Sunday, November 18, 2012

Android Smart TV– Akai Smart Box (Quick Review)

smart_boxPresenting a way to make your normal TV a real expensive smart TV which does not cost a fortune. Android TVs are the new gadgets in market available from many companies these days. They are normally Palm sized and run on Android OS. They support Wireless internet, cable internet, sometimes Data Cards and HDMI output along with standard VGA output as well. Today we will talk about Akai’s new Smart TV called Smart Box. This is the latest product in town. I recently bought this on the occasion of Dipawali.

Let’s look at the amazing features of this beauty and then we will talk about its price and how it can be used and can act like an all in one device for various needs.

It has the following amazing features:

  • Android Ginger Bread - GB does not matter much because it’s not a phone or a tablet so no worries about ICS.
  • 1 GHz processor. – Really fast in multitasking, playing videos and browsing flash intense websites.
  • 1 GB RAM – This is one of the best features that unlike other devices which only offer 512MB RAM, this one offers 1GB of RAM which is more than enough for all your needs.
  • Multi Video Support – Due to its CPU and RAM combination you can play almost any video format available in the market. Say goodbye to selective video download or format conversion.
  • Internet – With Wi-Fi, Cable and Data card internet you have got various options to connect to the internet.
  • HDMI & Composite – It supports both HD and SD output which covers every TV on the planet.
  • Full HD support – Yes 1080 Full HD support. What else you need to watch your Full HD videos which you copied from your friends ;)
  • Hotspot – Convert your cable internet to Wi-Fi, yes it can act as a Wi-Fi Router to share the internet among multiple devices.
  • Google Play – With Google market supported out of the box you have the option to download any of the 7 lakh applications available on the store without the need to re-think about anything.

These were some of the many great practice features which you would be using in your day to day usage. Device is very compact, lightweight, piano black in color and runs only on 5V energy which means you can leave the device open all day long without the worry of huge power bills.

Some of the Usage Ideas which are clicking my mind at the moment are:

  • Media Center PC
  • Casual Gaming Device
  • Internet Browsing
  • Youtube / Online Movies Streaming Device
  • Overnight Downloading Device (Bit Torrent / Huge files) (5 Volts & No heating or sound)
  • DLNA Server (To stream movies / music / photos in the network)
  • Cheap Home NAS (Network Attached Storage) with the use of 4 USB ports at the back
  • FTP Server
  • Media Server
  • Print Server

Possibilities are endless with this device.

Below are some of the images of the device and how it looks out of the box. In the coming articles I will show you how you can change the default boring look of the device and convert it into some funky looking ICS type tablet with the help of apps. Feel free to leave the comments below for more details.

Cost of the device ₹ 6,500 /- some of the links from where it can be bought (look for discounts).

BuyThePrice  |  Akai   | Google

Tech Specs:

image

Product Photos:

1AKAI-smart-Box-TV-Images-5smart_box1smart_box2

Video:

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