On this occasion I was able to get my hands on the Mecool KM2 Plus, one of the very few TV boxes with a Netflix certification and 16GB of internal storage at an affordable price.
Don't forget that the OEM is Skyworth and not Videostrong directly, the former is part of project "Hailstorm", which is responsible for the Netflix certification.
SPECIFICATIONS:
- Android 11.
- Amlogic S905X4-B with AV1 hardware decoding.
- ARM Mali-G31 MP2.
- HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG.
- 2GB RAM.
- WiFi AC.
- Bluetooth 5.0.
- HDMI 2.1.
- One USB 2.0 port and one USB 3.0 port.
- One microSD card slot.
- One optical audio port.
- One analog AV port.
- Ethernet 10/100 port.
- Three LED indicators at the front.
- GOTA updates.
PROS:
- It's fast and it has a sleek design.
- HDR policy switch that allows to turn OFF the HDR mode for 4K TVs without HDR support, it doesn't have any effect on 1080p or lower resolution ones.
- I can finally use the internal microphone of any UVC webcam different than Logitech to make videocalls with Duo and Jami thanks to the security patch installed on the device dated may 1st 2022, though I'm not sure if it's Android 11 the one that makes this possible but anyway, it works.
- This is the first Android TV device I own where the SoC in the B variant (S905X4-B) and the Dolby Audio license finally allow the Dolby Digital Plus to Dolby Digital conversion in Netflix and other apps, on Netflix I was able to see the 5.1 logo when the device was connected to a TV with only Dolby Digital decoding, of course it will also passthrough Dolby Atmos inside Dolby Digital Plus when connected to a TV or AV receiver with support. If the device is connected to a TV with only PCM decoding the 5.1 logo on Netflix doesn't appear which is the correct behavior.
- Other enhancements brought by Android 11.
CONS:
- Dolby Vision is presumably not supported but an option appears in screen settings, however, the option appears grayed out and I'm not sure if it becomes available when the box is connected to a TV with support.
- Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and Master Audio passthrough is not supported, but the box is able to passthrough the DTS Core from DTS-HD streams, however, many video apps can decode them as multichannel PCM without losing the lossless quality, meanwhile, Dolby TrueHD decoding to multichannel PCM is also possible depending on the app of course.
- Auto framerate is not supported as far as I can tell but it will be supported once Android 12 arrives... someday.
- The game mode is one of Android 11 features but it's not available on this device though I still don't know what it does.
- The new Android TV UI is still not available in my country, I know that many people hate its ads but I really want to have it (I don't want to use VPNs to activate it manually).
- Pressing and holding the power button doesn't bring the options to take screenshots and rebooting the device, it only allows to power it off, this seems to be an Android 11 limitation and it's a downside compared to previous versions.
ISSUES:
My unit has the following firmware fingerprint:
MECOOL/HP4414-MECOOL/YYC:11/RTT0:210829.002/C2.1.4_20220613:user/release-keys
And it has the following issues:
- As you may know, the G10 remote control can be programmed to control TVs, AV receivers and soundbars, so what I did was to set it up to control my TV, but I discovered the following situation: After I setup and switched it to control the volume of my TV, I noticed that the volume of the device doesn't change to a "fixed" state, which means, it can still be controlled by other means, such as the Chromecast Built-in volume rocker, so for example, if I accidentally or on purpose reduce the volume level of the device to zero (as in the below screenshot) using the volume keys of the remote (before I switch it to control the volume level of the TV) or using the Chromecast Built-in volume rocker, when I switch the remote to control the volume level of the TV, I will hear no sound coming out of the TV speakers because the volume level of the device was reduced previously. To fix that inconvenience, Google should implement an option in audio settings to switch the volume level of the device between "fixed" and "variable" (a similar option is available in the Nvidia Shield), that way we can be sure that nothing will modify the volume of the device by selecting the "fixed" option. I hope Google actually implements it:
- Programming the remote control to power the TV ON and OFF has one issue: when I press the power button to turn ON the TV, the device turns ON as well when it's in standby mode thanks to the bluetooth connection, BUT, when I press the power button to turn OFF the TV, the device won't turn OFF and it will stay ON until it reaches the time set in power function settings to turn OFF automatically, unless that the function was set to "never", it looks like the bluetooth connection is failing to turn OFF the device in this case.
- The box won't stay in standby mode after a certain period of time, when I turn it ON it just boots as if it were powered OFF completely even when the power settings has the standby mode option selected.
- I was unable to switch from controlling the volume, the power button and the input button options that control the TV to control the device, what happens is that after I select the option to control the device and then press the "back" button on the remote control, it automatically switches back to the TV's IR options so the only way to fix it was to remove the TV setting to be able to control the device again. I hope that Mecool or Google fix this problem.
- The Android 11 permission bug to access the storage is still broken here, unless we manually set the permission to access it all time, though some apps still lack that option.
- I've been unable to use game console emulators because of the aforementioned issue to access the storage.
- Multichannel PCM is getting downmixed to stereo but it's a problem of the firmware in the device and not an issue of Android 11.
CONCLUSION:
I really like the device despite its cons and issues, I just hope Mecool or Google try to address them.
If you feel that this review is enough for you to buy the device, then use the code "MECOOLBOX" to get a 10% discount at checkout in the Mecool Online website.
