With so many Android TV boxes out on the market today it can be difficult trying to pinpoint which one you should get. We think we can make a pretty convincing case that the GooBang Doo XB-III Android 7.1 TV Box is one of the best ones you can find. Plus you won’t have to go digging too deep in your pockets to get it as it is priced quite reasonably.
The XB-III comes loaded with 2gb of RAM and 16gb of ROM and a quad-core 2ghz CPU. Those stand for random access memory and read-only memory. RAM is essentially used to load up and sustain active programs while ROM is used to store and regulate the main operating software itself. Let’s not get bogged down too much in tech babble though. All you need to know is that many other TV boxes come with half the computing processing power and half the RAM and ROM. That means the XB-III will load and run your programs with faster speeds and reduced buffering.
For any TV nuts out there who are picky about picture quality, you can all be satisfied in knowing that the XB-III is compatible with HDR and 4K.
Two of my favorite things about the XB-III are the external antenna and the remote keypad. External antennas are much better than internal ones for getting stronger signals. Plus the keypad means no more scrolling from letter to letter on a virtual keyboard displayed onscreen. No one likes using a TV remote to access a keyboard and GooBang Doo took this into account.
The ports on the sides of the box are neatly spaced out between one another. You have two USB ports, and HDMI port, a micro SD insert, a LAN port and an AV connection for audio and video.
The first thing you may notice when you unbox this device is its relatively large antenna. It’s not really cumbersome, but it is a noticeable feature considering most TV boxes have internal antennas. The XB-III’s antenna is better suited for stronger Wi-Fi connections because it is external and because its signals are optimized for modern day 802.11 wireless frequencies. GooBang Doo is letting you know right out off the bat that they mean business and that their box will deliver solid connections.
The antenna can be slightly angled if needed and it feels very firm and sturdy when moved. You don’t have to worry about breaking this thing, even if it happens to fall off your table. It would take some decent force to do damage to it.
The XB-III is also heavier than it looks, which is a good thing. It feels very sturdy and firm when held in your hands, which is a sign that strong materials were used in the construction of the casing. It only weighs about 1.3 pounds but this is more than twice the weight of many other TV boxes.
The keypad was a little small for my large hands but your results may vary. The key buttons themselves press quite nicely and have a good clicking feel to them that gives off the sense they are responsive and long-lasting. The remote control itself doesn’t feel as well designed. It feels hollow so it simply doesn’t have that satisfying weight that the keypad and TV box itself have. Plus the mushy buttons give a little resistance when being pushed. It functions as intended but it doesn’t have the same tactile impressiveness as the rest of the package.
The keypad is also cleverly ergonomic. Indentations are made on the back so that it fits your hands more snuggly instead of merely being another flat surface that doesn’t correspond to the human hand. This is a very clever decision you normally only see with most video game controllers or PC mouses.
Luckily, you can use the keypad as an alternative remote control with the simple push of a single button. This feature is highly recommended as having an all-in-one device used for typing and conventional remote control functions is the vastly more convenient option. The keypad also comes with a small trackpad meant to simulate a PC mouse. It’s a little small and not as precise as could be but it gets the job done and certainly offers more convenience than not. You can always go for a more spacious wireless keyboard, of course.
Booting up the Goobang Doo XB-III greets you with the loading screen and its logo. It was surprisingly a little slow upon startup. It’s nothing major but for something with its specs you’d expect it to be a little jumpier at the start.
The menus are quite clear and easy to navigate through, regardless of whether you’re using the remote control or the keypad’s tracking pad. Establishing a connection between the XB-III and your Wi-Fi is as simple and quick as it should be.
The home page interface is neat and well organized but has nothing flashy going on in terms of aesthetics. The boxed icons are stacked next to each other in a way that is reminiscent of Microsoft’s Windows 10 or Xbox consoles interfaces. It displays all the important and most used pages like Settings, the Google Play Store, File Manager and My Apps so GooBang Doo did do a good job of prioritizing what ought to be made visible.
Scrolling the mouse icon with the tracking pad is a fairly smooth and intuitive experience. There’s a very slight but still noticeable input delay when moving your thumb versus when the icon reacts on screen. It isn’t really bothersome as the delay is merely fractions of a second. Not to mention this kind of latency is really only a burden in specific situations like fast-paced gaming or digital artistry on tablets.
The Settings menu is as comprehensive as it needs to be. You can customize various options like your screensaver, audio and more. As expected GooBang Doo has pre-installed a variety of apps onto the XB-III, all of which can be further tweaked in the Settings menu. They are all fairly basic programs like mail, clock, and a proprietary browser. Like with getting a new phone you’ll have to leave it to yourself to find and download the apps you really want to use.
What’s best to do at first is to access the internet using the proprietary browser included. This brings you to a disclaimer screen. Once you hit the OK button you’ll be brought to a page that will present you with hotlinks to various apps like Skype, Kodi, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, all the big ones really. Downloading each app only takes about a few seconds though of course your mileage will vary based on your own particular internet settings.
So far it’s pretty clear that the interfacing of the Goobang Doo XB-III is a solid experience. The keypad works well, the menus are properly organized and the machine loads new pages and handles downloads quickly. Now let’s put this thing to the test with what it was really designed to do: some 4K videos.
One of the worst things about being a 4K fan is the long loading times. Many people have internet connections that can handle 1080p content just fine with Netflix or YouTube. But as the name suggests, 4K is four times the amount of picture quality: 2 million pixels (1080p) versus 8 million pixels (4K). As you might be able to surmise from this, this means that 4K lends itself better to stronger internet connections with larger download speeds.
But sometimes even this isn’t enough. Many people report having annoying buffering times when viewing 4K content. This can happen through your computer, a smart TV or even TV boxes. Even if your router and internet plan can handle the extra load of information sometimes your browser cannot.
That’s why the GooBang Doo XB-III is such a great ally to 4K aficionados. Remember way back near the beginning of this article when we discussed the faster processing speed thanks to the extra RAM and ROM? That doesn’t just come in handy for the settings menus loading faster than average. All of that extra power is truly put to use when watching 4K content.
I booted up a couple of random 4K videos from YouTube. One a typical nature montage style of video, the other a gaming video montage of titles in 4K graphics. Both videos loaded just as quickly as advertised. It only took about 2 or 3 seconds for the video to begin. This is much faster than how my smart TV loaded 4K videos which often takes around 10 seconds to load.
Even more impressive is that skipping through the videos had heavily reduced loading times. Each time I skipped ahead 10 seconds it didn’t take 10 seconds to load as I was once so previously and frustratingly used to. It only took about 1 or 1.5 seconds to load, even faster than starting the video in the first place.
The speed and performance of the XB-III is very impressive as Goobang Doo promised. Going back in and out of apps to the main menu is very quick and puts other devices like my smartphone or my smart TV to shame.
The picture quality is very well done as well. It isn’t going to provide the most staggering HDR or color and lighting realism as some of the best smart television sets out there, but as long as you have an HDTV you will certainly see a boost in quality. Lit scenes seem to do better than darker ones. Lighter colors also seemed to be better represented than darker ones. If your TV’s contrast doesn’t do it for you then you can safely know that this will be an upgrade.
Next, I loaded my usual IPTV apps, STB Emu and Perfect Player, onto the box to see how nicely the XB-III plays IPTV streams. Perfect Player usually performs very similarly on every box. STB Emu, being a MAG emulator, can have some noticeable differences though. Luckily, both apps performed well with my favorite IPTV services. Of course, an Android box will never be able to give you quite the same experience as a dedicated IPTV box (such as the XPL 3000 or the T2), but they do give you a lot more flexibility and are more affordable.
One last thing I noticed is that the Wi-Fi connection was surprisingly very stable. I tend to use wired Ethernet connections as much as possible as I find them so much more reliable. They’re less likely to lose connection and they tend to give stronger download speeds. But the Goobang Doo XB-III Wi-Fi capabilities were a lot better than I was ready to give it credit for. The wired connection only seemed slightly better. It was such a close call that it simply didn’t beat out the convenience of having a wireless connection.
The vast majority of my experience with this device was extremely positive. I once believed a machine this good would cost a fair amount more than this one. The Goobang Doo XB-III only has a couple of flaws and none of them are a big deal. The remote control, the aesthetics of the menu and the very slight input delay are the only things holding it back. The HDR could be better but there’s only so much you can ask from a certain price range.
The Goobang Doo XB-III may not be able to compete with an Android TV powerhouse like the Nvidia Shield TV, however the XB-III is also a lot more affordable.
With specs like these it would be criminal to not recommend this machine to big consumers of 4K content who want it and their other programs as fast as possible. The Goobang Doo XB-III is a shining example of how to do a TV box right.