Mi LED Smart TV PRO: What’s new in Xiaomi smart TVs

Mi LED TV 4A PRO (49) and Mi LED TV 4C PRO (32) are priced at ₹29,999 and ₹14,999 respectively. The new TVs will be available via Amazon.in and Mi.com starting October 9.

Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4A PRO (49) features 20W stereo speakers with DTS-HD surround sound, PatchWall based on Android 8.1 Oreo, 64-bit Amlogic quad-core chipset with Mali-450 GPU, 2GB RAM + 8GB storage, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, and Bluetooth 4.2. (Xiaomi)

Xiaomi is stepping up its smart TV game. Roughly six months after entering the segment, Xiaomi earlier this week introduced three new smart TVs under Mi LED Smart TV PRO series. The new TVs are called Mi LED TV 4C PRO (32-inch), Mi LED TV 4A PRO (49-inch), and Mi LED TV 4 PRO (55-inch).

Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4A PRO (49) and Mi LED TV 4C PRO (32) are priced at ₹29,999 and ₹14,999 respectively. The TVs will be available via Amazon.in and Mi.com starting October 9. Priced at ₹49,999, Mi LED TV 4 PRO will be available starting October 10.

Xiaomi implemented its smartphone strategy for its smart TVs - aggressive pricing and top-of-the-line specifications. The older Mi LED Smart TV 4A is available in India at a starting price of ₹13,999. The latest Mi LED Smart TV PRO series is slightly more expensive with base model priced at ₹14,999.

The latest Mi LED Smart TV PRO series, however, comes with a range of new and better features. The greater emphasis is on improving the content quality and adding more content partners. Let's take a look at what's more in Xiaomi's Mi LED Smart TV PRO.

Android
Xiaomi's Mi LED Smart TV 4A debuted with a custom PatchWall user interface. The highlight of the Patchwall user interface is that it brings content to the home screen instead of opening different applications and browsing the content. Adding an IR blaster helps bring live TV content to the screen. The UI is quite different from what other affordable smart TVs like KODAK 4K 50UHDXSMART TV bring as they have relatively elementary interface.

With the new Mi LED Smart TV PRO, Xiaomi has now added Google's Android TV support. This means you can download compatible apps from Google Play store and more importantly watch YouTube videos through the official application.

The new TVs come with a dual UI mode, allowing users to choose different screens depending upon their preference.

Voice
The biggest new feature in Xiaomi's smart TV is the voice support. Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV PRO lets you look up content through Android assistant. The feature works quite similar to Amazon's Fire TV remote - tap on the mic button and give command. Xiaomi has also modified the remote to include a voice button.

Old (Left) Xiaomi TV remote vs new (right) TV remote (HT Photo/Kul Bhushan)

Old (Left) Xiaomi TV remote vs new (right) TV remote (HT Photo/Kul Bhushan)

Chromecast
This is perhaps the most useful addition in the new Xiaomi smart TV. Built-in Chromecast feature allows you to mirror content from your phone to the screen. This comes in handy if you want to watch say content from Netflix or offline media on your phone or PC. Most of the streaming applications, excluding Amazon Prime Video, are compatible with Chromecast.

Back panel of Mi LED TV 4A PRO (49-inch) (HT Photo/Kul Bhushan)

Back panel of Mi LED TV 4A PRO (49-inch) (HT Photo/Kul Bhushan)

More content

As said earlier, Xiaomi is improving its content bouquet. The company claims the platform offers 700,000+ hours of content across the Video-On-Demand providers. The platform currently supports content from apps like Hotstar, Hungama, Sony Liv, Woot, Eros Now, and Zee5. It will soon add support for Jio Cinema, Hooq, Epic ON and Amazon Prime Video. Right now, Xiaomi's PatchWall doesn't support Netflix (but you can use Chromecast.)