CONCLUSION

   For someone who’s been using full sized media players ever since they got introduced in the market almost a decade ago the V5 doesn’t seem capable for much largely because of its size. Things however in this industry never stay the same and so although full sized media players used to use single and dual ARM CPUs and GPUs now manufacturers can fit a quad core ARM CPU and a quad core Mali GPU inside a compact HDMI dongle like the V5 (not to mention the 2GB DDR3 RAM, 16GB ROM, dual band WiFi, Bluetooth v4.0 and much more). Unfortunately if you’re looking for a tiny HDMI android stick the V5 will let you down since it’s quite bulky and can’t be easily used behind a TV screen if you have other HDMI devices connected as well (although the supplied extension cord resolves this). Through testing the V5 for a period of 2 months we found nothing wrong with it, navigation was smooth, playback was excellent with vibrant colors (using the new Kodi v15.1 app) and even the WiFi and Bluetooth features worked flawlessly. However we did come across a single issue and that was the fast forward and skip chapter functionality in Kodi. If you try it 1 time it works fine but if you try to fast forward a lot or skip more than just 1 chapter then the app would crash to the main menu. I don’t know if this was isolated to our sample and if other samples (perhaps the ones using android v4.4.4) work fine but we were frustrated a bit by that.

   In terms of pricing the V5 Android Stick by Rikomagic is balanced since it currently retails for USD100.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 106.98Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). Of course when there are Android Sticks for half as much in the market (some even cheaper) some consumers may have a hard time picking the V5 over them. In the end once again it all comes down to what your needs are and how much you’re willing to pay so if you want a powerful android stick capable of 4k playback and with plenty of features the V5 is for you and since we enjoyed using it we’re giving it our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Performance (Quad CPU/GPU/2GB DDR3)
- 16GB ROM
- Bluetooth V4.0
- Dual Band WiFi
- RJ45 Port
- HDMI v2.0

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Size (For Some)
- Kodi Fast Forward/Skip Chapter Issue?