Chinese electronics company Xiaomi is a giant in select markets including China and India, but the company has a more limited presence in United States, where Xiaomi doesn’t sell phones. But Xiaomi does sell media streamers and a handful of other devices in the US. So there’s a chance that the new 2nd-gen Xiaomi Box 4K that passed through the FCC this week could eventually make it to the US market.
It’s unclear what sets the 2nd-gen box apart from other models Xiaomi has sold over the years. Current models include the Mi Box S, Mi TV Stick, and Xiaomi TV Stick 4K.
A new Xiaomi Box 4K (2nd-gen) media streamer may be on the way. Details are light, but a drawing included in a recent FCC listing provides the name. https://t.co/FXYtd4V8aC pic.twitter.com/AsIGdyay4N
— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) September 23, 2022
Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.
AMD quietly adds three new 65W Ryzen Pro 5000 series chips to its lineup plus two new 4000 series chips (one is a 35W chip and the other 65W). https://t.co/dgKmHw2KxC
— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) September 23, 2022
Bytedance’s Pico 4 is a standalone VR headset with a Qualcomm XR2 processor, 8GB RAM, and dual 2160 x 2160px displays (one for each eye). On paper the $420 headset looks better than a Meta Quest 2, but ByteDance isn’t selling it in the US yet. https://t.co/nrmWlFbCxb
— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) September 23, 2022
Google will add support for using a Google Account with Fitbit “sometime in 2023.” You’ll be able to continue using a Fitbit account instead, but “some users” may require a Google account, and Google may kill Fitbit accounts in 2025 or later. https://t.co/Wo9BmHfUw2
— Liliputing (@liliputingnews) September 23, 2022
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“It’s unclear what sets the 2nd-gen box apart from other models Xiaomi has sold over the years.”
Well the first two Mi Boxes (Mi Box and Mi Box S) are no longer for sale for one. So even if there is no real difference introducing one that you can actually buy is necessary. Second, the last one came out in 2018. One released now would have a newer SOC that is not only faster but would have new features like hardware AVI encoding (which the new Chromecast with Google TV has but the previous one released in 2020 didn’t) and Wi-Fi 6 plus formerly premium features that can now be implemented on cheaper hardware like Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. Finally, Xiaomi – like most Android OEMs – does not provide more than 1 or 2 major software updates. So if you have the Mi Box or Mi Box S, you are likely stuck on Android TV 9 or 10. That is significant because the Android TV interface changes to Google TV with version 11.
I actually did like my Mi Box S but switched to Chromecast with Google TV in order to get the new Android TV version. However if the Mi Box S has AV1 and Wi-Fi 6, I will pick it up.
Xiaomi does sell phones in the US. It’s where I bought mine from Amazon, and there are plenty more available there right now.
I don’t buy anything Chinese now…