Hey, remember when Xiaomi announced the latest version of the Mi Box running Android TV OS 6.0 at Google I/O earlier this year? It seems like the Android powered set-top box is almost ready for its US launch as the device has just recently cleared FCC certifications.
Xiaomi’s line of Mi Boxes have always been an appealing and popular bunch of set-top boxes thanks to their affordable price tags and good specs, and they’ve continued to be a rolling success in China. Internationally however, the Chinese-oriented software on the Mi Boxes as well as the difficulty of acquiring one has made them less desirable.
Xiaomi plans fix this by eschewing MIUI and replacing it with Android TV OS 6.0, Google’s very own solution for Android powered set-top boxes. This move instantly expands the Mi Box’s demographic and allows English speaking users to use the Mi Box with little to no difficulty. This was shown off by Sundar Pichai earlier this year, and will definitely be useful in helping Xiaomi pierce the US market.
From a specification standpoint, the Xiaomi Mi Box is powered by a quad core Cortex-A53 CPU with a Mali 450 GPU and 2GB RAM. The device also comes with 8GB of internal storage, which can be expanded with external hard drives and flash drives. The Mi Box supports 4K video playback, HDR video and voice commands through a bluetooth remote. It’ll also come with Google Cast support which will allow users to cast photos, videos and screenshots from your smartphone, laptop and computer to the TV.
The Mi Box has already received plenty of praise prior to it’s US release, seeing how the device is a recipient of the Reddot and Good Design Award. The device is expected to launch sometime next month, and will go on sale shortly after. It’ll probably be priced somewhere below the $99 mark, seeing as how the original goes for 75$ from third party retailers.