Xiaomi quietly launches a 4K streaming stick with AV1 decoding and a big drawback
Kelly Choos
2 min read
It works on Android TV 11, not Google TV
Xiaomi is mainly known for its smartphones and portable devices, but it also sells streaming boxes and dongles under Android TV. Last year, the company launched the Mi TV Stick in Europe and India, which offered a respectable set of features for its low price. This year, the company is back with a more powerful iteration of its streaming stick with AV1 hardware decoding and 4K streaming support: the Xiaomi TV Stick 4K.
Oddly, Xiaomi hasn’t made any formal announcements regarding the launch of its latest streaming stick. Instead, he just brought the product page to life on his global website, as first noticed. @AndroidTV_Rumor.
The Xiaomi TV Stick 4K packs a quad-core Cortex-A35 processor and Mali-G31 MP2 GPU paired with 2GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. The dongle supports DTS HD and Dolby Atmos as well as VP9 and H.265 codecs. Most importantly, it supports AV1 hardware decoding, which offers up to 30% better compression than H.265. Netflix has started streaming its content to some of its subscribers using AV1, while YouTube already uses this codec to stream content to supported devices.
On the connectivity side, the Xiaomi TV Stick 4K supports 5 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0. It plugs directly into your TV’s HDMI port, with power routed to it through the MicroUSB port. The included Bluetooth remote includes dedicated buttons for Google Assistant, Netflix, and Prime Video.
Unfortunately, the Xiaomi TV Stick 4K works on Android TV 11 instead of Google TV. Realme already has a 4K streaming stick running Google TV, so if you’re planning on going with Xiaomi’s offering, you’ll miss out on the personalized recommendations and other improvements that the new UI brings.
Compared to the Mi TV Stick, the 4K version contains noticeable upgrades in some key areas – more RAM, a faster processor, and support for the AV1 codec, although it would have been nice to see Xiaomi increase as well. internal storage to 16 GB.
There is no word on the price, but the price of the Xiaomi TV Stick 4K should be the same as the Mi TV Stick.
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