Review | Ugoos SK2 Realtek RTD1325 Google ATV Box

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

What’s in the Box?

Ugoos SK2 is a shiny black plastic box. Square. This time Ugoos went with plastic, but put some work into it with a RGB light strip covering the top right front. This one can only have its intensity changed . There is no power button anywhere, so the box can be turned on either by the remote, or by plugging it in when it’s not connected to power. SK2 does not have external antennas and it uses internal ones. It is also worth mentioning that there is no Micro-SD/TF Card slot, so you are limited to what you get with the box (which is 32GB total storage. Quite limiting).

SK2 Box Contents

Here are the items that come in the box: SK2, BT remote control, HDMI 2.1 cable, a 12v power adapter, as well as a small user manual.

SK2 Specifications

SK2 Benchmarks and Testing

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

Antutu Benchmark

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 SK2 comes out mediocre just under the middle result.

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

GPU Mark Benchmark

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 SK2 got a higher than average result, but it still means is in the middle, and not performing as well as Amlogic chipset based boxes.

A1 SD Benchmark

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 SK2 does lower than average with much older boxes passing it by.

However, SK2 does quite well in the Internal Storage Read/Write speed test. Taking the 3rd spot.

PC Mark Benchmark

SK2 takes 10th 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.

3D Mark Benchmark

3D Mark benchmark is considered as one of the best ways to test 3d performance on Android (and other platforms). Ugoos SK2 is incompatible with most of the tests available in 3d Mark, and only compatible with the oldest test, Sling Shot. As such, I cannot compare it to other boxes, as they were all tested with Sling Shot Extreme, and Wild Life tests. But as the test itself shows, SK2 performs quite poorly.

SK2 Extra Benchmarks

For some more information, see the following screenshots from other benchmarks such as GFX Bench, , Vellamo, and AndroBench:

SK2 Bugs, Issues, and Cons

1. No Micro-SD/SD card slot – meaning, no possibility for storage expansion. The box does come with 128GB built-in storage, but the choice to skimp on a card slot in such an expensive box, is a strange one.
2. No native DTS audio support (not the original one, nor any of the sub standards such as DTS-HD or DTS-X)
3.  Remote control is not Bluetooth, nor contains a gyro.
4.  Ugoos does not take any responsibility for the firmware, as they say that for Google TV Android OS, google itself is the one that updates the devices remotely.
5.  Audio-Video sync issues (speech does not match the lips). Sometimes it is solved by fast forwarding or back tracking the video, sometimes by stopping and resuming, and sometimes not even a reboot helps. It may have to do with the slow 100mb LAN.
6.  No root. makes screenshots difficult, and access to system files.
7.  Instability. Box rebooted randomly, or when trying to access USB drive.
8. Gaming is not this box’s forte. It does not support all games, and the ones SK2 does, do not perform too well.

SK2 Root function

Ugoos SK2 come without any kind of root option.

SK2 Video Playback testing (Using KODI)

Sadly, SK2 is falling short by a lot from it’s older brother (SK1). None of the 8k samples managed to play, and many of the 4k samples also had issues with freezing at the start and then continuing, stutter and microstutter. Dolby Vision mostly played fine, but one of the sample also refused to play. AV1 encoded videos played perfectly.

I have tested this time only on wireless – as only wireless gave a decent enough bandwidth to play heavy video files. I would imagine that on wired (limited to 100Mb/s) SK2 would perform even worse.

SK2 Network performance

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 SK2 performed fine with lower than average results for Wi-Fi network (should reach close to 1000mbps), and much worse for wired ethernet. This is due to the fact that the Lan port is only 100M.

These are the Analiti results as well:

SK2 Gaming performance

Ugoos SK2 did not perform smoothly in the gaming tests. It seems that it is just not powerful enough to handle modern games smoothly or easily. Control is also 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.  The game is available for download and installation on playstore for the ATV OS, but it also stated that there is no gamepad connected and that you can only play the game with a gamepad. Once I connected a gamepad, the game installed and played sufficiently, but I can’t say smoothly. with some stutters and slow loading and response.

Angry Birds 2 – a popular 2d action game. SK2 could not find it on playstore, nor was able to install it from APK. I even tried using an external app (apkpure) to install it, and then it complain about not being online (!?) and refused to start.

Walking War Robots – an online robot warfare game that requires a game-pad. SK2 does not include a mouse-remote so it would also require a gamepad to try. I connected a gamepad and the game loaded and played. Again, not the smoothest. Slow loading, and checking the graphics settings, it was unable to switch to performance mode (not supported).

SK2 Conclusions

Did I like it? Only for 1080p content really, and for streaming services – which is does very well

Would I recommend it? Can’t say I will, unless you’re an Ugoos die hard fan, and trying to save, while going for a new model.

You like it! Where can you buy it? Ugoos SK2 Smart TV Box Android 12 ARM Cortex-A55 4GB 32GB Wifi6 BT5.2 100M Set Top Box Dolby Widevine L1 DTS AV1 Supportcurrently going for US $89.80