Re-enter the rivers and lakes! Can you sweep away thousands of troops? LeTV U4 first evaluation

Both U4 and U4 Pro products are of great significance to the layout of LeTV in the Internet smart TV. Previously suffering from the license for two years could not send a new box, LeTV can only rely on TV products on the big screen. The absence of new box products led LeTV to lose a lot of smart television box market share in the past two years. Now that LeTV has obtained a license, the new box will finally be able to return again in China and be listed on the market. The slogan that Le was hailed as the launch of the box product was: The first step of the ecology of the big screen. From this slogan, LeTV is also feeling that he is gearing up to prepare for the smart TV box.

The product tested by Jun to hand is LeTV Box U4. This product was previously released in the North American market. This time LeTV returned to the domestic market as a CIBN license holder and obtained the legal status of domestic sales. While U4 returns to the domestic market, LeTV will also release a new version of the new product: U4 Pro.

This review of the music box U4 domestic version, the fuselage appearance and system is equipped with LeTV box U4 Pro the same, hardware configuration, representing a new generation of music box U4 Pro, with greater memory (2G+16G) , Bluetooth remote control + voice control.

LeTV's packaging, simple and refreshing, opened the lid and found that the interior uses the four colors of the LeTV LOGO as the four-sided color of the inner box. Compared to the common packaging of your friends, the length is a little longer, and the thickness is slightly reduced. The evaluation king saw that there is more internal redundant space, but it can also bring better protection to the product.

Remove the compartment with the body and the following instructions. All attachments are presented.

Take out the fuselage, from the perspective of the side, LeTV box U4 is really a bit thin, almost the same thickness and the thickness of the ordinary USB interface.

Looking through, in order to be able to accommodate internal hardware and interfaces, the back has been raised, a large rubber pad in the middle of the back, a mid-engraved Levision LOGO, with a good feel at the same time can let music as the U4 box can be placed steadily.

Viewed from the front, the top of U4 is a square with rounded corners, the actual measurement, the length and width of the top are 100mm. Measured, the thinnest thickness of the fuselage at the border, the thickness of only 5.4mm, the thickest point is only 11.11mm, with the official data 10.8mm only 0.3mm gap, can be described as very thin. The thin and light appearance is not only beautiful and portable, but also can be easily integrated into various use environments.

There are only three interfaces behind: power, HDMI, USB. The cable interface and AV composite interface that are often seen on the smart TV box are eliminated. This is for a more lightweight body, evaluation Jun thought that in today's popularity of dual-band Wi-Fi, 4K large-screen TV, continue to be equipped with cable and AV interface, in fact, the significance is not big, LeTV U4 with 802.11ac standard double Wi-Fi, internal high-gain dual antenna blessing, can provide a stable network connection. The interface is fully equipped.

LeTV U4's power adapter is produced by Shenzhen Jingquanhua, with an output power of 5V, 2.0A and a maximum power of 10W.

The shape of the remote control is not the same as the common smart TV/box remote control. More than one key mute, select stations, system settings keys, music as shortcut keys these buttons, more convenient to use. The button feels crisp and gives good feedback. The quick operation feels good.

U4 comes standard with an infrared remote controller. In actual use, this remote controller is not found to be too directional. Even if there is blockage and the direction does not point to the box, it is often able to operate smoothly, so that the evaluation king once mistakenly believe that this is A Bluetooth remote control.

At the same time, the high-deployment version: U4 Pro will be equipped with a Bluetooth voice remote control, which is non-directional and can be used freely within 10 meters. It can also support voice control and search functions. This is very useful for elderly and children. Convenience allows them to more easily find what they want to see.

Boot

The music box U4 boot time is 31 seconds, of which about 7 seconds light screen, 12 seconds before and after starting to display advertising (Ads encountered in the evaluation is LeTV self-promotion advertising, length 15 seconds), after the ad also shows initialization and connection CIBN The broadcast control platform authenticated the words and finally entered the desktop in about 31 seconds. After high-definition fan evaluation Jun multiple tests, U4 cold start, hot start and no difference, the time is roughly the same.

31 seconds boot is not a very fast speed, it has a certain negative impact on the user experience. In the evaluation, Jun thinks that the advertisement is mainly dragged down by 15 seconds, and the advertisement in the evaluation has been repeatedly playing an advertisement, and there has been no change. High-definition fan review Jun thinks, if based on user data, so that users who have seen this ad do not have to repeat the boot advertisement every time, such as watching a three-second auto-reproducing streamlined ad, or in the first time to see this completely After only advertising, if you turn on the same ad again, you should allow the user to skip the button. In addition, the desktop loading initialization and CIBN broadcast control authentication work can be automatically run in the background when the advertisement is played to reduce the boot time.

When it is turned on for the first time, LeTV U4 will be set up on the network. There is a desktop setting that allows you to select the home page that is loaded at startup.

LeTV Box U4 has eight homepage entrances for search, homepage, music, application, children, sports, shopping, and games, each corresponding to different content. The official proposal is to choose 5, if you choose more, it will take longer to boot, and the time to boot into the desktop will be extended accordingly.

LeTV U4 standby power box is about 0.5w, when the desktop is stationary, the power is 2.66w, and the video playback power is about 5.55w.

Most like TV experience

LeTV's search is as a separate homepage entrance. U4 Pro is equipped with a Bluetooth audio remote controller. You can directly press the voice button on the remote control to say the content you want to search. It is more convenient to use. U4 users can also go to Leshi Mall to purchase their own. Bluetooth voice remote control. The top search page also lists popular search items, making it easier for you to find popular resources.

LeTV's home desktop is very special in the current TV box product. After entering, it was the full-screen broadcast of television programs. It was the first time that the evaluation team used it. Because according to our mindset of using smart TV boxes all year long, the homepage should be placed in various sections of navigation, a variety of popular recommendations. As a result, LeTV broke the mindset, redefining the homepage, opening the box, and the default homepage desktop was actually a direct broadcast program. Press the channel up/down button on the remote control to “cut” the experience. The experience is very similar. On traditional television.

Press the enter key in the middle of the remote control to call up the channel list. You can select the "channel" you want to see and the corresponding content will be played automatically.

After reviewing the number of kings, there are 21 major categories of “channels”. There are many programs under each major category and the content is very rich.

Press the down button on the remote control's disk to call up the selection menu.

Press the remote control return key, you can call up the super list, this function, music as the official called "9-channel video broadcast", you can display 9 videos in one picture. This visual channel list allows users to find the programs they want faster and more conveniently.

The home desktop is very much like the Live function of many Smart TVs nowadays, but the experience of the Home Desktop greatly exceeds those of the “Live” function, and LeTV breaks the convention and directly puts such a function on the “Home”, it has to be said that Suitable for the elderly at home, even young people, will find this feature can make yourself more "lazy" and more worry.

Judge Jun found that when watching a live show on the home desktop, press the down button of the remote control to select another live show to be played on the small screen. The official LeTV is called the main and secondary screen function. The following figure is the evaluation of the king. When watching live broadcast of LeTV, you can also pay attention to the game at the same time. This feature is really useful for users like us who don't want to miss any site.

To switch from the home desktop to another desktop, just press the left and right buttons on the remote control.

After the homepage, the “Happiness” desktop is a kind of content portal with artificial intelligence brought by LeTV. With the use of the user, the LeSpot box will gradually build a user model based on user preference data and fragmentation behavior. The user model and LeTV video big data recommend accurate content to users. The pleasure of the show is the current very popular waterfall flow, the content is very much, the evaluation king slipped down for a long time did not see the end. In the middle of the "Super Movie" button, you can enter the content section classification page after pressing, to be honest, the evaluation Jun did not find that you can enter the classification page here, if you can "super film and television" four-character title to "category page Such a title can make it easier for users to find this really important content entry.

The following application desktop, the first line is the three fixed buttons, super video, super game hall, application store. Here are the buttons for all installed APPs and some system function entries.

This content is completely self-arranged or even set up folders for classified management.

The "Super Movie" and "Super Sports" in the upper left corner of the application home page are actually two APPs. The content displayed in other desktop portals of the LeTV Box can be found in this Super Movie App and Super Sports App. However, according to music official news, in the EUI 5.8 operating system will be the desktop of APP, into the "be happy to see the desktop" and "sports desktop", so that users can ignore the concept of APP, to find content only need to go to the corresponding desktop, The path is shorter and the operation is simpler.

The following figure is a large and complete classification page for Super Films and TVs, and also closely lists 4K, 3D, 1080P, and Dolby as a category section, which is very convenient for users to find content. As mentioned earlier. In the music box of the music box, click on the blue "super film" button in the first screen, you can quickly come here, but the evaluation king did not suddenly find the entrance, if you can put "super film and television The title of the title is changed to a title such as "Classification Encyclopedia", which can reduce the confusion that many users can't find the category page.

In super sports, a variety of rich sports resources, you can also view the daily events in the game hall, and you can see the live broadcast in real time, as well as the main and auxiliary perspective broadcast function, multi-path commentary and other functions, is simply fans and each Sports enthusiast's caring little jacket. And the evaluation king learned that Le is considered to be a month-long super sports membership for all U4 box products, and users can preempt the experience.

It has to be said that the super video and super sports are very rich in content of these two APPs. Currently, they have been connected to CIBN licenses, and the full name should be CIBN super film and CIBN super sports. So far, these two APPs can only be installed and used on LeEco's own hardware devices. Maybe LeTV will release the universal installation packages of these two APPs in the future. Users of other TVs and boxes can also install their own devices, and the existing devices will also be “second change” music as Super TVs, so that more users can join LeTV. Screen ecology come.

Based on daily experience, the evaluation team made the following distinctions when looking for content:

1. The user is completely unaware of what he wants to see. He only wants to turn on the TV and put the program first. (Home desktop can be satisfied)

2. The user needs to be recommended for some programs, from which he can choose the program he wants to watch. (Happy see homepage can be satisfied)

3, the user has a clear target program title. (Search function can be satisfied)

4. The user has a program type of interest that needs to be selected in the list. (Category page of Super Movie & TV APP can meet)

LeTV Children is an important part of the music ecology. In the children's desktop of LeTV U4, the user can set the age of the child in the home and LeTV will automatically recommend the appropriate program. However, the evaluation official thinks that now that the country has opened up 2 children, many people have already had two or more children. The age setting does not mean that they should be able to join the age of 2 or more children.

In fact, this desktop is just an entrance, all content can be found in super movies, but as a desktop, the entrance settings here are more reasonable, you can more easily find the program you want to see.

This function of TV kindergarten can discharge timetables for children, play different content at different times, and provide reasonable programs and exquisite programs so that parents with children can no longer have to teach children how to teach them.

The sports desktop is also a hot content in Super Sports, which combines user preferences and habits, provides an entrance in the most convenient place, and better understands fans and sports enthusiasts.

There are many contents in the shopping table. Some of the products can be ordered online, and some of them need to be booked on the phone, which is equivalent to the video that integrates the TV shopping platform. There is no search function here. All products are classified and presented through graphic and video for consumers to choose. LeTV had said to be a scene-based video shopping desktop, allowing people to purchase more three-dimensional product information and purchase suggestions before buying. On the LeTV shopping desk, you can find luxury products such as Dior, but you can also buy large-scale Land Rover vehicles.

In the game desktop, you can easily enter the installed game, you can also view the recommended game and install it, but for a pleasant play game, a suitable handle or peripheral is essential, the bottom of the game desktop is also intimate It provides a purchase link for game peripheral accessories.

LeTV U4 remote control, there is a Lemusi LOGO printed music keys, press the shortcut menu will appear, where you can customize up to 7 shortcuts, users can independently add self-installed APP shortcuts, but also supports some System functions, and program content in super movies and television. It is very convenient to switch content quickly in daily use. No need to exit to find the APP to enter, one-touch switching out of the shortcut menu can be a one-step switch

LeTV U4, on the desktop, can be conveniently accessed by pressing the up arrow on the remote control twice to access the top menu. Reviews Jun saw there are time and date, weather, fast Wi-Fi settings, and file management, as well as news notifications.

Among them, you can see the calendar by clicking on the date and time, and integrate the lunar calendar. Then you can even enter the calendar and watch the reminder. It must be said that LeTV's details are done well.

In the weather, you can check weather forecast for the next 5 days and more detailed clothing, sun protection, sports, car washing index and so on. Air quality is also very useful.

The top menu provides easy access to local storage, disk, and local area network content.

After the evaluation of the actual test, LeTV U4 local video support results as shown below

First of all, let's mention that when LeTV U4 is connected to Wi-Fi in the 5G band, using LAN to play high-rate video in NAS, multiple videos often need to be suspended for loading, so Judge Jun directly accesses the mobile hard disk. Perform a video test.

It can be seen that in addition to the evo format, which is rarely seen in daily life, LeTV U4 can perfectly support local 1080P formats and various bit rates.

In the 4K test, in addition to the Karate of the Jurassic Park of the h.264 @50P, other 4K videos can be played perfectly. Frequently concerned about the editorial evaluation may notice that the Jurassic Park of the h.264 @ 50P will be played on many devices. The reason for the analysis may be that H.264 50P has a higher system requirement.

LeEco did not support HDR with the promotion of LeTV U4, and the fact that the box can decode HDR play is not very significant because even if the box can be decoded, on an old TV, the brightness of the screen cannot reach the HDR brightness dynamic range. Requirements, so still can not really support HDR, and the real screen can support HDR new TV, will certainly have built-in chips and systems that can decode HDR source.

However, due to the recent promotion of HDR decoding supported by multiple manufacturers' boxes, the previous evaluations have also been tested several times, so this evaluation still tried to use the same test piece used in the previous test: HDR test of LG Chess In the video, the HDR video decoding capability of LeTV U4 was tested. What is more unexpected is that LeTV U4 can decode and play the 4K 60P 10bit HDR source with 62Bbps. The following is a comparison of real-time effects of the decoded video on the TV.

From the comparison of the HDR movie's actual decoding effect, LeTV U4 retains the highlights and shadow details of the HDR video. The overall color saturation does not pull too high, although the audience's color preference is radish cabbage has its own love, but the evaluation of the king still like this to retain more details of the screen low saturation style.

Built-in Dolby and DTS supported music box 4U, when playing the above two standard movies, the corresponding icon will be displayed next to the file name.

In addition, the LeTV 4U also supports 3D capabilities and can output 3D signals directly to 3D-enabled TVs.

to sum up

As a result of the license certification after two years, LeTV released a new compliance smart TV box in the domestic market. LeTV U4 and U4 Pro are equipped with a brand-new UI and have the "home desktop" that is closest to the traditional TV experience. As well as relying on LeTV cloud computing platform, intelligent recommendation content of the focus of the desktop, so that all types of users can more easily from LeTV's huge video library to find the program you want to see.

In the evaluation, LeTV U4 provides a very good experience for its mainstream high-end hardware configuration. The operation process is straightforward and there is no delay in the entire process. Only one HDMI interface is needed to allow the non-smart TV or insufficient content smart TV in the user's home to get the content of the Internet.

Although there is no specific inventory, LeTV's contents are also very rich. Especially after using LeTV's boxed members, all types of popular movies can be watched online with full HD clarity, and the experience is very good.

"The first step of the big screen ecology", we can also feel the ambition and planning of LeTV for smart TV and box industry from this new product slogan. After finally resolving the impediment of licenses, LeTV will definitely regain its status as a smart TV box product.