Just last week Zidoo X9 was featured on our MiniPC Spotlight, and for a good reason, as the Chinese manufacturer seems to have found the perfect balance between good quality hardware and features, providing good firmware support, something that is quite uncommon these days.

Since then Zidoo pushed a new firmware update (v1.0.3.1) with support for 4K2K @24hz (along with several bugfixes).
What we said about Zidoo listening customer suggestions and bug reports seems true, as one of the features suggested by customers has been implemented: keep recording if HDMI Input is interrupted for less than 1 minute - very useful as in many cases you'd use this device to record from external sources and at times you might want to reboot the source or switch to second OS (we'll see this woking in a future Zidoo X9 review).

Back to unboxing, there seems to be two different giftboxes for Zidoo X9, black and white. Although I don't believe the color itself means something, the sample we received was white.

If you haven't got the chance to read our previous article about the Zidoo X9, here are (again) it's main features (some of which you can also see on the nice presentation card above):

• SoC : Mstar MSO9180, which is a quad core Cortex A9 processor (up to 1.5GHz) and uses a octa-core GPU (Mali-450MP6)
• RAM : 2GB DDR3
• ROM : 8GB eMMC flash (extendable via the micro SD slot)
• Video output : up to 4K via HDMI, also AV port (Composite + stereo audio)
• Video input : HDMI - with PVR/Time Shifting support
• Connectivity : Ethernet (10/100M), Dual band 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi (MT7632), Bluetooth 4.0, 1x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0 host ports

Inside the box we have an Warranty card, Zidoo X9 "simple manual", power adapter, simple IR remote, complimentary HDMI cable and, of course, the Zidoo X9 Mini PC.

The Zidoo X9 Simple Manual has 3 pages and along with the Zidoo website and service email address you'll find a quick guide on what the ports for the device are and how to connect external devices to it and power on. Also, there's a quick troubleshoot for some problems that might arise during the use of Zidoo X9.

The IR remote has the buttons you might expect on an Android device (Home, Return, Menu, arrow keys, OK, digits), but it also has a section named "TV control" which might suggest an IR learning function.

As expected, Zidoo X9 looks solid and makes a good first impression with it's metallic look - the only parts that's not made of metal are the external antennas and the rubberized dents used to keep the mini pc from sliding all over the table.
The metal case helps the cooling process, but there are also ventilation holes on bottom and left side. We expect the chassis to be warm during intensive CPU usage.

The top only has the main features stamped (4K, 3D, Quad core, ZIUI and 2.4/5G) - which I find pleasing, as other manufactures tend to have a huge logo embossed here. Zidoo keeps it simple and clean, kudos to them.

On front side there's the Zidoo logo and brand name, but the thing that catches your eye is the small LCD screen which is used to display time (as in current hour and maybe time passed/left from video). Hidden from view there's also the IR receiver.

The left side has the aforementioned ventilation holes and the USB ports (2 USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0) and the SD card.

The right side has no ports, just two barcodes, one which I assume is the serial number and the other is the MAC address. As other reviewers noticed, the MAC Address starts with DC:C0:DB which indicates that Zidoo and Kaiboer are connected.

On the back we have, next to the two wi-fi antennas, a physical On/Off power switch, RJ45 Ethernet port, Optical out, reset button, HDMI-in, 3.5mm AV/Audio out, HDMI-out and a DC-In port.

To summarize: Zidoo X9 is a nice looking box which promises good video and audio support and a few unique features for a good price (around $100 at this time).

We'll be testing Zidoo X9 and a review will be posted in a few days. As usual, if you plan to buy this mini PC and want us to help out by testing something, just leave a comment.