Zoomtak Review

http://streamtheplanet.com/zoomtak-vplus-full-review/

There are a couple different versions of the Zoomtak T8 model line, and, at first glance, they don’t have much in common other than the exterior shell.

It’s not uncommon for a manufacturer to keep the same name for a device even though what’s inside goes through some massive design changes – look at Apple, for example. However, it does make it a little confusing when the devices are all being sold at the same time.

I’ll highlight some of the different models and their major specs here, just so we’re all on the same page:

• Zoomtak T8: AmLogic S802 CPU with 2GB of RAM and 8GB of flash storage. Android 4.4 (cannot update to 5.0)
• Zoomtak T8H and T8V: AmLogic S905 chipset. Either 1GB or 2GB of RAM and 16GB of flash storage. Android 5.1
• …and the Zoomtak T8 Plus that you’re reading about here. It has the AmLogic S812 chipset, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of flash storage. It runs Android 4.4 or 5.1, depending on when you’re reading this review.

First Impressions

There are people out there that want something to look as good as it performs.

I happen to be one of them. I think the people at Zoomtak fall into that category too.

That’s one of the nice things about the Zoomtak T8 Plus. It’s a larger device made of matte black aluminum which gives it a much higher end look. There’s no big, flashy bright blue LED light that makes your entire TV cabinet glow in the dark. On the front panel, there’s a simple red\blue power switch and a small LCD screen with, of all things…a clock.

The clock may seem like a small thing to add. But that LCD screen adds an extra level of sophistication which couldn’t have cost more than a dollar or two to make. It’s a little extra, certainly. But, every stereo component I’ve ever had has had a clock on the front.

That’s the look that Zoomtak is going for, and they’ve hit the nail on the head with this design.

One of the curious things about the design is that the Zoomtak UPRO has the ability to add a SATA hard drive for extra storage. However, there are two tricks to this, though. First is that Zoomtak doesn’t give you enough space in the aluminum shell to actually permanently mount the drive inside. Second, they don’t give a dedicated hard drive access port. There are pictures showing a second bay on the bottom of the box which can be used to access the drive bay. The T8 Plus that I received had no such port. I had to remove the entire case to get at the internals.