Xiaomi Announces new Smart TV 40" Mi TV2
The Xiaomi onslaught continues as Xiaomi announced today a new Smart TV that goes on sale in China end of this month. The new 40-inch 1080p TV is a lower end version of the 49-inch MiTV2 version which had been selling in China for over 6 months now. Although it is sold in China only at the moment, you can bring in or buy from resellers in Singapore. There are already a number of users of the 49-inch MiTV2 and response has been positive. I had been tempted to buy one too.
The new Mi TV 2 model would retail at 1,999 CNY, or around $440. It features a 40-inch Full HD LED Sharp display with 5,000:1 contrast ratio, H.265 10-bit hardware video decoding and Dolby virtual surround sound. The TV packs a 1.45GHz quad-core Cortex A9 processor, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, that runs on Xiaomi’s MIUI TV. This gives you access to a number of Chinese content from their MIUI TV ecosystem as well as the ability to install other Android applications. Xiaomi has been in the Android TV Box space for a number of years, and their MIUI TV OS is relatively stable and more importantly, user friendly.
Xiaomi shared that it’s ready to offer buyers over 240,000 hours of online content, as it’ll be “investing $1 billion and partnering with several China content providers” for MiTV 2 content. The company also promises a “fluid” gaming experience, saying the device can be turned into an Android 4.4 game console. Game controllers are sold separately. Overseas users would have to take this with a pinch of salt, as content access is likely limited to China only. However, the ability to install other Android applications (e.g. Plex, Kodi, Guangmang TV) would extend the usability of the system or you can workaround it with a China proxy / VPN.
The device will go on sale on mi.com starting with March 31st. The higher resolution 4K 49-inch Mi TV 2 model costs around $850. The 4K version comes in gold colour, and besides the 4K 49″ screen, offers minor improvements such as more RAM (2gb) and micro-SD card support. In addition, the 3999 CNY price does include a soundbar and a wireless subwoofer, which in my opinion, makes it a better deal.
The full translated spec comparison is available here on Xiaomi Forums.
If you are interested to pick up a MiTV2 – you can contact the following seller from Qoo10 – I’ve been monitoring and he has one of the better prices around. Xiaomi TV 2 49-inch 4K SMART TV LATEST GENERATION WITH SOUNDBAR AND SUB-WOOFER. The price ranges around S$1,249 to S$1,299 but it seems like it has been steadily increasing (curse the rising yuan!). It’s a reasonable price. Even if you were to freight it in yourself, it would still come out to around S$1,100. May not be worth the hassle.