Launch of the MK802 III – Initial Preview

Launch of the MK802 III – Initial Preview

The thumb-drive mini computer devices have seen quite a number of releases the year. Following the popularity of the MK802, the third version dubbed the MK802 III has now been released by Rikomagic to the market. The MK802 was a favourite due to the open-source friendly nature of the Allwinner A10 processor. It was firmware friendly and had the luxury of custom ROM support, as well as the ability to run Linux. Will the MK802 III be able to follow in its foot steps?

The MK802 III is playing catch up now to other competitors such as the MK808 or UG802 thumb drive competitors. The MK802 III joins the party, with the same processor (Rockchip Rk3066 ARM Cortex-A9 dual core processor), 1GB of RAM and 4GB or 8GB of built-in storage.

However, with the same Rockchip RK3066 processor onboard, it is unlikely that we would be seeing Linux on the MK802 III anytime soon as it would face the same problem as it counterparts of getting the chip manufacturer support. However, the MK802 III should be a better buy for now as given the time it took to release to market and based on initial screen captures, it does not suffer the same resolution issues as that of the MK808 or UG802.

Detailed Specifications

Model

Rikomagic MK802 III

Dimension

90 * 40 *13 mm

Net Weight

0.25kg

Material

Plastic

CPU

Rockchip RK3066; Cotex A9, 1.6GHz; GPU: Quad- Core 2D/ 3D/ OpenGL ES2.0(AMD Z430)/ OpenVG1.1

Operation System

Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)

Memory

DDR3 1GB

Nand Flash

8GB (2GB for OS, 6GB available space)

Android Market

Yes

Youtube / Flash

Yes, Support Adobe Flash 11.3

Video

Support AVI, RMVB, MKV& FLV Video Format, Support 1080P HD Playback

Music

MP3/WMA/WAV/APE/AAC/FLAC/OGG

Ebook

TXT, PDF, HTML, RTF, FB2…

Skype

Yes, but this device does not built-in microphone / camera.

HDMI Interface

Yes, it can support following HDMI output mode:
– 480I / 480P
– 580I / 580P
– 720P (50Hz / 60Hz)
– 1080i (50Hz / 60Hz)
– 1080P (24Hz / 50Hz / 60Hz)

Email and Browser

Yes, built in

WIFI

Built-in 802.11 b/g/n

Extend Port

1 x HDMI port
1 x MicroSD (TF) Card Slot
1 x USB Power port
1 x USB 2.0 Host port (wired keyboard; 2.4G keyboard, mouse, hand grip, etc)

Where to Buy?

Amazon.com is offering the MK802 III directly from Rikomagic. The price is very reasonable as well – Dual Core Android 4.1.1 Mk802 III at $68.97.

DX.com is selling the 4G ROM version at $67.20. Alternatively, you could search on AliExpress as an alternative. Sellers there are generally quite reliable and the price there tends to be cheaper as well. Go here and type MK802 III.

Why Mini Computer Again?

As a simple BitTorrent Rig – connect to a USB wall socket and the MK802 III Mini PC’s power consumption is only about 3 Watts at full load which is extremely low and environmentally free to leave it on as a torrent rig. Install a free torrent client like tTorrent Lite or aDownloader and connect a 1TB external hard drive and you are good to go.

As a Media Player – the MK802 III like the other mini PCs are well equipped to cope with the demands of various HD media. Do try out Dice Player which we had reviewed on our site previously. XBMC is still not in a ready deployable stage yet but we are constantly updating its progress and will update more upon its completion.

To play old arcade games – while the MK802III is not ideal for running most Android games due to the lack of a touch screen, you could theoretically hook it up with two USB game controllers and then install game emulators such as GENPlusDroid (Genesis emulator), SNESDoid (SNES emulator), SuperGNES (SNES emulator), NESDroid (NES emulator) and MAME4droid (arcade emulator). Have Fun!