While Andi is over there schmoozing it up with the OnePlus brass, I’m here at my computer trying to find out about those other announcements that were supposed to be made today. Xiaomi promised three new devices, and while none of them were the highly rumored and much anticipated MiPad tablet, the three devices they did show off are cool enough in their own rights.
The one device that Xiaomi heavily teased had a rounded edge that gave it a similar appearance to Lenovo’s Yoga tablets. What it ended up being instead was “the worlds most inexpensive” 802.11ac router. Costing a scant 129 RMB ($21, €15). It comes in multiple colors, is dual-band and should prove to be a capable router for the price.
The other router comes packed with 256MB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive, so that it can pull double duty as a media server. Xiaomi promises that it has a speed booster that makes it faster and its signal stronger than other routers. The technology in question is called “beamforming” it has been used of a (scant) few routers before, but by all reports it is all that Xiaomi is hyping it up to be. It all comes in a nice wooden box and costs 699 RMB ($81, €112).
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Finally, we have the MiBox enhanced edition. They really should have called this the MiBox 2 though, because it is a major step up from its predecessor. For starters, it now includes 4K video support, rather than topping out at 1080p like the last MiBox. To power that high quality video it has upped its CPU from a 1.5 Ghz dual core processor to a 2 Ghz quad core processor. Its RAM has also been doubled. It keeps the 4GB of built in storage, but it is now expandable to 64GB. And, incase you have one of Xiaomi’s new routers, it supports 802.11ac, rather than just 802.11n. It costs 399 RMB ($64, €46). Oh, it is also lighter and smaller, if those kind of details matter to you.
So there you have it, three devices: two routers and a set top box.
Dissappointed? Excited? Let us know in the comments.