Rikomagic’s latest TV stick is a bit chunky, but that’s because in addition to two full-sized USB ports, a microSD card slot, an HDMI connector, WiFi and Bluetooth, the Rikomagic V5 has a Ethernet jack.

Update: The Rikomagic V5 is now available from AliExpress for $108.

There are plenty of other sticks like the Rikomagic V5 that you can plug into the HDMI port of your television to run Android apps on the big screen.

But this is one of the few I’ve seen with support for Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11ac WiFi.

rikomagic v5

The Rikomagic V5 should be available later in November for a little more than $100.

It features 2GB of RAM and 8GB to 16GB of built-in storage. The device is powered by a Rockchip RK3288 processor.

Google recently launched Android TV, a software platform based on Android 5.0 which is designed to bring Android apps to a big screen. The Rikomagic V5 doesn’t run that.

Instead, it ships with Android 4.4 KitKat installed. That’s a mixed blessing. On the one hand devices like this have a user interface that was designed for touchscreen phones and tablets and not for TVs (although many Android boxes and sticks ship with custom app launchers which help a little bit). On the other hand you don’t have to wait for developers to update their Android apps to support Android TV before they become available.

rikomagic v5_02

The V5 comes with full access to the Google Play Store, which means you can download and install many apps that might not officially be supported on an Android TV device like the Google Nexus Player.

Back to that first hand though… some of those apps might be tough to actually use with a remote control rather than a keyboard, mouse, or touchscreen.

Anyway, it’s hard for me not to compare Android boxes and Android TV boxes since I just wrote a 5,000+ word review of the Nexus Player. But if you’re a fan of running the full Android operating system instead of Android TV and you’re just looking for a pocket-sized device with better connectivity options than most other devices in its class, the Rikomagic V5 looks like it could be interesting.

via Cngadget

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13 replies on “Rikomagic V5 TV stick has 802.11ac WiFi and Ethernet”

  1. Can it run regular Linux? I have no interest in Android. I don’t see why you couldn’t use this as a decent media or SSH server. It certainly has the ports for it.

  2. Why did they give it better wireless capability and the bury the antenna inside to hobble it?
    doh.

    1. Its difficult to get over a 100Mbps via WIFI, but with ethernet no problem.

  3. The ethernet port will really come in handy if you use a slingbox stream or other finicky streams. The chromecast is great for what it does, but some apps buffer to often.

  4. I have had a couple Rikomagic dongles. The theory is cool, but the quality has not been very good. I eventually went the route of Chromecast, but I like the idea of a full Android dongle. If someone thinks of buying this then I suggest you just set your expectations lower. It’s probably cool to set up and play around with. But I’d bet its not very stable and won’t have much longevity.

    1. Yeah… that’s sort of where I’ve been for the last year or so. I keep testing them because readers seem to be interested. But I try to keep people’s expectations low: if you want user friendly, get a Roku, Chromecast, or Fire TV. If you want something more hacker-friendly (and that might *require* some hacking), there are devices like this.

        1. See? 🙂

          I use a Windows PC in my living room and a Chromecast in the basement. But I’ve got an Amazon Fire TV Stick on the way along with a Matchstick and I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them eventually replaces the Chromecast for day-to-day use.

          But I’ll keep testing other products. I’ve got a few Chromebooks to finish reviewing, along with the Nexus 6. After that I’ve got a few RK3288-powered boxes which I’ll be testing.

          Hopefully I can finish all of that before it’s time for CES. 🙂

          1. RikoMagic always seems to bork something in their builds of Android, it’s gotten better over time but they always seem to leave something important out

  5. I think manufacturers are pushing the boundry of how heavy and large of dongles they think can hang off the back of my TV.

  6. Chainfire just released a launcher for Nexus Player that should allow you to run any regular Android app.
    But this device looks nice, Ethernet port

Comments are closed.