Xiaomi’s new Yi Smart CCTV camera does nightvision for $24

Xiaomi is gradually making a name for itself outside of the smartphone market. Earlier this year, the Xiaomi Yi Camera (GoPro alternative) action cam debuted to a grand success, along with a couple other products that don’t have anything to do with smartphone.

The most recent release from Xiaomi in this space happens to be the new Yi Smart CCTV camera, which as you would’ve already guessed is an upgrade to the older Yi Camera (not the GoPro alternative, but the ‘small ants camera’). The upgrade brings new features including nightvision to the table.

Interestingly, despite the upgrade, the Yi Smart CCTV camera will still cost just 149 Yuan (US$24), but of course, that’s only in China. The camera stores video at 720p/20fps, and is aided by 8 infrared LEDs which make nightvision possible. The stream is stored on a local microSD card, but you can use your Android/iOS smartphone to monitor what’s going on via WiFi.

If you’re in China, you can also opt for the non-nightvision version which sells for a little lesser at 128 Yuan (~US$20). Expect resellers to start piling up stocks of these in the coming weeks with 20-40% markups, which should include shipping costs in most cases.