Tronsmart's New Rockchip RK3288 Media Consoles Available Now

Chinese company Tronsmart has finally announced its new Rockhip RK3288 chip set-top box called Orion R28. Continuing the traditions of the previous Vega S89 model there will be 3 versions: Pro, Meta, Telos. They differ in the amount of permanent memory and Wifi-chips, and in the Telos version they promise to install 4GB of RAM!
Another interesting feature is the positioning of the device as Full Open Source - the first 90 customers of each model will receive microSD cards with a full set of developers. Start shipping devices scheduled for September 3.

Let's compare the versions of Pro and Meta:

	Tronsmart Orion R28 Pro	Tronsmart Orion R28 Meta
CPU	RK3288 1.8GHz (Cortex-A17), 4 cores	RK3288 1.8GHz (Cortex-A17), 4 cores
GPU	Mali-T764 GPU	Mali-T764 GPU
RAM	DDR3 2GB	DDR3 2GB
ROM	8GB	16GB
Wifi	Broadcom AP6210 (supports IEEE 802.11 b / g / n)	Broadcom AP6335 (IEEE 802.11a / b / g / n / ac, 2.4GHz / 5.8GHz
Ethernet	10 / 100M / 1000M LAN	10 / 100M / 1000M LAN
Bluetooth	4.0	4.0
OS	Android 4.4	Android 4.4
Video playback support	H.265, 4K * 2K	H.265, 4K * 2K
Price	$ 79.99	$ 99.99

The versions differ only in the amount of permanent memory (8GB for the Pro version, 16GB for the Meta version) and different Wifi chips (AP6210 for the Pro version, Broadcom AP6335 for the Meta version). It is worth highlighting support for 1000Mbit networks, in all previous similar devices only work at a speed of 100Mbit was supported.
After the production of these versions is adjusted, it is planned to release a version called Telos with 4GB RAM and 32GB of permanent memory.

The price and approximate release dates are currently unknown.

Tronsmart is not the first company to launch devices on the RK3288; there are already a couple of devices from lesser-known manufacturers. What is the advantage of devices of this particular manufacturer:

more or less stable quality

I have already tested several devices from Tronsmart: Tronsmart S89 Vega , Tronsmart T1000 , Tronsmart MK908 , Tronsmart Prometheus . All but the not-so-successful first-born Tronsmart Prometheus were pretty decent devices. But you should not expect miracles in terms of ideal quality, yet this is a purely Chinese company. Especially in the first revisions, “nuances” are possible in the work, and starting from about the 3rd revision, all components work stably.

many modified firmware

The company itself is actively releasing new firmware, and also encourages third-party developers to produce modified versions. In the forefront in this matter - Finless Bob from the forum http://freaktab.com/

What is interesting in Rockchip RK3288?

RK3288 is a 4-core 28nm Cortex-A17 processor with a maximum frequency of 2GHz and a 4-core Mali T764 video accelerator. 2GHz is theoretically the maximum frequency of the processor; in practice, the Orion R28 will operate at a frequency of 1.8GHz. This is due to significant heating of the chip under intense load, which a passive radiator may not be able to handle.
Mali T764 is a powerful 4-core video accelerator with support for OpenGL ES1.1 / 2.0 / 3.0, OpenVG1.1, OpenCL1.1 and Renderscript. According to synthetic tests, the Mali T764 is about 50% faster than the Mali-400.

4K * 2K image output and H.265 decoding are supported.

When displaying an image in FULL HD, the Tronsmart Orion R28 in Antutu 5 scores 37776 points, which is an excellent result.

After optimizing the firmware, the 40,000 mark is likely to be reached.

Detailed results:

Thus, the Tronsmart Orion R28 is perfect for game lovers!

Control

The package includes a fairly simple control panel, in which there are only 12 buttons.

There is no gyroscope in it, the mouse is moved by holding down the control arrows.

You can control it using your smartphone, for this you need to install the RKremotecontrol application:

There is also the possibility to install controls for games:

Read more about this utility in one of my previous reviews .

Interfaces

Orion R28 has the following set of interfaces:
3 x USB
1 x Micro USB (OTG)
1 x S / SPDIF (2CH, 5.1CH)
1 x RJ45
1 x Micro SD card slot
1 x AV Jack
It is a completely standard set, the presence of as many as 3 USB pleases . Unfortunately, there is no version information (2.0 or 3.0) yet.

OS

Pre-installed Android 4.4 OS with 2 launchers. Standard:

And multimedia: The

manufacturer claims support for OTA updates - but with a high probability this function will not work in the first firmware versions.

Tronsmart Orion R28 promises to be an interesting device, with excellent performance and at a very affordable price. A detailed review is planned to be prepared by the end of next month!

Buy the Tronsmart Orion R28 Pro for $ 79.99 or the Tronsmart Orion R28 Meta for $ 99.99 at Geekbuying.com. As noted earlier, the first buyers will receive an 8GB card as a gift for which a full developer kit will be located. The start of deliveries is scheduled for September 3, but this date is not accurate - there may be delays in shipping.

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