Within my teardown published last summer of Walmart’s “onn.”-branded original Android TV-based streaming receiver, the UHD Streaming Device:
I mentioned that I already had Google TV operating system-based successors for both the “box” and “stick” Android TV form factors (the latter subsequently dissected by me and published last December) sitting on my shelves awaiting my teardown attention. That time is now, specifically for the onn. Google TV 4K Streaming Box I’d bought at intro in April 2023 for $19.88 (the exact same price as its Android TV-based forebear):
The sizes of the two device generations are near-identical, although it’s near-impossible to find published dimension specs for either device online, only for the retail packaging containing them. As such, however, a correction is in order. I’d said in my earlier teardown that the Android TV version of the device was 4.9” both long-and-wide, and 0.8” tall: it’s actually 2.8” (70mm, to be precise) in both length and width, with a height of ~0.5” (13 mm). And the newer Google TV-based variant is ~3.1” (78mm) both long and wide and ~0.7” (18 mm) tall.
Here are more “stock” shots of the newer device that we’ll be dissecting today, along with its bundled remote control and other accessories:
Eagle-eyed readers may have already noticed the sole layout difference between the two generations’ devices. The reset switch and status LED are standalone along one side in the original Android TV version, whereas they’re at either side of, and on the same side as, the HDMI connector in the new Google TV variant. The two generations’ remote controls also vary slightly, although I bet the foundation hardware design is identical. The lower right button in the original gave user-access favoritism to HBO Max (previously HBO Go, now known as just “Max”):
whereas now it’s Paramount+ getting the special treatment (a transition which I’m guessing was motivated by the more recent membership partnership between the two companies and implemented via a relabel of that button along with an integrated-software tweak).
Next, let’s look at some “real-life” shots, beginning with the outside packaging:
Note that, versus the front-of-box picture of its precursor that follows, Walmart’s now referring to it as capable of up to “4K” output resolution, versus the previous, less trendy “UHD”:
Also, it’s now called a “box”, versus a “device”. Hold that latter thought until next month…now, back to today’s patient…
The two sides are comparatively info-deficient:
The bottom marks a return to info-rich form:
While the top as usual never fails to elicit a chuckle from yours truly:
Let’s see what’s inside:
That’s quite a complex cardboard assemblage!
The first things you’ll see when you flip up the top flap:
are our patient, currently swathed in protective opaque plastic, and a quick start guide that you can find in PDF form here, both as-usual accompanied in the photo by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. penny for size comparison purposes.
Below them, in the lower level of the cardboard assemblage, are the aforementioned remote control and a 1-meter (3.28 ft) HDMI cable:
Here’s the backside of the remote control; note the added sticker (versus its predecessor) above the battery compartment with re-pairing instructions, along with the differing information on the smaller sticker in the upper right corner within the battery compartment:
I realized after typing the previous words that since I hadn’t done a teardown of the remote control last time, I hadn’t taken a picture of its opened backside, either. Fortunately, it was still inhabiting my office, so…here you go!
Also originally located in the lower level of the cardboard assemblage are the AC adapter, an oval-shaped piece of double-sided adhesive for attaching the device to a flat surface, and a set of AAA batteries for the remote control:
Here’s the micro-USB jack that plugs into the on-device power connector:
And here are the power adapter’s specs:
which are comparable, “wall wart” form factor variances aside, with those of its predecessor:
Finally, here are some overview images of our patient, first from above:
Here’s the micro-USB side:
This side’s bare on this generation of the device:
but, as previously mentioned, contained the status LED and reset switch in the prior generation:
They’ve moved one side over this time, straddling the HDMI cable (I realized after taking this shot and subsequently moving on with the disassembly that the status LED was behind the penny; stand by for another look at it to come shortly!):
The last (left) side, in contrast, is bare in both generations:
Finally, here’s the device from below:
And here’s a closeup of the label, listing (among other things) the FCC ID, 2AYYS-8822K4VTG (no, I don’t know why there are 28 different FCC documents posted for this ID, either!):
Now to get inside. Ordinarily, I’d start out by peeling off that label and seeing if there are any screw heads visible underneath. But since last time’s initial focus on the gap between the two case pieces panned out, I decided to try going down that same path again:
with the same successful outcome (a reminder at the start that we’re now looking at the underside of the inside of the device):
Check out the hefty piece of metal covering roughly half of the interior and linked to the Faraday cage on the PCB, presumably for both thermal-transfer and cushioning purposes, via two spongy pieces still attached to the latter:
I’m also presuming that the metal piece adds rigidity to the overall assembly. So why doesn’t it cover the entirety of the inside? They’re not visible yet, but I’m guessing there are Bluetooth and Wi-Fi antenna somewhere whose transmit and receive potential would have been notably attenuated had there been intermediary metal shielding between them and the outside world:
See those three screws? I’m betting we can get that PCB out of the remaining top portion of the case if we remove them first:
Yep!
Before we get any further, let me show you that status LED that was previously penny-obscured:
It’s not the actual LED, of course; that’s on the PCB. It’s the emissive end of the light guide (aka, light pipe, light tube) visible in the upper left corner of the inside of the upper chassis, with its companion switch “plunger” at upper right. Note, too, that this time one (gray) of the “spongy pieces” ended up stuck to this side’s metal shielding, which once again covers only ~half of the inside area:
The other (pink) “spongy piece” is still stuck to one of the two Faraday cages on the top side of the PCB, now visible for the first time:
In the upper right corner is the aforementioned LED (cluster, actually). At bottom, as previously forecasted unencumbered by intermediary shielding thanks to their locations, are the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi antennae. Along the right edge is what I believe to be the PCB-embedded Bluetooth antenna. And as for those Faraday cages, you know what comes next:
They actually came off quite easily, leaving me cautiously optimistic that I might eventually be able to pop them back on and restore this device to full functionality (which I’ll wait to try until after this teardown is published; stay tuned for a debrief on the outcome in the comments):
Let’s zoom in and see what’s under those cage lids:
Within the upper one’s boundary are two notable ICs: a Samsung K4A8G165WC-BCTD DDR4-2666 8 Gbit SDRAM and, to its right, the system’s “brains”, an Amlogic S905Y4 app processor.
And what about the lower cage region?
This one’s an enigma. That it contains the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth transceivers and other circuitry is pretty much a given, considering its proximity to the antennae (among other factors). And it very well could be one and the same as the Askey Computer 8822CS, seemingly with Realtek wireless transceiver silicon inside, that was in the earlier Android TV version of device. Both devices support the exact same Bluetooth (5.0) and Wi-Fi (2.4/5GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac MIMO) protocol generations, and the module packaging looks quite similar in both albeit rotated 90° in one PCB layout versus the other:
That said, unfortunately, there’s no definitively identifying sticker atop the module this time, as existed previously. If it is the same, I hope the manufacturer did a better job with its soldering this time around!
Now let’s flip the PCB back over to the bottom side we’ve already seen before, albeit now freed from its prior case captivity:
I’ll direct your attention first to the now clearly visible reset switch at upper right, along with the now obscured light guide at upper left. I’m guessing that the black spongey material makes sure that as much of the light originating at the PCB on the other side makes it outside as possible, versus inefficiently illuminating the device interior instead.
Once again, the Faraday Cage lifts off cleanly and easily:
The Faraday cage was previously located atop the PCB’s upper outlined region:
Unsurprisingly, another Samsung K4A8G165WC-BCTD DDR4-2666 8 Gbit SDRAM is there, for 2 GBytes of total system memory.
The region below it, conversely, is another enigma of this design:
Its similar outline to the others suggests that a Faraday cage should have originally been there, too. But it wasn’t; you’ve seen the pictorial proof. Did the assembler forget to include it when building this particular device? Or did the manufacturer end up deciding it wasn’t necessary at all? Dunno. What I do know is that within it is nonvolatile storage, specifically the exact same Samsung KLM8G1GETF-B041 8 GByte eMMC flash memory module that we saw last time!
More generally, what surprises me the most about this design is its high degree of commonality with its predecessor despite its evolved operating system foundation:
- Same Bluetooth and Wi-Fi generations
- Same amount and speed bin of DRAM, albeit from different suppliers, and
- Same amount of flash memory, in the same form factor, from the same supplier
The SoCs are also similar, albeit not identical. The Amlogic S905Y2 seen last time dates from 2018, runs at 1.8 GHz and is a second-generation offering (therefore the “2” at the end). This time it’s the 2022-era Amlogic S905Y4, with essentially the same CPU (quad-core Arm Cortex-A53) and GPU (Mali-G31 MP2) subsystems, and fabricated on the same 12-nm lithography process, albeit running 200 MHz faster (2 GHz). The other notable difference is the 4th-gen (therefore “4” at the end) SoC’s added decoding support for the AV1 video codec, along with both HDR10 and HDR10+ high dynamic range (HDR) support.
Amlogic also offers the Amlogic S905X4; the fundamental difference between “Y” and “X” variants of a particular SoC involves the latter’s integration of wired Ethernet support. This latter chip is found in the high-end onn. Google TV 4K Pro Streaming Device, introduced last year, more sizeable (7.71 x 4.92 x 2.71 in.) than its predecessors, and now normally selling for $49.88, although I occasionally see it on sale for ~$10 less:
The 4K Pro software-exposes two additional capabilities of the 4th-generation Amlogic S905 not enabled in the less expensive non-Pro version of the device: Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos audio. It also integrates 50% more RAM (to 3 GBytes) and 4x the nonvolatile flash storage (to 32 GBytes), along with making wireless connectivity generational advancements (Wi Fi 6: 2.4/5GHz 802.11ax), embedding a microphone array and swapping out geriatric micro-USB for USB-C. And although it’s 2.5x the price of its non-Pro sibling, everything’s relative; since Google has now obsoleted the entire Chromecast line, including the HD and 4K versions of the Chromecast with Google TV, the only Google-branded option left is the $99.99 Google TV Streamer successor.
I’ve also got an onn. Google TV 4K Pro Streaming Device sitting here which, near term, I’ll be swapping into service in place of its Google Chromecast with Google TV (4K) predecessor. Near-term, stand by for an in-use review; eventually, I’m sure I’ll be tearing it down, too. And even nearer term, keep an eye out for my teardown of the “stick” form factor onn. Google TV Full HD Streaming Device, currently scheduled to appear at EDN online sometime next month:
For now, I’ll close with some HDMI and micro-USB end shots, both with the front:
and backsides of the PCB pointed “up”:
Along with an invitation for you to share thoughts on anything I’ve revealed and discussed here in the comments!
Coda
As mentioned earlier in the writeup, the attached-to-PCB-via-clips approach used in this design made it easy-peasy for me to pop off the Faraday cages, and left me wondering if the resultant seemingly straightforward eassembly would result in a fully functional device that I could then donate. Indeed it did, after less than 5 minutes’ total effort (3 minutes of which were spent searching for a screw I’d dropped on the floor!).
Huzzah! Off to Goodwill it goes for reuse by someone else!
—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the company’s online newsletter.
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