CONCLUSION

   It’s been a while since we last had something from Egreat in our lab so the A5 was a good surprise mainly because it follows the footsteps of its predecessor since it packs numerous interfaces and is housed inside a brushed aluminum enclosure. I have to admit that the HiSilicon Hi3798C V200 SoC was pretty much unknown to us up until the moment we got the A5 roughly 3 months ago but after thorough testing it’s clear that it can hold its own even when you throw raw 4k content to it. Unfortunately I don’t own a True HD/Dolby Atmos compatible surround sound system to test the A5 on that but everything worked like a charm with my 7.1 surround sound one. The external SATA power and data ports along with the USB 3.0 port and the micro SD card slot are three very interesting additions (especially if you plan on using 4k content) as is the optical S/PDIF output which we don’t see a lot in similar models (for example the Solo 4k lacked that). In terms of WiFi signal don’t expect miracles but at least it works great if the modem/router (WiFi signal origin) is inside the same room. I was surprised to see that Egreat is using VidOn XBMC version 16.1 instead of the new 17.1 version of KODI but that may change soon enough (as mentioned earlier you can still manually install KODI v17.1 from within the Google Play Store). The A5 has almost every single thing that we’d like to see in a good media player so at least in our book it has everything it needs to become popular among people looking to get their hands on a powerful 4k media player.

   Currently and after a few price cuts the A5 4k UHD Media Player by Egreat retails for USD209.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 176Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) a price tag which places it right in the middle of similar 4k UHD compatible media players. With that out of the way however the A5 is one of a very few media players featuring the same amount of interfaces and ports so that alone gives it a head start compared to most. Of course it’s not perfect since many firmware updates later although most glitches have been resolved there are still some around but it’s a very good 4k UHD compatible media player regardless which is also why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Brushed Aluminum Enclosure) 
- Very Good Playback Performance (HiSilicon Hi3798C V200 SoC)
- Compatible With UHD H.265/HEVC, 3D And 10-Bit Media Content
- HDMI v2.0a
- Stereo, Coaxial And Optical S/PDIF Audio Outputs
- Available External Connectors (SATA/USB 3.0/Micro SD Card Slot)
- Easy To Navigate GreatUI 10.0
- Built In WiFi

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Regular Remote Control (Not Illuminated)
- VidOn XBMC (Not Very “Popular” Among Enthusiasts)