There's been a rumour in Android TV circles for a while that Google is planning to release an Android TV stick to go with - or instead of - Chromecasts.
This is no coincidence, as the platform has undergone a huge development in recent years, and almost all content can be consumed on it, even from Hungarian providers.
HBO GO, Netflix, Telenor MyTV, FilmBox Live - just to name a few. You can even watch RTLMOST+ via Chromecast. Because the device running Android TV is also a Chromecast. Brilliant, isn't it?
It's no coincidence that Xiaomi's Mi Box products have been a huge success, despite the fact that they haven't felt the need for major hardware improvements since 2016. In their defence, the Google's new product will have similar specifications, allegedly :D
Read more about the Mi Box 3 Oreo 2018 update and Android TV here.
Google's device hasn't arrived yet, it's codenamed Sabrina, I don't know how much it has to do with the Netflix series, I mean, apart from the fact that it will probably be viewable on it, but it's been scythed, so who knows if it will arrive at all, but they're not in a hurry, there's been talk of a developer kit that developers have got, so the search giant's own product is still to come. But Xiaomi has not been idle, here's the Mi TV Stick, let's see how the new streaming gadget turned out.
It's like this. We were extremely excited for the launch, as a lot of never-before-heard information was revealed yesterday from 14:00 Hungarian time. Oh no, about everything was known, these pictures were taken long before the launch.
The Mi TV Stick is not a big novelty for Mi Box, Mi TV and Mi Smart Compact Projector users, unless the size impresses me, I can still be surprised by the technological advances, or maybe the Mi Boxes box was oversized :D
Let's see what's on paper, i.e. specifications:
- RAM: 1GB
- ROM: 8GB
- CPU: Quad-core Cortex-A53 2.0GHZ
- GPU: ARM Mali 450
- Android TV 9.0
- Bluetooth 4.2
- Resolution: 2K FHD + HDR
- Network: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
- Video decoding: VP9-10, VC-1, H.265, H.264, H263, MPEG1/2/4
- Dolby Audio + DTS
- MicroUSB (power cable)
The information is from Banggood
For whom and what is it good for?
Simple: do you have an old smartphone or just a regular version? Connect Mi TV Stick and the world opens up :)
- In broad terms
You can Netflix it, consume any video content from the 90% websites using Chromecast (e.g. WebVideoCast Android app), support for Google Assistant, and it can be mirrored from any device running Google Chrome, and from the Home app on Android. You can play small games with it, I explained in more detail in the Mi Box 3 article. You can find it here.
Of course, it is also possible to view locally stored media and VLC player is available. It all works, even tens of gigs of MKV files grown from the Hungarian core, the only problem is the network, if you were watching this over WiFi, well... you need a good router.
Mi Box or Mi TV stick?
For now, I'd recommend a Mi Box S version, as the price difference is not really significant, but 2GB of RAM is good for performance. If the more muscular version arrives, we'll revisit this idea. The Mi Box S is available for around 20-25 thousand HUF, you can see the up-to-date pricing of Xiaomishop.hu here.
How much is that?
We've pretty much got the gist of what it is, but the pricing is still to come. Yesterday, the numbers showed 39.99 euros almost everywhere, I was expecting the new Redmi phone to be the same, but it wasn't, but the TV Stick was, it was priced at 40 euros, which will of course be more expensive, especially in this country, but we can put it between 15-20 thousand forints.
Summarise
I would like to start my personal opinion with a quote from the 2019 Chernobyl series: Not great, not terrible, or with Hungarian dubbing, it was something like: not great, but not tragic. I do not consider it a good decision to release this Stick in this form. One giga is too little, it has been too little for years, and yet it has been ripped off. Of course, it doesn't do much multitasking anyway, but chances are that jumping from Netflix to Spotify will be a bit bumpy. We'll see, I hope this is just an initial concern for the paper, like when Joseph Pelikan got the verdict instead of the confession. It will definitely come out in the test, which you'll read about in Hello Xiaomi sooner or later. If you don't want to miss it, follow us on our Facebook page, you can find the latest information there.
