Google I/O 2016: Xiaomi Mi Box powered by Android TV for the US

Hugo Barra has been teasing Xiaomi’s presence at Google I/O. The company is indeed working closely with Google and a series of related announcements were made at I/O 2016. Hugo Barra, Vice President, Xiaomi Global said, “This is a significant milestone for Xiaomi and I am really excited to be working closely with Google to bring such a great product to our fans in the US. I believe US consumers will truly enjoy the Android TV experience on Mi Box, which brings stunning 4K HDR video and a wide variety of content to your living room.”

To begin with, the latest version of the Mi Box will be launched for the US market – a 4K set-top box powered by Android TV. However, exact availability details of the Mi Box are unclear yet.  Xiaomi claims to have already sold over 10 million smart TVs and set-top boxes in China since 2013. At I/O keynote, Google VP Clay Bavor also announced that Xiaomi is among Google’s first Android partners for the search giant’s Daydream-ready devices.

Mi Box along with Android TV 6.0 will offer a vast library of content with thousands of movies, shows and games from Google Play, YouTube and other apps. The highlight is support for 4K UHD video content playback at 60 frames per second, and also support for the latest HDR10 standard (to be enabled from Android N onwards) and the updated HDMI 2.0a specification. “With supported content being made available by leading content providers such as YouTube, Netflix, Vudu and FandangoNOW, high dynamic range (HDR) TV technology promises improvements in color and contrast, delivering a significant leap in picture quality,” Xiaomi writes in its press release.

On the hardware front, it is powered by quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU and Mali 450 GPU,coupled with 2GB RAM and 8GB eMMC flash. Users can add additional storage via USB. It supports Dolby Digital Plus and DTS Surround Sound for audio. Google’s personalised recommendations will make it easier to discover apps.

Mi Box comes with a Bluetooth remote control that allows to change channels, directly go to a TV show or movie, do Web searches, and launch apps by simply speaking into the remote. The Bluetooth remote can also be used as a controller for the huge catalog of games that work on Android TV. For a more console-style gaming experience, Mi Game Controller, which supports Mi Box and any Android device, will also be available separately.