Review | Ugoos AM8 Pro Amlogic S928X-J Android 11 TV Box

Ugoos Am8 Pro arrives as Ugoos’ newest and best Android TV box to date, and it is definitely one of the most powerful boxes I have reviewed so far!

Many thanks goes to James from Ugoos for providing the Review sample.

 

What’s in the Box?

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AM8 Pro is a black metallic square box, it is made of metal. Blacked out aluminum shell, to be exact. With plenty of venting holes and slots. The power led is actually on the top of the box, inside the first “o” of Ugoos manufacturer’s logo. The box also comes with a dual antenna setup which may be responsible for the very good Wi-Fi performance measured. The rest are quite standard – multiple ports and slots arranged around the box’s periphery, with one OTG USB-C port and 3 USB 3.0 ports.

AM8 Pro Box Contents

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Here are the items that come in the box: AM8 Pro, Two antennas, BT+IR remote control, HDMI 2.1 cable, a 12v power adapter and a UK adapter plug, as well as a small user manual.

AM8 Pro Specifications

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Chipset	Amlogic SoC S928X-J 64-Bit ARM Cortex-A76 and quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 CPU
GPU	ARM Mali-G57 MC2
Memory / Storage	8GB DDR4 / 64GB (EMMC)
Storage Extension	MicroSD Card, up to 32GB (SD2.X,SD3.X,SD4.X, eMMC ver5.0)
Wireless Connectivity	2T2R 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax WIFI 6 MIMO
Network	IEEE 802.3 10/100/1000M Ethernet
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 5.3 Module
OS	Android 11.0
Video & Audio Output	HDMI 2.1 Type A 8Kp60, S/PDIF out and AUX out
Peripheral Interface	3xUSB 3.0 and 1xUSB Type C OTG
Supported Video Formats	AV1, Vp9 Profile-2, H.265 HEVCMP-10@L5.1, H.264 AVC HP@L5.1, H.264 MVC, MPEG-4 ASP@L5, MPEG-2 MP/HL, MPEG-1 MP/HL
Supported Audio Formats	MP3, AAC, WMA, RM, FLAC, Ogg and programmable with 7.1/5.1 down-mixing
HDR support	Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, HLG
Power	PD 9V 12V 20W via USB Type-C

 

AM8 Pro Benchmarks and Testing

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All completed benchmarks have been repeated 3 times and results have been averaged to give a more accurate reading:

Antutu Benchmark

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The Antutu benchmark tests single core performance over multi-core as it is a better indication of the performance of one device over others in most situations. Ugoos AM8 Pro jumps the queue and takes first place! above any other device I’ve tested so far.

Bellow is a screenshot of the latest Antutu benchmark (v10):

 

 

GPU Mark Benchmark

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GPU Mark tests 3d gaming performance and also provides a normalized score according to the used screen resolution (for a more accurate result). The test is quite short and should be taken as a supporting result to that of the more serious 3D Mark benchmark. Ugoos AM8 Pro reached 2nd place in average frames per second, and only 4th place in the average and screen normalized score. However, the placement is not far off from it’s competitors, and the one that tops the chart is a tablet that contains a much more powerful GPU.

 

 

A1 SD Benchmark

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A1 SD Benchmark tests RAM and flash memory speeds. As can be seen in the provided graphs, RAM is much faster (by a factor of about 40) than flash memory – that is why it’s in smaller amount and is also volatile (does not keep its contents after a reboot). Ugoos AM8 Pro shows its muscles as its DDR4 speedy RAM becomes the new king with first place in RAM copy speed test, and its updated eMMC storage flash places it in again as number one in Internal storage speed tests! However, AM8 Pro was unable to recognize and test the MicroSD card, even though Android itself was able to. Therefore testing of the MicroSD read/write speeds are missing.

 

 

PC Mark Benchmark

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AM8 Pro wins first place in this extensive suite of productivity tests which is designed to show a more balanced picture of an android device’s ability to perform various tasks such as spreadsheet calculations, photo editing, complex web page browsing and more. This is not surprising as the Amlogic S928X-J chipset is the top offering at the moment.

 

3D Mark Benchmark

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3D Mark benchmark is considered as one of the best ways to test 3d performance on Android (and other platforms). Ugoos AM8 Pro again takes number one standing. Both in “Slingshot Extreme” test, and “Wild Life” test. Far above the competition.

 

 

AM8 Pro Extra Benchmarks

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For some more information, see the following screenshots from other benchmarks such as Vellamo, Perf Test Mobile, GPU Mark, GFX Bench, Geekbench, and AndroBench:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AM8 Pro Bugs and Issues

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1. When I connect an external USB hard drive, and try to access it in Kodi (only in Kodi, as it is accessible via total commander and such), it will cause a crash and a reboot
2. Dolby Vision samples videos play well, but the audio stutters at intervals
3. 8K videos plays smooth, aside for one video with OPUS audio encoding. It buffers.
4. When I started testing Antutu 10, I have noticed that the first try resulted in a crash and auto-reboot. The next tests seems to be going as planned even though the app warns that the box may be rooted and may result in inaccurate results. I did not switch the root on, by the way.
5.  In some videos, I have noticed a problem with fast forwarding. I will not fast forward, unless you try a few times. When it doesn’t, it just reverts to the beginning of the video. The same happens whenever I try to fast forward in the middle of those video files. I could not find a major difference in those file encodings, but it happened mostly with one group releases.
6.  Wi-Fi seems to cause a strange issue when playback may stop and Kodi will exit the video playback randomly with “Network unreachable” message. When that happens, if I continue playing the file again, it will usually play without exiting again. This naturally does not happen when connected via Ethernet cable.
7. Audio stuttering when starting playback – happens with many different video files. Once I go back 10 seconds, it fixes it – which seems to indicate a audio buffering issue. Video playback does not seem to be affected.
8. Asphalt 9 cannot be installed as it is “not available” for the device.

 

AM8 Pro Root function

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AM8 Pro come with a built-in root function (based on Magisk) which works like a charm. All you need to do is go to the settings, locate it under Ugoos settings section, and turn it on or off as needed. It will keep after reboot, till you decide to turn it off. The power and decision are all yours!

 

 

AM8 Pro Video Playback testing (Using KODI)

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AM8 Pro does perform well in day to day situations (most videos played are 1080p or standard 4k), however, it seems that network optimization needs some work (especially when using a Wi-Fi connection) as even with the good speedtest results, some issues with audio stutter and video buffering were observed in heavy videos. Still, the playback results are quite good in general.

* Video cut out with “Network unreachable” message, but played fine upon retry

 

AM8 Pro Network performance

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I tested the network performance using the popular Speedtest.net application from the play store. I tested both Wi-Fi (the fastest Wi-Fi supported – in this case 5GHz 802.11ax, or Wi-Fi 6), and wired connection. My home connection is a symmetric 1Gbe Fiber connection so it would not limit the test in any way. Ugoos AM8 Pro performed quite well with high ranking results for (Wi-Fi 6) 5GHz Wi-Fi network, and even better for wired ethernet. However the upload speed could use improvements in both cases:

 

 

AM8 Pro Gaming performance

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Ugoos AM8 Pro performed smoothly as expected in the gaming tests. It’s graphic chip can handle games without an issue. However, control may be an issue, unless you splurge for a game pad/controller or other more gaming friendly remote.

Asphalt 8 Airborne – a 3d graphic intensive racing game. AM8 Pro Loads and runs it smoothly. And with a new wireless game controller, I was able to control it fully (although menu navigation was iffy). However, I was not able to synchronize the game to my google profile (my saved online profile). On a side note, AM8 Pro is unable to install the newer Asphalt 9 Legends.. (“not available for this device”).

 

Angry Birds 2 – a popular 2d action game. AM8 Pro run it smoothly and loaded the stages fast, and unlike previous boxes, it seems unaffected by the freeze bug that is very common with Amlogic boxes and this game.

 

Walking War Robots – an online robot warfare game that requires a game-pad. AM8 Pro runs it well, and with the new wireless game controller, the game is fully operational and enjoyable. However, I was not able to synchronize the game to my google profile (my saved online profile).

 

 

AM8 Pro Conclusions

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Did I like it? Yes and No. I’ve been using and testing the box for a long time (longer than any other box before), also in the hopes that new firmware releases following my bug reports will correct some of the issues. The box is probably the fastest performing I’ve tested so far, but it has stability issues that have yet to be addressed. audio cuts in and out, “network unreachable” during Wi-Fi connection use, and others. The final review has been conducted with the latest firmware version available at time of writing – 1.3.5.

Would I recommend it? Only if you must be at the bleeding edge of Android TV Boxes.

You like it! Where can you buy it? Ugoos AM8 Pro 8GB DDR4 RAM 64GB Storage for 187.67 USD at the time of this review. It’s far from cheap, but that’s the price of being on the bleeding edge of Amlogic technology.