Unique design integrated with "Mango TV inside" - Seven V Box Experience Review

The importance of design to a product is self-evident. From the early MOTO RAZR to the current Apple iPhone and iPad, whether the product's appearance is novel and exquisite is an important factor in determining whether it can leave a good first impression on consumers.

Nowadays, TV box products have gradually become the focus of major manufacturers, but in the eyes of most consumers, there is not much difference in appearance between TV boxes and traditional TV set-top boxes. Most products lack eye-catching appearance. In addition, with the relevant departments continuously increasing their supervision of the OTT industry, more and more box products are also facing considerable resistance in content development.

Recently, a TV box product called "Seven V Box" was launched. This box product, which is produced by TCL and provided with content services by Mango TV, is very likely to subvert people's inherent views on TV boxes from the inside out.

The "box" of Seven V is worth mentioning

The highlights of the Seven V product design are reflected in two "boxes". First of all, the "box" of the Seven V packaging box is worth talking about separately.

Nowadays, the packaging of electronic products has become increasingly "simple". The emergence of Xiaomi brought out a bunch of khaki "cardboard boxes", and even the "high-end" Apple, from iPhone to MacBook, follows the concept of "minimalism".

At first glance, the outer packaging of Seven V adopts a unique cube design, with the cartoon image of Seven V and the logo of Mango TV printed on the two opposite sides respectively. If you look closely, you can also find that the black part of the packaging is designed with various patterns such as televisions, cameras, headphones, etc. with glossy materials, which immediately adds a lot to the overall quality and refinement of the product.

Apart from the outer packaging, the internal design of the product packaging is also unique. Compared with other products on the market, the interior of the Seven V packaging box adopts the method of opening from left to right. The Seven V box host and remote control stand upright in the center of the packaging. Combined with the black style of the packaging box, the whole process of unboxing the product is full of creativity and technology.

After removing the Seven V Box host and remote control, the product instructions, random gifts and related cables are hidden under the base of the host box. This layout makes full use of the internal space of the packaging box without destroying the beauty of the design, killing two birds with one stone.

Secondly, the "box" of the Seven V Box product itself is also unique in its appearance design.

The Seven V box adopts the classic combination of red and black, with a red indicator light in the shape of the Seven V logo on the top. The body adopts a two-section design, with the hardware concentrated in the upper part of the machine, while the lower part is designed as a frosted transparent container structure. The purpose is to accommodate the excess length of connecting wires. The idea is quite unique.

Unfortunately, Studio 7 only provides one power port, one network port, one HDMI port, one MicroUSB port, one AV port, and one TF card slot, so the expansion capability is a bit average. The words "Designed by Studio 7" below the interface panel once again reflect the full design style.

Unlike other Internet TV products, the remote control of the Seven V Box retains the digital buttons, and the flat button design is also a rare style. In addition, it is worth mentioning that in order to ensure visual unity, the power cord and HDMI cable that come with the Seven V Box are also designed in red, and the product is very thoughtful in details.

With both soft and hard power, Mango TV has become the core competitiveness of content

In terms of hardware configuration, the QiV box uses an Amlogic S802 Cortex-A9 architecture quad-core processor with a main frequency of up to 2GHz, 2GB of RAM and a Mali-450 GPU with a total of eight computing units. For a TV box product, the configuration can be described as "top-level", but how is the actual effect of the product? It depends on the user experience.

In terms of interface design, the Qi V box adopts a theme interface called "Qi V UI". The overall style is the same as that of mainstream smart TV products. It adopts large icons in the style of Windows 8 Metro and a horizontal operation layout. The actual operation is smooth. The only difference in direct perception is that the text navigation bar is placed above the interface. Users who are familiar with smart TVs should have no difficulty getting started.

Of course, for TV box products, hardware parameters and interface design are important, but what users can see and what advantages they have in terms of content are the key points of concern to users. In the "OTT rectification storm", TCL and Hunan Radio and Television have officially started cooperation, and the "Mango TV inside" elements that can be seen everywhere in the Seven V Box from packaging to content also make us full of expectations.

On the first screen of the main interface, the entrance to the "Mango TV" TV application is placed in a prominent position. The interface design of the "Mango TV" TV terminal that comes with the 7V box is not much different from the versions we have seen before. The content also covers thousands of movies and TV series, meeting almost all viewing needs of users on the TV platform.

Even in the education sector that has not been touched by most smart TV products, Mango TV provides nearly 400 educational video contents, and more than 300 1080P full HD blockbusters are enough to meet the needs of HD enthusiasts, once again demonstrating the strong strength of Mango TV as a licensee.

For the actual playback experience, we selected a 1080P movie for testing. In the test environment where the 4M bandwidth is not a good network environment, the 7V box showed satisfactory playback smoothness and the playback progress drag was responsive. The excellent viewing experience is undoubtedly inseparable from the support of the powerful "Mango TV" platform.

During use, we also found that all video content in other categories of the Seven V Box is also directly provided by "Mango TV". As the only video service provider of the Seven V Box, "Mango TV" has also opened up more fashionable and timely content topics, such as "Anime Day", "Ice Bucket Action", etc. In the future, when the OTT industry is about to bid farewell to Internet video companies, "Mango TV" has shown its own unique thinking and initiatives in the face of market-oriented layout.

In terms of application expansion, the 7V box is pre-installed with its own app store and supports OTG external USB storage devices to read additional content. APK files downloaded by users from third-party channels can also be installed smoothly.

Finally, the Seven V box supports up to 4K display output, and is perfectly compatible with all mainstream TV products on the market. It also has a WeChat interactive mode, allowing users to remotely operate the box through mobile devices by following the "Seven V WeChat Public Platform", greatly increasing the playability of the device.

Judging from the seven Vs, TV boxes will move towards a "division of labor"

There is no doubt that the Seven V Box is an outstanding product with many highlights among the current TV box products, both in terms of external design and content coverage.

As for the "Mango TV inside" that the Qi V box products have always highlighted, in the technology world, the inside we are most familiar with is nothing more than the "Intel inside" in the PC field. However, unlike Intel's focus on hardware-level technical support, on the TV box, the "Mango TV" inside strategy this time gives people the feeling of deep integration of the TV box product at the content service level.

The hardware supervision of the Seven V Box comes from TCL, the processor chip is Amlogic, and the video content is completely "Mango TV". "Mango TV inside" brings users the inside of content and video services. As a licensee, "Mango TV"'s services can remain mature and stable in the long term under the premise of complying with the management regulations of the regulatory authorities. This is something that Internet video companies such as "iQiyi inside" have difficulty in doing before.

In the future, TV box products are more likely to promote this "division of labor" between software and hardware into a trend. Hardware manufacturers will pay more attention to the product itself, and the licensees will once again have the right to speak on the content of TV box products. From the perspective of "Mango TV inside", "Mango TV" can also provide a content experience that is not inferior to that of Internet companies. The Seven V Box may also become a milestone product that takes the first step in this new trend.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.