In this video we review and ask if you Should You Buy a Xiaomi Mi Box Review 4K Android TV Streaming Box?
Media streaming boxes, Fire TV boxes, Kodi Boxes, whatever you want to call them boxes seem to be popping up everywhere. Google's entry into the fray, Android TV, is much like their phone operating system in that it is open source and available for third parties to implement on different hardware. One of the most popular manufacturers of Android Devices in China has been Xiaomi (pronounced jau-me) and, while you could import them in via eBay in the past, they have started to ship their products to retailers here in the USA. One of their first products, the Mi Box, is a 4K streaming box designed to help you cut the cord and gain access to services such as Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu, Kodi and others.
The Mi Box is pretty simple in its design. It's a small box with 1 HDMI port, 1 USB port and a power input. With only one input there's not much you can hook up to the MI box without the use of a USB hub. The AC input uses a barrel-type connector, cheap to produce I am sure but a bummer because you can't use a Micro USB or USB Type-C connector. This is a Wi-Fi only device too as there isn't a port on it for a network cable. If you don't have a decent router you're going to have issues.
The remote control is nice, with dedicated power button and volume rocker button in addition to the home button, back button, microphone button and the up/down/left/right rocker around the home button. One issue that cropped up at an annoying frequency was that the remote would frequently come unpaired from the system. I would have to walk over to the system and hit the home and back buttons to re-pair it to the console probably once a day.
When I fired up the system it started to download an update about as soon as it was connected to my Wi-Fi. It took a few minutes to download and install. Signing into the system, apps, etc was quick and easy. The Operating system takes up 2.9GB of 8GB total on the system, definitely a limiting factor in the potential of the device.
Watching video content was largely hit and miss. Plex videos, such as those I recorded using my Plex Pass DVR, often broke up, pixelated or had buffering issues. I could not use this as a serer for Plex either. The 3x2 CPU setup simply wasn't up to snuff for complex transcoding. Other services such as Netflix, Vudu or Amazon TV worked ok, but also occasionally buffered.
Gaming was another aspect of Android TV where the Mi Box just doesn't come through and perform. Input lag via Bluetooth controllers was terrible. I'd hit a button on my 8Bitdo controller and it took an eternity for the character on-screen to respond. It made NBA Jam, Super Mario World, Star Fox and Donkey Kong Country unplayable.
Should You Buy a Mi Box?
My hopes were very high going into this review but the Mi Box just didn't measure up. From lag, pixelated images, small storage, no hard-wired network support and a remote which would frequently come unpaired from the system the Mi Box just doesn't measure up. For the money you can do better, from Roku, Amazon Fire TV and other systems. I would definitely look elsewhere for a streaming solution as the MI Box comes up pretty short.
Why it RoX
- Low Price
- Nice remote
- Full access to Android TV apps
What Could Be Improved
- Holy Lagtastic Batman!
- Remote would frequently come un-paired
- Input lag on bluetooth game controllers
- Colors look washed out
- Cannot run Plex Media Server
- No hardwired network support
- Only 8GB on-board storage
