This time we are reviewing a new media player (Mecool BB2) with many features while being very affordable.
Packaging – Specifications
Mecool BB2 arrived in a small box with the media player itself being protected carefully. Other parts (power brick, cables, remote (no batteries inside) were underneath it with no extra protection but it wasn’t required after all since all arrived in excellent condition.
As far as specifications go, it appears to be extremely well equipped.
Amlogic S912 Octa core CPU, Mali 820 GPU with 2GB of RAM / 16GB ROM are among the best choices available.
HDMI 2.0 promises 4K compatibility and 2 x USB 2.0, SPDIF and card reader fill the bill.
Regarding network, a Gigabit LAN promises safe playback via network which is the same for the Wi-Fi AC supported protocol. BT 4.0 is the latest and greatest for Bluetooth connections.
Specs like Gigabit LAN, Wi-Fi AC are pretty rare for a media player of Mecool’s price range.
A slightly better version of BB2 exists with 2GB RAM / 32GB ROM.
Media Player - Remote
Mecool BB2 is very small (a trend these days) and is made of plastic.
Clean lines, metal grey color and square design makes it easy to put it everywhere you wish.
All major I/Os are located at the back (HDMI,Power,SPDIF,1x USB,LAN) so cable management should be easy for the majority of installations. The detachable antenna is quite small and gold color fitting looks quite good (not cheesy).
It is made of plastic and although during our tests it got a bit warm, we did not experience system crashes or restarts relevant to overheating.
When on, the logo on top is colored blue but not in a distracting way.
The remote is plastic with good grip. A plastic “click” feeling is what the user receives when pressing the buttons. A softer “feeling” would be nicer. It is a matter of taste though.
Range is also good and like most of the remotes it has a learning option.
Menus – Settings
Booting into the main menu lasts a minute or so but until you get there a nice animation to make you forget about time.
The menu is simplistic, exactly like the one we found at K1 Plus S2 review .
One main screen only featuring all the basic options (KODI, File manager, Settings, Web Browser and apps) with the possibility to add shortcuts. Nice, clean and simple with a useful clock widget in the middle.
Settings menu is the (now) classic one that we find in all recent media players.
Big informative icons that can help you find the setting you want very quickly.
All modern display options are also here (4K screen resolutions, HDR)
Testing
Mecool BB2 is the first android player we review with 17 KODI version pre-installed.
The latest version has a much better user interface both in terms of aesthetics and usability.
All the major settings are there (including HD Audio options) and setting it up (language, subtitles) was very easy.
You will also find installed very popular addons that we must not mention 🙂
Playback was a slightly different case though.
1080p files (all sorts, from low bit rate web releases to high bit rate BLU RAY backups) had perfect playback and the all different v17 KODI GUI when in playback mode provided a sense of “new” which was good.
4K files had issues with v17 KODI but had perfect playback using other players like the pre-installed MX Player.
Once again HD Audio was not possible in all cases (KODI, MX Player) but at least Tru HD output-ed multi channel pcm and DTS Master Audio core DTS accordingly.
As expected, music files (mp3, flac) had perfect playback.
Regarding LAN performance, via RJ45 playback of the highest bit rate files was a breeze.
Wireless playback was perfect for mid bit rate 1080p mkvs.
Android
Google’s Android v6.0.1 is the selected operating system. It also comes pre-rooted which is a major bonus for power users.
Setting up a Google account and have access to Play Store’s unlimited library was also very easy.
All the major applications and games are at your disposal (~12GB of free space are available) and BB2’s specs (S912, 2GB RAM / 16GB ROM) are assisting towards a very pleasing experience.
Summary
Mecool BB2 is great. Specifications are among the best, performance is stellar (if you bypass v17 KODI 4K issues) and pricing is very aggressive.
We would like to thank www.geekbuying.com for sending the player in exchange for an unbiased presentation.
- If this review helped you towards making your decision, we would appreciate if you made your order through the previous affiliate link(s). This way we will be able to review more products in the future.