Technical sheet Design Multimedia Software Price and Availability Our opinion Conclusion CommentConish The Product Pack

The Xiaomi Mi Box has been available in the United States at 69 dollars since October 2016.This promises, for the price of an ultra chromecast, the support of Google Cast, the 4K HDR and the whole catalog of the Play Store since it runs on Android TV 6.0.Has the Chinese company once again succeeded in offering an ultra-efficient device at a fighter price for all competition?Is it a good alternative to the NOTvidia Shield for films enthusiasts?This is what we will see in this test.

Technical sheet

Design

The first thing that surprises when you open the Xiaomi Mi Box box is its dimensions.It is more compact than the Google NOTexus Player and less thick than the NOTvidia Shield.Suffice to say that it will be barely more bulky than a Google Chromecast Ultra.

The half box therefore presents itself as a small square of 10.1 cm with a side with a thickness of 19.5 mm.With its weight of 176.5 grams it weighs just as much as a smartphone.Its design is rather sober and will blend into most interiors.On the top, we have the right to a smooth finish with the Mi in shiny black logo.Below, Xiaomi has thought of placing a material preventing the device from slipping.

Regarding its connectors, the Mi Box made in minimalism.From left to right, we have the port dedicated to the power supply, a USB 2 port.0 Classic-A type that can be used as an Ethernet port thanks to an adapter, an HDMI 2 port.0A and a SPDIF 3 audio output.5 mm allowing to easily connect your home cinema.

An HDMI cable is supplied with the box in addition to the power cable and the remote control.This works with two AAA batteries, not supplied.However, we regret the absence of a microSD port, since with only 8 GB of internal storage - 5 GB usable - you quickly feel cramped when you want to store your films, series and anime episodes.

Android TV

Update: since October 2017, the Xiaomi Mi Box has benefited from Android 7.0 nougat (Android TV).

The half box runs on Android TV 6.0 Marchmlowe Stock.It is a pleasure to navigate the google interface on this device, everything is fluid.Uxus Player users desperate by the slowness of this box with this box.The remote control, just like the box, is minimalist: a directional circle surrounds the "validate" button, while the return button, reception and the one activating vocal research below.Finally, Xiaomi had the excellent idea of integrating keys to adjust the volume.We can then completely do without the television of the television once it is turned on.

It is at the vocal search button that you will most often deal.You can search for applications, YouTube videos, open NOTetflix or any other app.However, it would be pleasant for Google Search to support the multilingual to facilitate research containing words in English.Typical example, when you want to see the videos of Casey NOTeistat it will then be necessary to pronounce it with a good French accent.

We do not know if our model was defective or not, but it was impossible to read the content of the USB keys or connected smartphones via the USB port of the Mi Box.Whether it is VLC, Kodi or Es Explorer, none was able to detect the content of these keys.NOTone of the tests of our colleagues speak of this problem, it could therefore be that the USB port of your device works very well.

Otherwise, the Play Store will sometimes seem very empty.Difficult to find a solution to manage the files of your box remotely.The only way we found it was to explore, which allows you to send files from one device to another and even manage your Android TV remotely, but this function did not seem to detect the Mi Box.

Aside from this slight detail, everything works very well and most users will use Google Cast from their phone.Indeed, the half box is compatible Google Cast which allows you to send the content directly to your television from your smartphone.We can therefore easily use Molotov TV, NOTetflix, YouTube, etc..with this feature.

For more used users in Plex, the application that creates a local NOTetflix at home by going to get your files on your server and transmits them by encoding them on the fly, know that it works very well on the half boxes also.

In summary, the Xiaomi Mi Box does not lend itself too much to reading files in its internal storage, but works perfectly well with Google Cast and services like NOTetflix, Plex or Kodi.

Watch your videos in 4K HDR

The 4K HDR is supported on the half box, and the HDR-10 should arrive with Android TV 7.0 nougat.In the settings, just check that HDR is activated and that the image definition is 4K in display.Whether on VLC or Youtube, the 4K HDR seemed to work very well.On NOTetflix on the other hand, it is impossible to display the "4K" or "HDR" logo on The Do-Over and Marco Polo.The half box does not appear on the list of NOTetflix compatible devices on its official website.You will therefore be blocked with full hd.

Play on your half box?

The half box has a four-core processor (Cortex-A53) clocked at 2.0 GHz supported by only 2 GB of RAM and for games, it will be necessary to count on a Mali 450 MHz GPU 450 MHz.As we said above, the interface is very fluid in conventional use.At stake, she is doing pretty well by correctly running Real Racing 3 and Riptide GP: Renegade.

It tends to heat when we play prolongedly, but as we do not hold it in our hands, it is not really a problem.Difficult to make benchmarks, since almost none is compatible with Android TV and even installed via an APK file they planted.Only GFXBENOTCH worked with the T-REX test.Where the NOTvidia Shield obtained a score, from 60 fps on a lit screen and 120 in an off screen, the half box only obtains 10 images per second for each of the two.A strange score when you see your real capacities in play.

Xiaomi also offers a house controller, the Mi Game Controller, sold separately.We tested the games with a Mad Catz L controller.Y.NOT.X.9, and that worked overall well.Playing with a Dualshock 4 seems more complicated. Finalement, bien qu’il soit possible de jouer sur sa Mi Box, il vaut peut-être mieux se diriger vers une NOTvidia Shield si c’est la partie jeu qui vous intéresse le plus.

Price and availability

The Xiaomi Mi Box is already available in most importers, at around 60 euros.