Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV 4 review: A value-for-money 55-inch 4K smart TV

Xiaomi now sells TVs in India as well. After having emerged the market leader in the budget smartphone market, Xiaomi has gradually increased its presence from online to offline, and other categories such as accessories, wearables and even has a smart purifier. The latest offering from the company is a 55-inch smart 4K LED TV.

As expected from Xiaomi, Mi LED Smart TV 4 is priced aggressively at ₹39,999, making it one of the most affordable smart 4K TVs in the country. Touted as the world's slimmest LED TV, Mi LED Smart TV 4 display panel is just 4.9mm. Well, the bottom panel where the ports are located is thick at 38mm. The TV can be wall mounted as well.

Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV 4: Specifications

Apart from an ultra-slim high-resolution display, the smart TV has a 55-inch edge-to-edge HDR screen. For audio, it supports Dolby Audio and DTS HD. It runs on an Android-based propriety Patchwall operating system.

It is powered by a 64-bit quad-core processor clocked up to 1.8GHz coupled with Mali-T830 MP2, up to 750MHz GPU, and 2GB DDR RAM. The smart TV comes with 8GB of built-in storage.

Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV 4 has two USB ports with 3.0 and 2.0 support respectively. It has three HDMI ports, one AV and Ethernet ports. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 2.4GHz/5GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy.

The smart TV supports 12 Indian languages (system languages) including Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Assamese, Marathi, Gujarati and Urdu among others.

In the box: It has two base stands, Bluetooth remote, power cord, user manual and five screws, and of course the monitor.

Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV 4: Takeaways

With 4K and HDR technology onboard, the display delivers stunning image quality when watching high resolution videos. A 'frameless' display makes the experience more immersive. The colours and viewing angles are pretty accurate. Thanks to the ultra-slim built, there's a premium look and feel to it. Since it's a 55-inch TV, it makes more sense for large rooms.

But in our opinion what makes the Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV 4 distinct from other smart TVs is the operating system. Featuring a card-style content layout, the UI is quite reminiscent to the UI of Amazon's Fire TV, but with less clutter. It's neat and fairly easy to get started.

The interface brings all the content from the subscribed OTT platform to the front. And this also includes content from the set-top-boxes. This essentially means while you can watch a favourite show from Netflix and in the next card you have the live match going on your set-top-box.

This interface makes the cumbersome process of switching from one HDMI input to another fairly simple. For instance, there's on-screen HDMI cards allowing you to seamlessly switch.

Another highlight of the smart TV is the remote control which is quite similar to Fire TV stick remote but without voice button. Unlike the traditional TV remotes and even smart TV remotes, Xiaomi's remote has minimalistic design approach.

There's a power button on the top corner, a circular joystick for navigation followed by home, back and menu buttons. There's also a volume button. And that's about it. A well optimised interface makes it easier to type on-screen and even change channels.

While Xiaomi Mi TV impresses with its performance and fluid interface, it still misses out on a few things. For instance, it does not have a dedicated app store, making it cumbersome for users to actually make most of the 8GB on-board storage. The TV lets you run any Android APK though. However, a dedicated app store will make more sense.

The content catalogue, which is supposed to be one of the key highlights of the device, is still scarce. At the moment, the TV offers content from OTT players like Hungama, Voot and Sony Liv. Since I use the Amazon Fire Stick, I didn't really miss out on any content, but dedicated applications for the TV, especially for popular apps like Amazon Prime and Netflix, would have made it more compelling.

Verdict

Overall, Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV 4 is quite impressive. Considering the price point, fluid performance, and features on offer, it delivers value for money. With more content partners on-board, it will be more compelling. Also, there are barely any smart TVs with such high quality display and premium design at this price in the market.