried out using a gyroscope. A short video of how this works:


To "calibrate" the cursor - bring it to the edge of the screen where it stops. Expose the cursor so that it is in line with the hand.

► Video

On the factory firmware, by default, only upscale image output from 720p is supported.


But you can install a patch that activates the possible output of the image in 1080p.
For this you need to download boot.img (9MB), firmware update utility ROM Flash Tool (574Kb).
Connect power to the MK908 OTG port. To enter the firmware mode, you must hold down the Reset button and connect the MK908 to the computer.
Run the ROM Flash Tool utility, select only boot.img in the file list and press flash ROM.


Now supports full output with 1080p resolution:

But it should be noted that this is not the final release of the kernel with 1080p output. The interface slows down a bit and the MK908 starts to get very hot.

In MX Player, the video plays perfectly. Like 480p:


And 1080p:


Wifi Display is supported:


XBMC works only on version 13 (beta) and does not support hardware video decoding. But, if you like XBMC a lot, you can organize decoding with an external MX Player. For this:
1. Download and install XBMC 13 (51MB)
2. Download and install a special assembly MX Player (7MB)
3. Download settings file (7KB), and after the first launch of XBMC find the folder
/sdcard/Android/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/files/.xbmc/userdata and copy the settings file playercorefactory.xml there.
Now XBMC can play Full HD video without problems.

► Games

Rockchip RK3188 is great for games. You can play with the mouse and keyboard, or by connecting the PS3 Sixaxis controller.
To do this, you need to download the Sixaxis Controller and SixaxisPairTool .

Then:
1. Run the SixaxisPairTool on the computer and connect the controller to the computer using a USB cable. After installing the driver, the MAC address of the gamepad will be available in the format xx: xx: xx: xx: xx: xx
2. Launch Sixaxis Controller in Android, without forgetting to turn on Bluetooth. Click Start. The program will ask for root rights and at the bottom you will see the Local Bluetooth Address, also in xx: xx: xx: xx: xx: xx format - enter it in the SixaxisPairTool on your computer, in the Change Master field and click Update. Then disconnect the controller from the computer.
3. Turn on the controller with the PS button. If one light is on the controller, everything turned out well! If you write Connection Failed - your device is not supported.
4. Now it remains only to click the Change Input Method in the program and select Sixaxis Controller.

To check whether the gamepad can be connected to the MK908, you can use the Sixaxis Compatibility Checker program:


Work great as arcade games:


And 3D:

► Skype

Skype works. According to the comments on the forums, some models that worked on the RK3066 devices did not want to work with the MK908. Prestigo webcam earned:

► Wifi

Near the router, the signal level is very good.

In the firmware with Android 4.1.1, periodic gaps were observed, after upgrading to 4.2.2 Wifi works stably.

► Browsing the Web

Web browsing is smooth, Wifi download speed is good.

► Performance

In the MK908, the processor frequency is locked at 1.6 GHz, with the maximum theoretical frequency of the RK3188 chip being 1.8 GHz. This is done most likely to ensure that the device does not overheat. The video accelerator remained from the RK3066 - this is a 4-core Mali 400MP, overclocked to 600 MHz. The amount of RAM is 2GB.
Tests were conducted on Finless ROM 1.4 firmware at a resolution of 1280x720.
Antutu 3.3:

Almost 17 thousand - a very good result. Let's compare the results in terms of parameters with the Zealz GK802, which is built on a 4-core Freescale i.MX 6 Quad chip.

Parameter	Tronsmart MK908	Zealz GK802
Ram	2608	1874
CPU INT	4071	2680
CPU FLOAT	3556	2322
2D	1509	657
3D	4421	1851
Total	16987	9918

The results of the Rockchip RK3188 exceed Freescale i.MX 6 Quad almost 2 times.

Quadrant shows an excellent result of 5487 points:


Vellamo in the HTML 5 processing speed test scores 1495 points:


Linpack results are not as good:


Nenamark 2 - maximum result with 60 fps:

► Software

The firmware from Android 4.1.1 is installed from the factory, but just the other day there was an update to Android 4.2.2.
When we first turn on, we are greeted by a wizard of basic settings that allows us to select a language, set the time, connect Wifi.


Main desktop:


Applications:


System Information:


It is worth paying attention to the updated status bar:


Compared with the Android 4.1.1 firmware, the following buttons have been added: “volume +”, “volume-”, “screen shot”, “off”, “full-screen mode”.
Prior to this, in the Finless ROM 1.4 firmware, fullscreen mode could only be enabled by a third-party Fullscreen application:

And innovation - now the device can be turned off programmatically! That's just turn on in a simple way will not work - you must first turn off and then turn on the power again.

The new firmware with Android 4.2.2 has been added a proprietary utility from Rockchip, which allows you to remotely control a mini-computer from a smartphone, or any other device running Android.
In the firmware itself, the server of this application is already installed. We just need to install the application. RKRemoteControl (2MB) on your smartphone or tablet.
Then, we start the application and connect to the found server:

For devices to detect each other, they must be in the same network.

RKRemoteControl works can work in several modes:
1) Mouse mode. Moving the finger on the touch screen of the control device, we move the cursor in the system of the controlled device. A single tap on the screen is equal to a click. To scroll, you must use the vertical or horizontal scrollbar on the control device.
2) Scroll mode. When dragging, it will scroll (slide) on the managed device. Tap on the screen corresponds to a click.
Keyboard icon can call its screen version:

Also, the row of the buttons “Back”, “Home”, “Task List” is duplicated.

By selecting the Control icon, we are taken to the video / audio player control screen:


Clicking on the Game icon we see the game control settings screen.


On the screen of the phone, it looks too messy, but we can remove the buttons we do not need by calling the appropriate settings menu.


Set the classic layout of the gamepad:


Now you need to set up control on the MK908.
Run the program RKGameControl, select / create a management profile:


We start the game we need, while the settings will remain on top of the screen. Let's set up control in the emulator:

Just drag the buttons from RKGameControl to the necessary screen buttons.
Be sure to save the settings in RKRemoteControl and then hide the program by clicking on the icon with the yellow folder.
Everything, you can play!
You can customize control in any emulator.


In the same way, you can configure any game in which no slide operation is required. Just drag the management stick to the right place, place the buttons and save the profile.

In RKRemoteControl, you can enable control using an accelerometer or a gyroscope. This will allow you to play games that apply this type of control. For example, Real Racing 3:

► Conclusions

4 core chip RK3188
2GB of RAM
Radiators on the chip
Modern Android OS 4.2.2
Many ways to control (wired mouse / keyboard, Bluetooth gamepad, control from any Android device utility RKRemoteTool)
1080p image output mode needs some work.

On the basic version of the Android 4.1.1 firmware, the MK908 looked very raw and it looked like the situation with the first devices on the Rockchip RK3066, where the main problem was the firmware. But, after upgrading to Android 4.2.2, the device is very freshened: an optimized interface and application, a fixed Wifi problem, support for many new webcams.

► Why?

The review presented various methods of applying this mini-computer, summarizing them in a list:
1. The ability to make smart TV from any TV.
2. With the help of a gamepad, an excellent entertainment center is obtained.
3. Use as a media player.
4. If you try, you can even make a mini-server.

Useful links:
Blog geekbuying.com
Freektab forum

► Price

The cost of Tronsmart MK908 in the Geekbuying.com store is $ 79.99.
The cost of Tronsmart T428 is $ 81.99. Tronsmart T428 differs from other similar devices in support of WIfi operation at a frequency of 5 GHz.

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