TVs have a special place in our living rooms for years, and they will continue to be an important part of our lives. So Xiaomi, which has focused primarily on smartphones, now wants to compete with Samsung and Sony in the TV market in India as well. Its latest top-of-the-line Mi LED Smart TV 4 has a jumbo-sized 55-inch panel, complete with 4K resolution and HDR10 support. The 4K set is “smart” too, and it features Xiaomi’s custom PatchWall user interface built on the top of Android, that’s been tailored for the Indian market.
As expected from Xiaomi, Mi LED Smart TV 4 is priced aggressively at Rs 39,999, making it one of the most affordable smart 4K TVs in the country. Touted as the world’s slimmest LED TV, Mi LED Smart TV 4 display panel is just 4.9mm. Well, the bottom panel where the ports are located is thick at 38mm. The TV can be wall mounted as well.
Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV 4 specifications: 55-inch (3480×2160) display|4K resolution| HDR10|64-bit quad-core processor, up to 1.8GHz| Mali-T830 MP2 GPU, up to 750MHz| 2GB RAM|8GB internal memory|Dolby Audio/DTS-HD|Bluetooth 4.0|Wi-Fi|Ethernet| 3 HDMI ports (one with Audio Return Channel)|2 USB ports|S/PDIF out| AV out|PatchWall UI (based on Android Open Source Platform)|Remote control
With 4K and HDR technology onboard, the display delivers stunning image quality when watching high resolution videos. A ‘frameless’ display makes the experience more immersive. The colours and viewing angles are pretty accurate. Thanks to the ultra-slim built, there’s a premium look and feel to it. Since it’s a 55-inch TV, it makes more sense for large rooms.
Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV 4 has two USB ports with 3.0 and 2.0 support respectively. It has three HDMI ports, one AV and Ethernet ports. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 2.4GHz/5GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy.
The smart TV supports 12 Indian languages (system languages) including Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Assamese, Marathi, Gujarati and Urdu among others.
But in our opinion what makes the Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV 4 distinct from other smart TVs is the operating system. Featuring a card-style content layout, the UI is quite reminiscent to the UI of Amazon’s Fire TV, but with less clutter. It’s neat and fairly easy to get started.
Another highlight of the smart TV is the remote control which is quite similar to Fire TV stick remote but without voice button. Unlike the traditional TV remotes and even smart TV remotes, Xiaomi’s remote has minimalistic design approach. There’s a power button on the top corner, a circular joystick for navigation followed by home, back and menu buttons. There’s also a volume button. And that’s about it. A well optimised interface makes it easier to type on-screen and even change channels.
Let’s put one thing out of the way – at Rs 39,999 you will not get a better deal on a 4K HDR supporting smart LED TV. Xiaomi adds on more partners such as Netflix, Prime Video and others. Yes, a lot of the users whose only TV consumption pattern is via the cable and DTH, will not bother much with this and Xiaomi is already delivering for that use case. But the early adopters for the Mi TV 4 will be users who stream a lot of content. And for heaven’s sake, bundle that Mi IR cable with the TV and not put the customer through the trouble of separately buying it and always coming across an ‘out of stock’. C’mon Xiaomi, you can do better than that. Also the option to load your favourite Android video streaming apps, either through side-loading or via an on-board feature, would be appreciated.
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