Xiaomi Mi TV 4 UHD Review: The Next Big Thing
The first Mi TV from XIaomi comes to India, and it’s got a price tag that’d excite anyone.
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Xiaomi’s back to doing what it does best – turning yet another product category on its head with its disruptive mix of segment-leading features, an innovative new software experience and predatory pricing!
The company’s latest Mi Smart LED TV 4 (Mi TV 4), a 55-inch 4K HDR10-capable smart television that tapers down to a mere 4.9mm at its thinnest, gave me a serious “jaw, meet floor” moment when I heard the price.
Something had to give, right? There was no way Xiaomi could deliver this package at half or a third the price, right? Somewhere under its sleek exterior and intelligent software must hide a serious flaw, right? Wrong.
Pros:
- A good 4K HDR panel
- Sleek, cutting edge design
- Ample connectivity options
- Localised software experience
- Insane value proposition
Cons:
- Built-in audio and viewing angles could have been better
- Single 55-inch variant too big for most homes
- Very little 4K content on offer, at launch
What’s Good?
All said and done, no matter how much you’ve paid for the television, you’d want it to look good mounted up on the wall or sitting on a table, right? With the Mi TV 4, there’s nothing “budget” about how the TV looks – thin, nearly-invisible bezels up front with a thin bar at the bottom edge that houses the infrared receiver, all encased in a slim form-factor that goes all the way down to a thinner-than-smartphones 4.9mm.
It thickens to a mere 48mm towards its base to accommodate the internals and ports, and there’s a nice brushed metal finish on the rear, should you wish to place it on its table top stand.
The sleek design doesn’t come at the expense of ports and connectivity options – between the 3 HDMI ports, 2 USB ports, Ethernet/Wi-Fi, component in and S/PDIF out, you’re more than likely covered.
Sure, a standard line-out would have been nice to connect to external speakers, but you can use the built-in Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity to pair with wireless speakers and headphones, not to mention the bundled remote.
The panel itself is a custom 55-inch Samsung SVA edge-lit variant, with a native 60Hz refresh rate, a spec usually found in pricier TVs. It’s a good 4K panel, made even better by HDR 10 support – sure, it’s no OLED (and really, expecting OLED at this price point is downright insane) – but the colors are vibrant and high on contrast and saturation levels.
Use it for gaming, streaming a movie or flipping channels, and you won’t be disappointed with the brightness, detail levels or the black levels. Viewing angles, though, just about pass muster and you really shouldn’t sit too much outside of a broad 120-degree sweet spot in front of the TV for the best experience – the glossy nature of the panel doesn’t help, as it catches a ton of reflections.
The built-in downward firing 8-Watt speakers support Dolby audio and DTS and are okay for mid-sized rooms, but it may make sense to invest in a nice sound bar to make the most of this TV.
Despite the dazzling hardware on offer, it’s Xiaomi’s custom Android-based UI, called PatchWall, which shows the massive amount of work the company has spent in Indian-ising the Mi TV 4. PatchWall uses AI to make intelligent, content recommendations based on your preferences and viewing habits, which means that over time, it starts showing you more stuff that you’re likely to click through and watch instead of stuff that doesn’t appeal to you.
The clear focus for the UI is on content, and not apps, and PatchWall surfaces content from partnerships with Hungama, Sony Liv (among others), all of it searchable via a universal search capability.
Even if you’re not the sort who will connect the Mi TV 4 to the Internet to stream content (though it’d be a waste not to), you can use an optional infrared cable to control your set-top box, turning the Mi TV 4 remote into a sort of a universal remote.
At the very minimum, you’ll transport your set-top box to a modern, 21st century interface, and this integrated approach of search across streaming and TV content is rather unique, something I haven’t seen on TVs in India previously.
The bundled Bluetooth remote is a nice little touch, although there’s bit of a separated-at-birth vibe going on with the Fire TV Stick remote. You can also control the TV via the Mi remote app, and a future update will bring the PatchWall content UI directly to the app so you can scroll though the content on the phone itself.
What’s Bad?
Xiaomi launched the Mi TV 4 with just the 55-inch variant, which is a tricky size given that many Indian homes don’t have the sort of viewing distance you’d need for this large a TV. This may well be the biggest deterrent to the average Indian buyer.
Despite serving up hundreds of thousands of hours of regional content, there’s very little 4K content on offer via the included content partnerships, and most of the built-in services max out at 1080p. The TV doesn’t bundle in Netflix or Amazon Prime Video apps at this point of time, which means that options for streaming 4K and HDR content are few and far between.
No Google Play Store means you can’t easily download and install these apps unless you’re willing to sideload them via the USB ports. While this approach may work for Xiaomi’s core audience, it won’t fly for the broader market. The only options are upgrading to a 4K-capable set-top box or using a PS4 or an Apple TV 4K to serve true 4K streaming content.
Why Buy It?
In one word: buy! This is a TV that is worth far more than its asking price, both in terms of the hardware and the added software touches. The overall experience allows Xiaomi to hold its own against TVs twice the price (and more).
Of course, there’s the chronic Xiaomi issue – actually managing to buy one during the next flash sale. Pretty much everyone’s realised the Mi TV 4 is an awesome deal, so good luck with snagging one during the next sale!
(Tushar Kanwar is a technology columnist and commentator and has been contributing for the past 15 years to India’s leading newspapers and magazines. He can be reached on Twitter: @2shar.)
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