"Good things come to those who wait”, my mother used to say. She also said, “If ifs and ands were pots and pans, the world would be a kitchen.” She was full of pithy stuff like that.
But in this case, she was right. The Minix NEO U9-H may not have released back when everybody else was flooding the market with S912 Android boxes, but boy was it worth the wait.
I’ve seen a half dozen or more of those early S912 releases and I’d be hard pressed to tell you any difference among them. They all worked (mostly). They were faster than the last generation of boxes (kinda). They ran Kodi 17 (until it crashed).
But the NEO U9-H from Minix is an example of what happens when you take your time and get it right.
Physically indistinguishable from the NEO U1 (see my review for that S905 beauty, still available), the U9-H packs not just the additional punch of the faster processor, but first class RAM (that means faster installs and launches), Wildvine 1 DRM protection, and Dolby Digital licensing (that means your DD and DTS files are all supported natively in every app).
Antutu benchmarks this box at over 42,000, but that’s just a number. A really good number, but just a number. The real test is in day to day usage and, having lived with this streamer for the better part of 3 days, let me tell you, it flies. Closing and opening apps is no problem. Boot up times are practically non-existent, and navigating menus is instantaneous and effortless. The best devices disappear and let their operation become second nature. That’s what the U9-H does. You forget it’s there.
The box is super stable, a testament to Minix’s philosophy of getting it right, not fast. I have yet to have anything crash on me, even when I get lazy and forget to kill the apps running in the background. Build quality is rock-solid, as with all of their devices.
It’s full of thoughtful little things, like a navigation bar that’s there when you want it, and gone when you don’t. It runs the Android TV version of YouTube as well as the stock android version. That makes the infrared remote much more useful in YouTube. The remote codes are in Logitech’s database, so your harmony remote is easy to program. It’s details like that that set Minix apart.
If you want to bump the experience up another notch, Minix offers the NEO A3 Air Mouse remote. Designed for Minix devices, this ergonomic remote adds gyroscopic air mouse functionality and a full QWERTY keyboard, making an already elegant interface even easier to navigate.
In the price vs. performance world of Android Media Streamers, this is the best you’ll find. Hands down.
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