The easiest way to turn your basic TV into a smart TV is to plug in a smart TV set top box or a dongle.
Xiaomi is one of the few companies that make them both.
Recently they released the Xiaomi TV Stick 4K, a UHD update to the RM150 Xiaomi Mi Tv Stick and it could be a more affordable alternative to the RM329 Xiaomi Mi Box S.
The Xiaomi TV Stick 4K shares the same look as the Mi TV Stick. The only difference is “Xiaomi” branding, consistent with the company’s decision to drop the “Mi” name for products starting with the Xiaomi 11T.
According to Xiaomi, the Xiaomi Stick 4K runs on a quadcore Cortex-A35 CPU paired with Mali-G31 MP2 GPU, 2GB of RAM — which is double that of the Mi Stick– and 8GB of storage.
It also suns Android TV 11 out the box, and has 5GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 support for wireless connectivity.
When it comes to the output the Xiaomi Stick 4K, as it says on the tin, can display video up to 4K. But it also supports Dolby Vision HDR for video and Dolby Atmos for sound.
It also plays AV1, VP9 and H.265 video codec, as well as AV1, new royalty-free codec that is 30% more efficient than H.265 codec. Which should mean lower latency and a smoother watching experience.
The remote has a built in microphone for Google Assistant and for text entry — to search for shows and stuff like that.
Since it runs on the Android TV operating system and has the Google Play Store, you can watch streaming service that has an Android app like YouTube, Disney+ Hotstar, HBO Go, and of course Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Theoretically it could also be used to play Android games on a big screen if paired with a Bluetooth Gaming controller, but there had not been an official word on that yet.
The Xiaomi Stick 4K also supports Chromecast, you can share content on the big screen if you are on the same Wi-Fi network as the device.
Xiaomi has yet to release the pricing and availability in the Malaysian market but it is said to be a direct competition to realme’s 4K TV stick which has an MSRP of RM299.
