Ugoos AM3 TV Box Review
I have another product by Ugoos and this one the Ugoos AM3 Amlogic S912 Octa Core 4K TV box. We have seen the TV dongle by Ugoos which was the UM4, and it presented some great features and performance. The Ugoos AM3 is the TV box version and has similar features to the UM4. So in this review, you will be able to see the hardware specs, the benchmarks and the performance of the box. I will also give you my personal thoughts on this device.
AM3 Hardware and Design Difference
The Ugoos AM3 comes built on Amlogic hardware unlike the UM4 that was built on Rockchip. It uses the Amlogic S912 octa core CPU running up to 1.5GHz. This is expected, because most S912 TV boxes runs up to that speed anyway. And likewise the GPU which is the Mali T820 tri core at 750Mhz. These to go hand in hand with each other as it’s a single board. The box comes with 2GB of DDR3 RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. It has 802.11ac dual band WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0.
The box has 3 USB 2.0 ports, one of which is an OTG. You have 1 HDMI 2.0, 1 RJ45 Ethernet LAN 100/1000 Mbps, one optical audio port, and an SD card reader. The UM4 which is built on the Rockchip chipset supported USB 3.0 port and the CPU was clocked at 2.0GHz.
UI and Unique Features
The oiperating system is Android 7.1.2 Nougat, and the box is rooted. One thing I must say, is that Ugoos has adopted a standard that I would like to them keep up with some tweaks here and there. The Ugoos AM3 in similar fashion as the UM4 uses the same launcher with features identical to the Nova Launcher. This launcher has the same features as your standard smartphone Android interface, with drag and drop features for adding shortcuts and uninstalling apps. It has a navigation bar and status bar for easy navigation and multitasking between apps. However, the box does not come with any streaming and social media applications, only standard system apps.
Special features
The Am3 comes with 2 special features, the first is the option to turn the root access on or off, the the second option is a built-in Key-mapping for gamepads. The root option is nice, but I couldn’t get the key-mapping function the work.
Streaming 4K and Games
Despite not coming with any streaming applications, I was able to install Kodi, YouTube, movie streaming APKs, and games. All the apps ran well and I was able to watch free movies and TV shows in high quality. The 4K video sample test also played most of the videos OK, with one of the videos which is a jellyfish video that had a bit rate of 400Mbps having some slow playback. Gaming quality is pretty good, but the SuperSU application did not grant me the right permissions to use my personal key-mapping application, which prevents me from playing certain games.
AM3 Benchmarks
- Antutu – 58951
- Geekbench4 – 564 single core / 2556 multi core
- Ice Storm Extreme – 50811
- RAM Copy – 3447 MB/s
- ROM Speed – 47MB/s read and 28MB/s write
- SD Speed – 16MB/s read and 11MB/s write
- WiFi speed – Very good
Final Thoughts
The Ugoos AM3 is not much of a difference from other Amlogic S912 boxes, like what we say in UM4 that had improvements in CPU speed and UI features. The AM3 has the same UI features as the UM4 but it benchmarks and CPU speed is lower. For me, no key-mapping is a big deal, and the infrared remote. There is no USB 3.0 because the S912 board does not support it, and YouTube play only up to 1080p quality. With that said, The Ugoos AM3 is a good movie and TV show streamer, so if you are not interested in games then this is a good box to buy.
