Android TV boxes haven"t gotten much attention over the last two years. NVIDIA dominates this segment with the Shield TV, which not only plays 4K nội dung but also streams games with ease. But the Shield TV starts off at $190 và isn"t available globally. For a majority of users looking khổng lồ pick up an affordable apk TV box, the mặc định option is Xiaomi"s ngươi Box S.
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I used the first-gen ngươi Box for just over a year, & it isn"t an exaggeration khổng lồ say that it was the worst Xiaomi sản phẩm I used. I often joked that I had Xiaomi"s worst product connected lớn its best — the Mi laze Projector. The mi Box would constantly freeze, và it got to lớn a point where I had lớn reboot it every single time before I could stream any content.
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So when xiaomi mi released a newer version of the ngươi Box, I was excited. The ngươi Box S shares the same hardware as its predecessor, but it runs Oreo out of the box & comes with a voice remote that lets you launch your favorite TV shows và movies by issuing voice commands lớn Google Assistant.
Considering the amount of issues I had with the ngươi Box, I wanted khổng lồ use the ngươi Box S for a few months before writing a review. So with three solid months of usage under the belt, here"s what I think of Xiaomi"s latest app android TV box.
You get what you pay for
The mày Box S delivers a full-fledged android TV experience on a budget. Và while the device does a great job streaming 1080p content, it struggles when it comes khổng lồ 4K. You do get a decent remote, it has Google Assistant baked in, and Wi-Fi connectivity is rock-solid. As long as you"re okay with streaming 1080p content, it"s a solid option at this price.
The Good
Great valueBrand-new remote controlStreams 1080p nội dung without any issuesGoogle Assistant built-inThe Bad
4K streaming is laggyCast doesn"t work when box is off
The mày Box S has a pretty basic design: it"s just a rectangular box made out of plastic with rounded edges. The reason for its boxy kiến thiết is a larger heat sink that does a much better job dissipating heat away from the internal hardware. Round the back you have ports for power, audio-out, USB drive, & HDMI 2.0a.
There"s no dedicated Ethernet port, but it has a newer Wi-Fi ac 2x2 MIMO module that does a much better job staying connected khổng lồ your home Wi-Fi network. I had a lot of issues with Wi-Fi connectivity on the mi Box, but that just wasn"t the case on the mày Box S — it had rock-solid connectivity throughout.
A full-fledged app android TV experience for less than the cost of a Chromecast Ultra.
As for the hardware on offer, the ngươi Box S is powered by an Amlogic S905X SoC that has four Cortex A53 cores clocked up to 2.0GHz. There"s 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, and if the specs look familiar, it"s because they haven"t changed from the ngươi Box.
You do get a new remote with dedicated buttons for Netflix và invoking Google Assistant. The Assistant integration allows you to lớn quickly launch TV shows or play videos on YouTube by issuing voice commands. The interface itself is identical to what you"d find on any apk TV device, and you get access to Play Store to tải về thousands of apps optimized for the TV.
I primarily used the mày Box S with the 1080p Mi laze Projector. Although the mày Box S shares the same hardware as its predecessor, I didn"t see any performance issues. A lot of that has to bởi with the fact that the device runs apk 8.1 Oreo out of the box, which has numerous bug fixes baked in.
Furthermore, xiaomi mi has done a much better job issuing updates lớn the mi Box S. I got two updates laden with bug fixes in the three months I used the device, and with xiaomi mi committing lớn rolling out constant updates, the ngươi Box S will be assured khổng lồ get the latest android TV builds as they become available.
The ngươi Box S does a great job with 1080p content, but the hardware just isn"t designed to lớn handle 4K.
That said, the entire experience falls apart when you try lớn stream 4K content. I hooked up the mày Box S to lớn Xiaomi"s 4K ngươi TV Pro, & the interface immediately started lớn lag.
The internal hardware is khổng lồ blame here — it just doesn"t have the grunt to lớn push 4K HDR content. So if you"re looking for a sub-$100 streaming device for 4K content, you"re better off going with Roku or Amazon.
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Another area where the ngươi Box S falls short is casting videos from your phone. As it is an android TV device, it works as a Cast target. The only downside is that the feature is only enabled when the box itself is switched on, which defeats the purpose altogether. My Sony game android TV shows up as a Cast target even when the screen is off, but I have khổng lồ manually turn on the ngươi Box S before it shows up in the list.