Foreword: The living room in the Internet era has always been the world of smart TV and TV box manufacturers. Traditional PC and tablet computer brands have rarely set foot in it. As a tablet computer brand, Chiwei seems to have intended to break the current situation. Recently, under the name of "your second computer", it launched a mini computer host, Chibox, It looks like a TV box in terms of appearance and configuration. Can it really be used as a TV box? Does it have enough strength to win a place in the living room? You may find the answer from my next trial report

1、 Product unpacking&appearance

Chiwei HiBox adopts environment-friendly cardboard box packaging. The packaging design style is simple and simple, without any publicity elements. From the packaging design, we can see Chiwei's low-key style. The packing box has good straightness, which will not produce obvious deformation when pressed by hand, which is very helpful to protect the safety of products during transportation.

Open the box cover, you can see that Chiwei HiBox host is stably placed in the inner box, and a soft protective bag is wrapped outside the body, so the protective measures are in place.

The accompanying accessories of Chiwei HiBox are also packed in their own accessory boxes. This design is not only neat and beautiful, but also can avoid mutual extrusion and damage between products.

Chiwei HiBox body adopts nano injection molding process, which is formed in one piece. The whole body is cool black, and the surface of the body feels smooth and delicate, with a sense of texture. In the middle of the top of the fuselage is the trademark of Chiwei, and the Intel logo below it indicates the distinguished identity of its CPU. As the world's top processor provider, Intel is Chiwei's global strategic partner, and its tablets all use Intel's processors.

Chiwei HiBox is equipped with a host power supply, two USB2.0 interfaces, and an SD card expansion slot on the front of the HiBox. The SD card expansion slot can support a maximum of 128GB of expansion space, providing sufficient storage space for the host.

More interfaces are distributed on the left side of the fuselage. From left to right, there are power sockets, USB3.0 sockets, HDMI sockets, LAN sockets, headphone sockets, and RESET hidden button sockets.

There are only two digital microphones on the right side of the fuselage. At present, this design seems a bit lame. I can't think of any reasonable scene that can use them. Who will use it for voice chat? It is estimated that few people will do so.

Chiwei HiBox has plastic foot pads at the bottom four corners, which can increase the stability of the box and also play a seismic role. A groove is designed in the middle of the bottom, which can be fixed on the back of the display screen or the wall with the snap in the accessories, so as to save space to the greatest extent.

The quality of the random HDMI cable is good, and the gold-plated interface increases its conductivity and anti-corrosion performance.

Chiwei HiBox's power adapter adopts the rare dual pin plug in China, and the work of the adapter is very good.

There is also a host rack in the attachment, which is used to fix the host behind the display or on the wall. The rack has good hardness and can fully bear the weight of the host.

Chiwei is HiBox's instruction manual and certificate of conformity. The instruction manual adopts the popular foldout style, and the content is very simple. Because this kind of product is very easy to use, it does not need too complicated instructions, and it is understandable that the instructions are printed simply.

According to the usual family photos, there are many hosts, HDMI cables, power adapters, brackets, screws * 4, instructions, and certificates.

2、 Experience
Before the official experience, let's briefly introduce the configuration of Chiwei HiBox. HiBox is equipped with Intel X5-Z8350 processor, 64 bit quad core, and the main frequency is up to 1.9GHz; 4GB dual channel DDR3L memory, 64GB eMMC high-speed flash memory; 1000Mbit/s network card; Dual frequency 2.4Ghz/5Ghz; Windows 10 and Android 5.1 dual systems. If compared as a TV box, this configuration is enough to make the industry proud.
The HiBox should be powered by the power adapter before use, and the HiBox should be connected to a TV or projector with an HDMI cable. The two connectors of the HiBox are on the left side, so it is difficult to straighten the body after the cable is plugged in. For Virgos, it will be very awkward to place the HiBox in this way, The manufacturer may consider rotating the logo and Intel logo printed on the top of the fuselage 90 degrees clockwise, so that the side of the power interface becomes the back side of the fuselage, which perfectly unlocks the knot of Virgo. Turn on the power supply of the host, and the blue indicator on the top of the host lights up, indicating that the power is normal.

During startup, there will be a countdown display of dual system selection, and the system startup process is very fast.

Everyone is familiar with the Windows 10 system, and it is easy to get started without any difficulty.

Since we are evaluating computers, we can hardly avoid the custom. Master Lu, the most commonly used hardware evaluation software in the market, will test the comprehensive performance of Chiwei HiBox. The test results show that Chiwei HiBox's comprehensive performance score of 33 thousand is excellent, even exceeding the score of Core i5 M560 * 2 2.67Ghz dual core processor. Although Master Lu's test results cannot be fully believed, at least they can show that Chiwei HiBox's performance is not lagging behind.

Chiwei has pre installed iQIYI video client for HiBox. iQIYI video can be opened through the shortcut on the desktop. When the shortcut is opened, there will be a secondary menu for users to choose. The menu items are: iQIYI windows、 Network settings, shutdown.

Select iQIYI and enter the iQIYI client. After so many years of development, iQIYI has now grown into a leading video content provider in the world, the largest legitimate video content library in China covering more than 10 types of films, TV dramas, variety shows, animation, and through the continuous promotion of the "iQIYI production" strategy, "pure online content" The production of iQIYI's solo shows in the real sense of all categories and high quality era is very excellent, and every TV play launched will set off an upsurge of on-demand broadcast on the Internet. IQIYI client has more than 300000 hours of free movies and TV plays. After becoming a member of iQIYI, you can enjoy free advertising and smooth viewing. You can enjoy exclusive blockbusters synchronized with cinemas, exclusive mass high-quality content, ultimate audio-visual experience, and unique offline member services.

Chiwei HiBox is not marked with flying mouse remote control, and can only be operated by keyboard and mouse. iQIYI client also supports mobile phone remote control, which can be controlled through the TV remote control function of iQIYI client on the mobile phone.

Through the experience of playing movies and TV plays, I feel that video playback is very smooth, and there is rarely a "stuck" phenomenon. If the network is not good, you can improve the smoothness by adjusting the definition of the video. In addition, Chiwei HiBox also supports 4K hard solution, which makes it easy to watch 4K videos.

If you think iQIYI cannot fully meet the needs of watching movies, you can also download and install other popular video clients, such as Youku, Storm, Tencent, Sohu, etc. This shows the advantages of Chiwei HiBox over traditional TV boxes and smart TVs. In recent years, SARFT has taken more and more strict measures to severely punish Internet TV, prohibiting video content websites from providing TV end APP download, disabling USB ports to install third-party applications, prohibiting the pre installation of third-party application markets, prohibiting browsers from downloading and installing applications, blocking live broadcast software and other blocking behaviors, TV box and smart TV manufacturers had to make rectification according to regulations, which led to the loss of many users. Chiwei HiBox itself is a computer host, so it is not within the scope of the radio and television ban, and is not affected by the radio and television ban. It can freely install various applications and video software, which is its strong advantage over other TV boxes and smart TVs.

There are many excellent applications in the Win10 app store, such as free software such as WeChat, QQ Music, Baidu Online Disk, Youku, Taobao, and many other paid software for users to choose from.

Some users like to play large screen games on TV. Compared with other TV boxes and smart TVs, HiBox has more than one level of hardware configuration, which will undoubtedly help it win in large screen games. I downloaded a wild drag racing 8-speed Lingyun in the app store. This game was originally a mobile platform game. Due to its high popularity in the market, it gradually evolved into a computer version. When Chiwei HiBox plays this racing game, the picture is smooth, the operation is sensitive, and the sound effect is also very good.

Chiwei HiBox, as a mini computer host, is very small in size and easy to carry. It is also very suitable for mobile office. It has built-in OFFICE office software, which connects the TV or projector in the conference room. It can easily process various office documents and can be used as a demonstration computer for small conferences.

Swithnow is used to set the startup menu and switch windows to Android. Click "OK" to switch to Android.

Chiwei HiBox uses the native Android 5.1 system. The native system is simple and smooth, but its interface may not meet people's aesthetic needs. Personally, I prefer the optimized version of Android, which is optimized according to the actual use needs to improve the user experience from the interface and operation habits. As far as Chiwei HiBox is concerned, because its Android version is mainly for watching large screen movies, optimizing it according to users' usage habits of large screen devices will give users a better feeling of use.

Use the popular Android rabbit to test the performance of the machine. The test results also show that Chiwei HiBox's configuration ranks among the best in the field of TV boxes.

Due to well-known reasons, the Google Store in native Android cannot be used, so if you want to download and install applications, you can only use the browser. ChiBox is not affected by the ban on radio and television. Therefore, its Android browser is full featured, and you can download Android applications normally.

In order to download and install applications more easily in the future, you can also install third-party application markets, It is a very good application market with a wide range of applications and complete functions.

Its USB port function has not been castrated, and it can read and install the application installation package in the USB flash disk and SD card.

Under the supervision of the radio and television policy, the original TV video applications later cooperated with the Internet TV licensors, and launched a new version of the video application. Youku TV has also changed its version. Now it is renamed CIBN Universal Pictures. After cooperating with CIBN, the video will be subject to CIBN's review and supervision, so many of the original video content has disappeared, For example, many people have subscribed to their favorite We Media accounts for original We Media videos. If you want to watch these videos after Youku's revision, you can only watch them on a computer. Of course, if you still want to watch them on TV, you can use ChiBox to switch to Win10 system. You can choose various We Media videos and watch them if you want.

3、 Summary
Through the trial evaluation, Chiwei HiBox left a deep impression on me. As a mini computer host, it is small and portable. The built-in OFFICE office software can easily process various office documents and can be used as a mobile office computer. As a TV box, HiBox's powerful hardware configuration makes it easy to play large screen games or watch 4K movies. Compared with traditional TV boxes and smart TVs, HiBox is not under the control of the broadcasting ban, which allows it to freely install various applications and watch more videos than TV boxes and smart TVs. In addition, it has Windows and Android dual systems, which makes it more playable. It has these unique congenital advantages, which will make it more competitive with traditional TV boxes. Although the price of 799 is slightly higher than other TV boxes, considering its strong performance and rich play methods, HiBox is still worth the price.
As the saying goes, every product has its own shortcomings, and HiBox is no exception. After many days of use, I found that Chiwei HiBox has a bug, and its desktop icon will change its position every time it is restarted. This phenomenon exists in Android and Windows, and it is recommended to continue to optimize. In addition, I have another suggestion. This machine is not equipped with a standard remote control. It is OK under Windows, and can be operated by wireless keyboard and mouse. But under Android, because many TV video applications are designed according to the habit of remote control, the keyboard and mouse operation is very awkward. If you want to go further in the living room competition for HiBox, I suggest taking the flying mouse remote control as the standard configuration, and making up its last weakness, it will be closer to perfection. I believe Chiwei HiBox will perform very well in the market.