Xiaomi is known to make some of the most affordable streaming boxes. It entered the market with its original Mi Box streaming device which was one of the best affordable streaming devices available in the US market. Later, it followed up with the new Mi Box S which came with support for 4K HDR and a powerful processor. Now, it seems that Xiaomi has introduced a new streaming device in its portfolio called the Xiaomi TV Stick 4K.
Quite surprisingly, Xiaomi hasn't made any formal announcement for the device. Instead, the new streaming device was first spotted by @AndroidTV_Rumor on the company's official product page. The new TV Stick 4K isn't even available on Xiaomi's store right now. But, it is expected that it will be available across the world soon.
What has changed from Xiaomi's original Mi TV Stick is that the new TV Stick 4K packs a quad-core Cortex-A35 CPU and a Mali-G31 MP2 GPU. It comes with 1GB of more RAM, taking the total to 2. However, it still comes with only 8GB of onboard storage. Other than that, the new stick from Xiaomi comes with support for AV1 codec hardware decoding. It is said that the new AV1 codec is 30% better in terms of compression than H.265 which allows for faster streaming all while consuming less amount of data. Netflix already streams some of its content to compatible devices in this codec. Google also uses this codec on YouTube for some devices. Along with the AV1 codec support, the stick also supports DTS HD, Dolby Atmos, VP9, and H.265 codecs.
The new Xiaomi TV Stick 4K runs on Android TV 11 platform, and not Google TV. So, it doesn't run the latest Android TV, and not the new Google TV OS, but there aren't many new changes in the new Android TV 12 OS. The device may come with the new Android TV 'Discover' UI which started to roll out just a few days ago. It supports Google Assistant and comes with dedicated buttons for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. The new Xiaomi TV Stick 4K connects to your TV directly via the HDMI port (you'll have to provide power through the USB port of your TV though) and supports both Wi-Fi 5GHz and Bluetooth 5.0.
The price for the new device hasn't been announced yet. Though it is expected to be priced in the same price range as that of the original Mi TV Stick. Have you used any of the streaming devices from Xiaomi? What are your thoughts on the new Xiaomi TV Stick 4K? Would you prefer it over the established brands such as Google and Amazon's Fire TV Stick? Let us know in the comments section below!
Xiaomi Mi Box S
Xiaomi Mi Box S supports 4K HDR and has Chromecast built-in. It is powered by a Quad-core CPU and has a 3+2-core GPU. It runs on the Android TV platform and it is one of the best Android streaming boxes you can buy this holiday season.