Review of Media Player & Gaming console iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI

Today I have brought the revolutionary iconBIT xPlAY 950HDMI. Let’s begin the review.

Unboxing of iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI:

iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI
If we talk about the box, an accessory kit – except for the console, there is also a power supply, remote control and a pair of AAA batteries, the composite cable comes in the box of iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI. In addition, there you will also find a game controller (powered by three AAA batteries, for which there is space in the box, but it seems there is not any space).

iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI

Design

The size of iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI is pretty small and it is strong box made of black plastic with rough decorative glossy insert in the front. In front is a power indicator (note, very bright) and inconspicuous IR receiver – no more buttons or connectors are not there.

iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI

At the Behind there is composite video output, HDMI ports and USB, as well as optical audio output. As you can see, there’s no Ethernet port – so in the network capabilities this player will not work out, but it has got the built-in Wi-Fi is also available which is solution for network capabilities.

iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI

The bottom of a iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI metal player, with ventilation holes – in the absence of an active cooling system it will be clearly out of place.

iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI

The power button, rather surprisingly, is on the side – next to the card reader and USB-port.

Remote Control for iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI is small, fits in your hand. The manufacturer tried to put it up buttons, so they have turned a relatively small and very tightly packed together, which is put a impact on ergonomics – blindly hit the right buttons will only after some practice. In use, the player has become apparent that a stable signal reception from the remote control took place in a narrow cone in front of the device – worth it to deviate from the central axis of 30-50 degrees, and control signals are not perfect at the first time.

iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI

iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI as Media Player

iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI based on the chipset family ARM10, running at a frequency of 700MHz. It contains a 32 bit RISC CPU, hardware video decoder and 2D/3D graphics core. Included is the player is incredibly fast – less than 10 seconds, even from a completely off state. The main menu consists of six items: “Explorer”, “Music,” “Video”, “Photo”, “The Game”, “Settings”. Last frankly concise – it contains a choice of audio and video modes, the interface language, time saver, and reset to factory default settings. Availability of certain items for video, music and photo opportunities of cataloging does not mean the content – in fact, it is the same version of the submission of the disc “Explorer”, only to filter on, cut off all unsuitable for the selected mode files. The interface is not very fast when navigating the connected drive now and then for a split second loading screen appears.

In terms of movies starting player operatives fast as well- Play starts in 2-4 seconds after pressing the Play, Stop and exit the menu took about the same. Reproduce images of Blu-ray player could not (and in the ISO-file and in a folder structure), with a DVD no problem, except that the remote control can cause the disc menu, and if the startup is not it, playing a movie, then go to the menu on this DVD is only consistent with the transition between chapters by clicking Next. To the surprise, iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI easily coped with video encoded with XviD codec enabled, Global Motion Compensation – usually home appliances or such video show with artifacts or completely refuse to play.

Performance

When playing videos in the player does not beat the record in the “synthetic benchmarks”, but is more than sufficient for real-world problems – there were only a braking bitrate 80 Mbit / s.

iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI as Game console

iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI

Included with the player goes wireless controller, the shape and button layout imitates the classic DualShock series of the family of consoles Sony PlayStation. However, this controller is much larger in size (it is even slightly larger than the gamepad console Xbox360), which is why people with small wrists would not able to use it very comfortable. The buttons are pressed quickly and clearly, including the triggers for index fingers (they, incidentally, is fully digital, as opposed to modern consoles, gamepads). An eight D-pad is made in the form of a disk that is not the best way affects the ease of its use in a fighting game. It is interesting that the controller can be used to navigate through the player menu – press confirm and exit to the previous screen serves as a center located in the Start and Esc, and circle and cross under the thumb of his right hand.

Those who wish to play on iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI into something fresh can relax – the player is, in fact, an emulator of classic game consoles (NES, Game Boy / GBC / GBA, SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis, slot machines Capcom, Neo-Geo, and so etc.). In this case, complete with it is not a single game – it is assumed that the user must take care of finding and downloading on the Internet. After that, the images are recorded on a flash drive, connected to the player and start menu “The Game” – the player itself understands what emulator you want to use the console, then it remains only to find out which button gamepad is responsible for what. There are no settings in game mode, but it is possible to save the state of the console (savestate), which allows the use of saving at any given time, rather than relying on a system of checkpoints, etc.

Conclusion:

iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI – a kind of mix media player and game console, and definitely good enough. As on TV today with huge diagonals these games look, quite frankly, unpresentable – Emulators classical systems is better viewed on portable devices, where small screens conceal the shortcomings of graphics (by the way, the iconBIT there is such a model – xFire 550DV). As a result, xPLAY 950HDMI may be interested in, paradoxically, most adult gamers, mostly in the order of nostalgia. Given the low price frankly, this game features the player can be regarded as a kind of free bonus – which may come in handy, say, a summer cottage.

Pros of iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI:

+ Sufficient functionality for the player, plus classic console emulator
+ A good gamepad
+ Low Price

Cons of iconBIT xPLAY 950HDMI:

– Lack of network functions
– Lack of games in a set
– Lack of support

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