Review of the Vigica V3 RK3288 Quad Core Android TV Box

Vigica gave me the opportunity to review one more RK3288 android tv box. Their newest V3 model which shows us how powerful this new Rockchip SOC is.

What's in the Box
The device came in a very nice package with the Vigica logo on it. When you open it you will find:

• The V3 itself
• A A/C adapter
• A Micro HDMI to HDMI cable
• An IR Remote

The remote is good and it gives you all the basic functions you will need. If you want something more though like a keyboard you will have to buy one seperately

Looks & Hardware

This model has a nice black & gold colour combination giving it a very pleasant and stylish look. It is small and it looks a lot like the CS918II i' ve reviewed before.

On the front we can see the power on/off button and on the side we have a USB 2.0 and a MicroSD card slot

On the back we have an ethernet port (i' m not sure if it supports gigabit lan but i assume it does, another USB 2.0, an SPDIF optical audio output, a Micro HDMI, a Micro USB OTG, an A/V out and a D/C input. We can also see the adjustable external wifi antenna 

On the other side we have nothing

And on the front we can see that the V3 is relatively thin having a low profile. We can also find the IR receiver and the audio mic used for recordings, voice search etc

If we flip it upside down we see the rubber pads that help the box stay in place some mounting holes and some ventilation holes

Software

The device is running the latest stock android 4.4.2 KitKat and doesn't give us lags, stutters or choppiness. This is due to the RK3288 processor we find in the internals of the device

The launcher used is the stock android one

V3 was not rooted so i had to root it myself using Root Genius, it also had some preinstalled apps like filmon live tv etc but you won't need them since xbmc is much better

Specs & Performance

The V3 is a powerhouse sporting the latest RK3288 cpu from Rockchip running at 1.8 Ghz max. Architecture-wise it is ARM CorteX A17 which means that it is much better in terms of performance and power consumption than the oldest ARM Cortex A9.

Ram memory is 2GB DDR3 and it is more than enough for running multiple apps at once. 

The internal memory is 8GB and you can expand it using a MicroSD

I ran some benchmarks to show you what the device can do and here are the results.

Antutu benchmark is maybe the most famous and reliable test app on the market right now. 

The device gave me the relatively good score of 36975 points.

GPU performance is great too because the V3 has the newest Mali-T764. I ran 3D Mark and i got very good results. below you can see the score

I tried some browsing too and the results were very pleasing. The V3 didn't give me the slightest lag and the wifi reception was excellent

To sum it up the main specs are:

• CPU: RK3288 Rockchip ARM Cortex A17 running at 1.8 GHz
• GPU: Mali-T764
• RAM: 2GB
• Nand Flash: 8GB
• WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n Dual Band 2.4G/5G
• Bluetooth 4.0

Video Playback & XBMC

I ran Antutu video tester to see how the device handles playback on various video codecs and resolutions. The results were impressive giving the RK3288 an edge above the Amlogic S802 when it comes to video performance. You can see the results here

I tried XBMC which was preinstalled, but i unistalled it and installed the latest stable version 13.2 Gotham.

Everything was perfect and when i playbacked some high bitrate 1080p videos the outcome was outstanding

This doesn't complie with 4k videos though because there was severe choppiness. This may be the firmwares fault and get better in the future

Gaming

I played some games using the PSP emulator called PPSSPP. 

Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection and Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny played perfectly fine in contrast with Tekken 6 and Gran Turismo which were slow, but i' m sure that if i tweak the settings a little bit i will achieve better performance

Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection

Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny

Tekken 6

Gran Turismo

Conclusion

The Vigica V3 is a great all around device. You can use it as a media player, a game console, a mini pc and much more. It is very good looking and small with a low profile giving you the option to place it wherever you want and it's mainly black colour will match your TV-Home Cinema set.

Pros:

• Small and lightweight
• Very fast and powerfull
• Great 1080p high bitrate video playback
• Great XBMC support
• Excellent WiFi reception
• Relatively cheap for what it offers
• IR Remote included

Cons:

• Warm after a lot of usage
• Only two USB 2.0 ports

You can watch my video unboxing and full review by clicking the links below

Unboxing: English
Unboxing: Greek

Review: English
Review: Greek

To order it visit the official Vigica Website: http://www.chinaiptvbox.com/

Their Google Plus Page: https://plus.google.com/112033557981336195819/posts

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