For those of you who’ve always wanted Xiaomi’s set-top box, the Xiaomi Mi Box, but are afraid that you can’t use it because it is in Chinese and features mostly Chinese content, well, the company has got a surprise for you. At the on-going Google I/O 2016, Xiaomi announced a new Mi Box powered by Android TV, and will be one of Google’s first Android partners to make Daydream-ready devices.
The new Mi Box from Xiaomi is a 4K set-top box, which means that it supports 4K UHD video content playback at 60fps. In addition to that, Mi Box supports the latest HDR10 standards that will be enabled from Android N onwards, and the updated HDMI 2.0a specification. Audio wise, Mi Box also delivers “rich and vibrant audio” with Dolby Digital Plus and DTS Surround Sound, giving you a cinema-like experience right from your living room.
As mentioned before, since it is powered by Android TV, you will be able to enjoy all your favourite content from Google and more. Get access to thousands of movies from Google Play and YouTube, or play games using the Mi Box and Mi Game Controller. The new Mi Box also has content from leading providers like, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, FandangoNOW and more.
Specifications wise, the new set-top box from the Chinese company is equipped with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU and Mali 450 GPU. There is 2GB of DDR3 RAM on board with 8GB eMMC flash. For those who need extra storage, just plug in your flash drive or hard disk to the USB port on the Mi Box.
The new Mi Box comes with a Bluetooth remote control that supports voice search and commands, and doubles as a game controller. Just pick up the Bluetooth voice remote and tell it to search for your favourite movies, perform a web search, or go directly to a TV show. You can use it to play a huge catalogue of games that works on Android TV, or use it with a Mi Game Controller, a optional controller that supports Mi Box and any Android devices.
Sadly, neither Google or Xiaomi mentioned the pricing and availability of the new Mi Box. Xiaomi only said that it will be launched in the U.S. first, with other global markets to follow, so keep your fingers crossed that it will be as affordable as other Xiaomi products, and it will come to Malaysia soon.
