In the quest for the ideal living room entertainment device, one of the strongest contenders is the "USB stick" class of Android devices. One of the latest credible entrants into this market is the Tronsmart MK908, a Rockchip RK3188-based device running Android 4.1.1 or 4.2.2. It notably features four cores and a very slightly larger case than other stick-form computers, permitting inclusion of a more useful heat sink. But like basically every other similar device on the market, there are significant failings to this tiny computer.
I have been living with the MK908 for several days now and have tried a few different things, so I finally feel qualified to write a useful review. This is my fourth android STB,after giving up on two Rikomagic dual-core sticks (MK809 variants) and an Ouya. This is by far the most useful of the bunch for me for a variety of reasons. The Ouya had significant promise, but they have spent significant effort ruining Android and it shows. The Rikomagic devices stunk on ice; one had a short across the power input and the other was just useless. Unfortunately, I cannot in fact say that the MK908 does all the things it is supposed to do either.
One notable failure of the MK908 so far is its inability to do 1080p as promised. There is a 1080p kernel, but it causes overheating. If you want a device to do 1080p right now, it is not the MK908. Another is the lack of useful libstagefright acceleration with the RK3188. This is a problem rockchip claims to be addressing in the future, as well as adding more video codec support to the Mali 400 GPU. This has been clocked up from 400 to 533 MHz for the RK3188 and it does show, although the video performance lags substantially behind the competition. Where the RK3188 really shines today is CPU performance, with benchmark scores significantly above any of the other quad-cores. It is also notable that Linux kernel source is now available for the 3188, implying that Picuntu support should be coming along soonish.
One place the MK908 did achieve significant success in video is in support for off-resolution displays. While Ouya displays a 1080p picture scaled down to 640x480 on anything other than a 1280x720 or 1920x1080 display (which renders small text completely unreadable, among other problems) the MK908's output appeared smack in the middle of my 1440x900 widescreen, and I was even able to zoom it in to fill the entire display. While it would be nice to see some of these devices support arbitrary resolutions delivered by EDID, this is at least usable on the display I have lying around. This means I can still use the device when the TV in the living room is in use; it's literally the only display in the house which is native 1080p. My desktop display is 1920x1200, but it doesn't even report a 1080p mode, which meant I got 640x480 on my 25.5" IPS from Ouya. This was one of my big motivations to return it.
Another place the MK908 falls down is the included power supply. It's an allegedly 5V/2A supply which will not run the MK908 reliably. I experienced hangs just sitting at the launcher while using it. I am now powering the MK908 from a Belkin USB2 hub, which is also connected to the MK908 as a hub. It is powered by a 5V/3A supply which apparently actually supplies its rated output. I am taking a page from my Raspberry Pi book and I have a buck converter coming which takes 8-18VDC and puts out 5V/3A on a Mini USB connector. It is intended for automotive use and cost $2.50 on eBay, including shipping by China Post.
Sadly, I must also report that the wireless functionality is pretty much garbage. I couldn't pair my logitech mouse or my Sony BD Remote, both of which I can pair to pretty much everything else. I get about 1MB/sec at best out of the WiFi, in spite of being about four feet from the AP. I can get 3MB/sec out of a Trendnet TU2-ET100 ethernet interface, so USB is clearly not the bottleneck. Other devices get much better speeds. You should plan for USB ethernet and non-bluetooth input. USB works great, including USB-OTG.
There have been attempts to remedy these problems by the community, but none very serious yet. There have been a couple of Finless roms, but I found them to actually reduce stability. It seems they include more kernel modules however, so for example my USB audio device (the cheapest possible) works with Finless but not with the stock ROM. It seems that camera support is quite good in the stock ROM, and my logitech camera is detected along with its microphone which appears in the audio manager as an input device.
The single biggest problem (what, there's more?) is stuttering while playing streaming video. This makes Netflix worthless. There's a hack which involves causing a pixel to move around over the top of the netflix window, which reduces but does not eliminate the stutter. Some people are working on their code, but at least one of them is violating the GPL by distributing binaries but not sources, and outright refusing to explain what he has done.
TL;DR: Meh.