Beelink R68 II Amlogic S912 Octa Core Android 6.0 4k TV Box

Beelink R68 II 4K TV Box Review

This is the Beelink R68 II Amlogic S912 Octa Core Android 6.0 4k TV Box. Beelink is known for quality TV boxes, more than that they are known for their software optimization methods. Their updates always work, and their boxes always score high in benchmark tests. The Beelink R68 II, is the latest Beelink release for the end of 2016 and just in time for Christmas.

Beelink R68 II Front view


Hardware

The Beelink R68 II, runs on the Amlogic S912 Octa Core CPU with a max operating speed of 1.5GHZ. I recognized that a lot of TV boxes in this line have caped the clock range speed, even thought the S912 has the ability to run up to 2.0GHz. When inquires were made, it was discovered that it may have been a precautionary step to prevent over heating and CPU shutdown.

The Beelink R68 II display id powered by the ARM Mali T820 tri core GPU running up to 750MHz.  With support from the S912 CPU, and with codecs like H.263, H.264, HEVC, and VP9 decoding, you can play 4K videos with ease up to HEVC H.264 at 59.940fps. Over that the box starts to pixelate  with audio out of sync. Everything else under this frame rate plays smoothly including Dolby DTS video with audio. 3D graphics while playing games is like playing a big name gaming console.

Beelink R68 II Rear and Side view

Product Listing:

US Model – BeelinkR68_II_US

UK Model – BeelinkR68_II_UK

EU Model – BeelinkR68_II_EU

 

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It comes with 2GB of DDR3 RAM and 32GB of internal Storage. You also get expandable storage by converting external storage to internal storage, a new feature under Android 6.0 Marshmallow. External devices include SD cards up to 32GB, flash drives, and external hard drives over 1TB. Giving you massive amounts of internal storage to download very large Android app and games that wasn’t possible before under Android 5.1 TV boxes.

The Beelink R68 II comes with 802.11 Ac dual band WiFi capability. I tested this on a 30MB Internet connection coming off a Linksys AC dual band router. I performed a OKLA speed test and there was now loss in download or upload speed, this was with the router in the same room. The box also comes with Bluetooth 4.0. WiFi speed is also enhanced by an external antenna to the back of the box.

Beelink R68 II TV box contents

IO Ports

Rear of the box:

  • 1 HDMI
  • 1 USB 2.0
  • 1 RJ45 Ethernet LAN
  • 1 Optical Audio (SPDIF)
  • 1 AC adapted

Side of the box:

  • 2 USB 2.0
  • 1 SD Card ( Standard SD, micro-SD adapter needed)

Front of the box:

  • Power LED
  • Infrared receiver

In the Box

In the box you get the Beelink R68 II, 1 Infrared remote control, 1 HDMI cable, 1 power adapter, and a user manual.

 

 

Conclusion

Pros:

The Beelink R68 II is one of the better TV boxes I have reviewed in terms of hardware quality, even the housing feels strong and well made. I plays 4K videos very well but not at the highest frame rate. I played lots of high graphics games on it, games in excess of 1.5GB and it played smoothly without any issues. The kodi application works well, and all pre installed addons also ran without any issues. It runs on a rooted Android 6.0 operating system, and I was able to mirror to my tablet and smartphone. It has DTS passthrough.

Cons:

The CPU is capped at 1.5GHz, you have to do updates to gain root access, It has an infrared remote control, there is no USB 3.0 port. It had difficulty playing a 4K video HEVC H.265.

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