As a brand in India, Xiaomi is still relatively new and yet has made a name for itself. So much so that it dethroned Samsung as the number one smartphone brand in the country. So it was inevitable that the brand would foray in segments as well. Xiaomi’s entry in the television market has generated quite a bit of curiosity. With the launch of Mi TV 4, the Chinese brand wants to expand its footprint in India. The Mi TV 4, which the company claims is designed keeping in mind the Indian audience. The TV comes with a 55-inch 4K resolution display and is priced at Rs 39,999. The company claims that the TV offers a better user experience as compared its counterparts present in the market.
We used the device for some time and here is our complete review...
Design and display
The Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV 4 is surely one of the best looking smart TV available in the market. Looking at the TV one can easily make out the company has invested a lot in its design aesthetics. The smart television is very slim with only 4.9mm thickness. The device definitely has a thick bottom, where the company has placed all the internal circuit of the device. It comes with two metallic L-shaped stands and can also be mounted on the wall.
The television offers 3 HDMI ports, 2 USB ports, an Ethernet port and the AV input. Along with this, the device also offers Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. All these ports are placed on the rear of the device at the bottom. The minimalist design and bezel-less display of the TV makes sure that the viewers don't shift their attention from the content to anything else.
Coming to the display, the Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV 4 sports a Samsung manufactured 10-bit VA panel. The device offers 4K resolution with 3840x2160 pixel resolution. The 54.5-inch display has a refresh rate of 60Hz and contrast ratio of 6000:1. The smart TV is capable of producing colours with HDR capabilities. The TV can produce 1,024 colours as per primary colour instead of the 256 colours per primary colour which are offered by any other smart TV in this price segment.
With this TV Xiaomi is offering 4K resolution in a budget of Rs 40,000 which is often found in TV more than a lakh. Along with this, the display configuration also offers a great viewing experience. The design and display are surely the selling points of the device.
Remote control and mobile app
Taking cue from its TV design the company has also kept the design of the remote very simple. The remote is very sleek and come with few buttons.
It is made of plastic and supports two AAA batteries. The remote connects to the TV via Bluetooth so this means that you no longer have to point the remote in a particular direction to make it function.
Moreover, the TV remote also doubles up as a universal remote so you don't have to use the bulky remote provided by your DTH operator to control the TV. The company also offers an additional accessory called the Mi IR set-top box controller which has to be bought separately. Users have to attach the cable with the TV so that they can use the remote for the TV as well as the set top box.
Users will also be able to control the remote with app available on the smartphone. The company has also introduced a mobile app which will enable users to control the Mi TV 4.
The app offers a clean and simple UI and it also enables the users to take screenshots of the TV and save it on the phone. it also offers a feature called app, that enable users to open apps on the TV from their smartphones. The app also offered an option to convert the phone into a gamepad.
Performance
Talking about the innards, the Xiaomi TV is powered by a 64-bit quad-core Amlogic T968 chipset clocked at 1.8GHz. The device offers 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The company claims that this is for the software updates and apps and users will not be able to download any TV shows on the internal storage.
Coming to the software, the Xiaomi Mi TV 4 runs PacthWall is own OS based on Android 6.0. The main highlight of PatchWall is that it keeps all the content in the front and you don't have to look for it.
Users can stream content from the various apps available. The company claims that the TV offers 500+ hours of content. For the time being the company has partnered with Sony Liv, Hungama Play, Alt Balaji, Voot, Voot Kids and is working on some more associations. The user interface is pretty clean and you easily get a hang of it. It looks similar to the interface of LG's webOS and is also quite interactive. You will notice thumbnails for the various TV shows and movies on the screen.
The top part of the screen consists of various categories such as Home, TV Shows, Kids, VIP, Movies, Sports and Music. All the categories consists of content related to that particular genre and only the VIP segment has the services for which one has to purchase the subscription. For the initial three months the Chinese manufacturer is giving free subscription for Hungama Play, Sony Liv and Alt Balaji.
As we said earlier the PatchWall OS is pretty interactive. It learns your viewing patterns and after that it will change the layout of your homepage based on your preferences. In order to play your favourite content you just have to tap on the thumbnail and the TV Show or movie will start playing.
However, if you don't wish to scroll a lot for your favourite content then you can simply search for it. The part of the search is that it will show the content from the apps and also the one running on air at the time of the search.
On Air is an interesting feature of the Xiaomi smart TV. The Chinese manufacturer has partnered with companies that make electronic programme guides for DTH providers and cable operators. With the help of the service the PtachWall OS shows you the content on air along with the graph of how much of the TV show or movie you have missed and how much is remaining.Along with this, the TV also offers support for voice commands so you can use that feature as well to look for the content. The OS also offers support for 15 Indian languages and you can set the interface of the TV in your choice of language.
The Xiaomi Mi TV 4 is made with the Samsung VA panel and it offers amazing colour reproduction and the viewing angles were also fine. However, you have to adjust the brightness and contrast from time to time for better viewing experience. The speakers are placed at the bottom and the audio output is also loud and clear. Users can also increase the audio output by pairing Bluetooth speakers with the smart TV. The TV offers good scaling of both HD and full HD content across the large display.
The only issue we had was with the resolution. The TV offers 4K resolution but there is not much content available for that. Even Amazon Fire Stick and Netflix also doesn't offer content with that resolution. The user interface is smooth enough and the processor also offers lag free performance.
Verdict
The Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV 4 comes with a price tag of Rs 39,999. This is the only TV available in the market that offers all the high-end features at this price. Along with this, its minimalistic design and interactive operating system act as an added advantage. Unlike other manufacturers, the company also said that it will keep on rolling out timely updates for the TV in order to offer better user experience. So, if you are looking for a smart TV with 4K resolution, Android operating system, 55-inch display and have a budget of Rs 40,000 then this TV can surely be your pick as no other company is offering you such features in this budget.