While everyone was waiting for their Braswell-based Mini PC's (Minix Z family), Minix quietly worked on the newest Amlogic S905product - the Minix Neo U1.

Just two weeks after being announced, Minix Neo U1 is already available for purchase, and we have the chance to thoroughly test it. Today we start with the unboxing.

We received the Neo U1 along with the Minix A2 Lite 2.4Ghz airmouse/qwerty keyboard, which deserves it's own article - I always recommended an airmouse for the Android TV boxes, and A2 lite is one of the best.

Back on Minix U1: the first impression that I had while holding the box was that it is way heavier than expected : as you can see below the mini PC itself is rather small and the accessories are not that heavy also, so what's so heavy about it?

The answer might be simple: Minix used a large heatsink, that covers most of the PCBA (including the CPU, RAM and memory).

For the box itself Minix kept the visual identity they used for previous models (such as Minix Z64) but the main color is black.

One thing about the box: it shows you exactly what you'll find inside, from the technical details (CPU, GPU, memory) right to the power adapter plug type (mine was EU).
There are icons with the accessories found inside, detailed info about the "media hub", as they call it, basically every side contains some relevant info, which is great if you see the device on a shelf somewhere, but if you order it online you probably know most of the details already :-) .
A special place is dedicated to promoting the H.265 HEVC hardware decoding (up to 10-bit, 4K @ 60fps) one of the major selling points for this new device.

After opening the box we get to see the device in it's plastic bag and the most important details are featured again (things like 4K2K UHD video playback, 4K HEVC hardware decoding, XBMC Minix edition, Android 5.1.1 OS, 2 x 2 MIMO 802.11 ac dual band wi-fi, SoC and memory).

The device itself is made out of plastic, but it doesn't capture fingerprints and it gives you the impression of a high-quality product with nice finishes - which is exactly what you would expect from a Minix product.

The large embossed Minix logo on top is the catches your eye. On the bottom there's an Android logo next to the usual legal markers (CE, FC, recycling and RoHS) and the scanable serial number and MAC address.

There's something on each site:

• - IR receiver and on/off led on the front.
• - wi-fi antenna on left
• - power button, 3 full-sized USB 2.0 ports, SD card (up to 256GB), OTG port (which can also be used as a 4th USB port) and Kensington lock on the right
• - headphone jack, microphone jack, HDMI 2.0 port, optical audio port, Ethernet jack and DC 5V Power-in jack on the back

The manual says that the IR receiver is compatible with Logitech Harmony remotes (not sure what that means exactly).
The U1 needs less than 1A for itself, but Minix includes a 3A power adapter which is useful when you connect an external hard-drive that doesn't have it's own power source.

Tucked away below the device are the accessories and Minix did not forget anything (except maybe batteries for the remote, but that is understood, as it could generate some issues with customs).

You'll find:

• - the IR remote - which is as simple as it can get with it's 7 buttons and the arrows/OK area, but still manages to give you the impression of quality.
• - the dual band wi-fi antenna, which you can connect to the device (or not, if you use a wired connection)
• - HDMI cable
• - micro-USB cable
• - OTG cable
• - power adapter

As mentioned before, the Minix U1 device distances itself quite a bit from the other Amlogic S905 devices.

Sure, the price is a bit on the high side, but we have a product from a company that built a very good reputation for themselves over the years and we know for sure that the hardware components used carefully selected.

With unboxing done, I'll play with the device in the next few days and a full review will be published soon.
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