We’ve recently started a series of posts dedicated to Mini PC’s that are already on market and could use some more attention.
We are revisiting today the Himedia Q5 Quad, a Mini PC that we covered back in June 2014, before it was launched.

Since then the Q5 quad went through a major hardware overhaul (back in October) and several firmware updates, earning it’s place in MiniPCDB’s Spotlight.

What makes Himedia Q5 Quad special?
This is the third generation of the “Q5” line, and Himedia certainly took the feedback from the first two versions when building this.
The first generation was also the first Android Mini PC built by Himedia, and the switch from the “classic” Realtek-based media players to Android was not easy. The first generation had several issues with supported file formats, including DVD ISO, which didn’t make clients happy.
But that’s no longer the case, Android evolved a lot since then, Hisilicon’s chipset evolved also.
Speaking about the chipset, Hi3798C is a close relative of the Kirin CPU used by Huawei on it’s flagship phones, and at this time it’s still one of the few chipsets designed specifically for TV boxes (unlike most other chipsets we talk about on MiniPCDB, which are designed for mostly for tablets).
This is why Himedia Q5 quad has good image quality and a good variety of supported file types (Himedia are basically the first to add support for DVD-ISO and BluRay ISO – including 3D- to an Android device).
The case is a good-looking full-metal one, they also include an LCD front-panel and pretty much include everything you might need: USB 3.0, Gigabit ethernet, and not-so-common SATA port.

Himedia Q5 quad – the specs
	– CPU: HiSilicon Hi3798C, Quad core – GPU: Mali450 (8 cores) – RAM: 2GB DDR3 – Storage: 8GB eMMC – Network: Gigabit LAN, Wi-fi (one external antenna) Case: full metal USB: 1x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0 SD card: yes HDMI: 1.4 Other: Coaxial, optical, AV outputs – SATA port – very few mini PC’s today have an external SATA port
	Software : Himedia has a simple launcher optimized to work on TV’s. They have a dedicated video player that makes DVD-ISO, BluRay ISO and 3D BDISO rendering possible.
What’s even more impressive is the downmix and passthrough support, which goes up to 7.1 channel. Yes, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA lossless HD-Audio formats. There’s also support for 4K (@30fps) and H.265. As for XBMC, Himedia released a custom version that makes use of their native player. You can also  just install the latest Kodi for Android
	Remote: Himedia Q5 Quad comes with a simple IR remote…with a twist: it can also learn some commands from your other remote (maybe TV?). This way you can watch a movie using a single remote.
But there’s also two features you rarely hear about: Himedia provides two apps for your android device: – HiControl: once you’ve started your Q5 Quad, you can use the HiShare App to control your mini PC, including seeing in real-time on your tablet what’s currently running on your TV. This could be very useful if you want to see what your kids are watching. But it does even more than that, you can use your phone to play games on the big-scree TV, for instance. – HiShare – basically use your phone/tablet to push content (images, video) to the TV