New media consoles on Rockchip RK3288 from the company Tronsmart already on sale

The Chinese company Tronsmart has finally announced its new media consoles on the Rockhip RK3288 chip called Orion R28. Continuing the tradition of the previous model Vega S89 will be 3 versions: Pro, Meta, Telos. They differ in the amount of permanent memory and Wifi-chips, and in the Telos version they promise to install 4GB of RAM!
Another interesting feature is the positioning of the device as Full Open Source - the first 90 customers of each model will receive a microSD card with a full developer kit. Start shipping devices scheduled for September 3.

Let's compare the versions of Pro and Meta:

	Tronsmart Orion R28 Pro	Tronsmart Orion R28 Meta
CPU	RK3288 1.8GHz (Cortex-A17), 4 cores	RK3288 1.8GHz (Cortex-A17), 4 cores
GPU	Mali-T764 GPU	Mali-T764 GPU
Ram	DDR3 2GB	DDR3 2GB
ROM	8GB	16GB
Wifi	Broadcom AP6210 (supports IEEE 802.11 b / g / n)	Broadcom AP6335 (IEEE 802.11a / b / g / n / ac, 2.4GHz / 5.8GHz
Ethernet	10 / 100M / 1000M LAN	10 / 100M / 1000M LAN
Bluetooth	4.0	4.0
OS	Android 4.4	Android 4.4
Video playback support	H.265, 4K * 2K	H.265, 4K * 2K
Price	$ 79.99	$ 99.99

The versions differ only in the amount of permanent memory (8GB in Pro version, 16GB Meta version) and different Wifi-chips (AP6210 in Pro version, Broadcom AP6335 in Meta version). It is necessary to highlight the support of 1000Mbit networks, in all previous similar devices only work at a speed of 100Mbit was supported.
After production of these versions is improved, a version called Telos with 4GB RAM and 32GB of permanent memory is planned.

The price and approximate release dates are currently unknown.

Tronsmart is not the first company that released devices on the RK3288, there are already a couple of devices from lesser-known manufacturers. What is the advantage of devices of this particular manufacturer:

• more or less stable quality

I have already tested several devices from Tronsmart: Tronsmart S89 Vega , Tronsmart T1000 , Tronsmart MK908 , Tronsmart Prometheus . All but the not-so-successful first-born Tronsmart Prometheus were very decent devices. But expect miracles in terms of perfect quality is not worth it, yet it is a purely Chinese company. Especially in the first revisions, "nuances" in the work are possible and, starting from approximately the 3rd revision, all components work stably.

• many modified firmware

The company itself is actively releasing new firmware, as well as encouraging third-party developers to release modified versions. In the forefront in this matter - Finless Bob from the forum http://freaktab.com/
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What is interesting about Rockchip RK3288?

The RK3288 is a 4-core 28nm Cortex-A17 processor with a maximum frequency of 2GHz and a 4-core Mali T764 video accelerator. 2GHz is theoretically the maximum frequency of the processor; in practice, the Orion R28 will operate at 1.8GHz. This is due to the substantial heating of the chip under heavy load, which the passive radiator can not cope with.
Mali T764 is a powerful 4-core video accelerator with support for OpenGL ES1.1 / 2.0 / 3.0, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL1.1 and Renderscript. According to Mali T764 synthetic tests, Mali-400 is faster by about 50%.

Supported image output in 4K * 2K format and H.265 decoding.

When displaying an image in FULL HD Tronsmart Orion R28 in Antutu 5 scores 37776 points, which is an excellent result.

After optimizing the firmware, the 40000 milestone will most likely be reached.

Detailed results:


So Tronsmart Orion R28 is perfect for game lovers!

Control

The package includes a fairly simple control panel, in which only 12 buttons

It does not have a gyroscope, the movement of the mouse is carried out by clamping the control arrows.

You can control it using a smartphone, for this you need to install the RKremotecontrol application:

It is also possible to install controls for games:

You can read more about this utility in one of my previous reviews .

Interfaces

Orion R28 has the following set of interfaces:
3 x USB
1 x Micro USB (OTG)
1 x S / SPDIF (2CH, 5.1CH)
1 x RJ45
1 x Micro SD card slot
1 x AV Jack
It is a standard set, the presence of as many as 3 USB pleases. Unfortunately there is no version information yet (2.0 or 3.0).

OS

Pre-installed Android 4.4 OS with 2 launchers. Standard:

And multimedia:

The manufacturer has declared support for OTA updates - but with a high probability this function will not work in the first versions of the firmware.

Tronsmart Orion R28 promises to be an interesting device, with excellent performance and at a very affordable price. A detailed review is planned to prepare by the end of next month!

You can buy Tronsmart Orion R28 Pro for $ 79.99 or Tronsmart Orion R28 Meta for $ 99.99 at Geekbuying.com . As noted earlier, the first customers will receive an 8GB card as a gift for which the full developer kit will be located. The start of deliveries is scheduled for September 3, but this date is not exact - there may be delays in shipping.

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