I bought the Akai smart box a few months back, primarily to use it as a media player substitute for my DVD player. Since most movies these days are downloaded, I thought it made sense to have a device that can play these files directly instead of burning on a DVD. Browsing internet & running apps was not my primary concern, but I thought they were good options. However, the smart-box disappoints... it's extremely poorly designed, both on the software and hardware fronts. The wireless mouse is quite difficult to use. It's frustratingly difficult to browse or type on the on-screen keyboard. The fonts and icons in the home screen are big enough, but for e.g. in the youtube app, they are so small that you cannot read the title of the video you want to watch (I have a 32" TV). Why would anyone design the device with such small fonts when it's primary display is supposed to be a TV, and not a computer monitor? Besides this obvious design flaw, the software is extremely slow and buggy. Like I mentioned before, my primary usecase was to watch movies stored on a USB/SD-card drive. Many times it refuses to play any files at all, and hangs (ANR in Android terms). Try clicking again, and nothing happens. After a while a pop-up comes informing you that "File Manager is not responding", with the options to either kill the process or wait for it to respond. Kill it, and try again, and the same things happens again. Finally the device has to be hard-rebooted to get it to work. Overall, avoidable product.

ABOUT HD :i tried to play remux bluray 22GB mkv file and it struggled to play .. the playbackspeed was not constant ...but other features are good eg: choosing subtitles language, choosing audio tracks,skip the video to desired minute(just like vlc/kmplayer options) with a click ...it can play HD and as size of the file increasing its struggling to maintain the playback speed constant other features : other features are good , LAN ,4USB,HDMI,GAMES,Wifi DONT EXPECT TOO MUCH OF HiDef if ur real HD maniac ( im bit disappointed, im a HD lover)

This is on OK product. I would give it 3/5, 5 being the best. I bought it for 6,690 from snapdeal.com on 29th Dec 2012 and it was delivered to me on 3rd Jan 2013. The primary purpose of this product was to add smart TV features to my 32" LED TV. What works well: 1. Supports multiple digital file formats. 2. Can play media from my 1TB portable HDD that has 4 partitions. All partitions are recognized. 3. Has 4 USB ports. I have added a bluetooth keyboard as typing using point & click with the supplied mouse is very painful. 4. Can work as a hotspot so if you have a USB modem or a LAN connection, you can make this a wifi hotspot without the need for a wireless router. 5. You tube, Gmail apps work well. I have added the Worldspace and TuneIn Radio apps for music which work well too. Other apps added are TOI app, HT app, 6. Has 4 GB memory as per specifications but ony 2.14 GB memory is available for user files. This memory is not usable for downloading apps. 7. Supports SD SD/SDHC cards upto 32GB 8. HDMI 1.3, supports Full HD 1080P@60Hz What doesn't work well: 1. No power on/off button. You need to plug the box out of the power supply to disconnnect. 2. As mentioned, typing using point & click with the supplied mouse is very painful when surfing. You need a keyboard. 3. A webcam cannot be connected; so the skype app that comes installed is useless. 4. Comes with Android 2.3.1 that can't be upgraded. 5. Does not play you tube videos when you tube site is opened in browser due to adobe flash being outdated. I am aware that adobe flash can be upgraded for older android versions too but I haven't tried that yet. 6. AKAI has highly customized the interface which is quite slow at times. To reset I have to disconnect the unit physically from power supply and then plug in again to retart. For an ARM Cortex A8 1.2GHz processor and 1GB DDR3 RAM, I was expecting faster performance.

Pros: Can connect your USB hard disk, Pen drives and even USB keyboard/Mouse both Wired/Wireless. WiFi Connection and Data Card internet access Works also as a android device with access Market and Wifi Hotspot Wifi Router and Home Media Center Functionality Also have Ethernet Connectivity and HDMI Cons: Not a conventional Router i.e., you can either use as Router or use Ethernet but you cannot have both at a time which is required if you have a wireless hard disk in your home However it is almost like a Android Device, you cannot upgrade this android version and no customization UI apart from changing wallpaper and rearranging the icons, and also no widget support. Browsing is little slow. and No multiple window support in browser No in-built set top box Anyhow it is very good product and the cons specified above is acceptable at this price. Finally if you want to make your TV (LED/LCD/CRT) a smart TV it is the best in the market at this price because with the same functionalities if you want to buy a smart TV then it is very expensive. Also it does what it says. That's why giving 5 star