As a followup to my Onn 4K Pro Streaming Box review, I did a deeper dive into the device based on questions from viewers. In my latest video we take a look at use cases for the USB port, test the Wi-Fi performance and see if audio DACs work on it.
You can find the Onn 4k Pro in limited quantities at Walmart for around $49 (compensated affiliate link).
I first tested its external storage compatibility by connecting an exFAT formatted NVMe SSD housed in an external drive enclosure. The drive was detected without issue and I was able to play media directly using the VLC app. VLC can even play ProRes encoded videos but the USB port was not able to sustain the bitrate required.
I also tested a USB Ethernet adapter through the port. While the 4k Pro comes with a native 100 megabit per second Ethernet port, I plugged in a gigabit Ethernet adapter to enhance the data transfer speed. This setup improved performance, delivering about 400 megabits per second, but it still falls short of true gigabit speeds. Compatibility will be hit or miss too – my Realtek-based 2.5 gig adapters did not work but a number of gigabit ones did.
Wi-Fi performance on the device is robust, particularly when connected to a Wi-Fi 6 access point. Speed tests showed better performance over Wi-Fi with bandwidth close to what I was seeing out of the USB ethernet.
However, not all features performed flawlessly. As was noted in the first video, the box struggled with game streaming via GeForce Now using the built-in ethernet port. I wanted to see if the Wi-Fi would fare better but unfortunately games froze up even faster than the Ethernet when using wireless.
While webcams are technically supported, the frame rates achieved during video calls were less than ideal, suggesting potential limitations for those looking to use this feature extensively. Many popular conferencing apps like Zoom are not installable on the device either. Even Google’s Meet app only allows one-to-one calls and will not allow the user to join or start a meeting.
Lastly, I explored whether the device could handle a digital audio converter (DAC) for enhanced audio output. Unfortunately, despite various attempts, including entering developer mode, I was unable to get a Soundblaster DAC to function with the Onn 4K Pro. One viewer on the video did say that his Presonus Audiobox USB and Audinate Dante AVIO-USB DACs worked successfully.
Overall I am pleased with the value proposition for casual users here. While enthusiasts can squeeze a little more out of the box it’s hard to get around the limited hardware specs of the device. Even with a more RAM it’s still a very basic low-cost streaming device.