Our favorite Chinese brand has expanded its line of home devices with the new Xiaomi Mi Box 4 set-top box. The new generation does not seem revolutionary, unlike last year's releases. But, nevertheless, it has certain advantages.
The Xiaomi Mi Box 4 TV box is based on the latest Amlogic S905L processor. It consists of 4 Cortex-A53 cores (up to 2.0 GHz) and a Mali-450 video chip. Together with 2 GB of RAM - an extremely powerful combination that, even without hardware decoding, is capable of digesting any modern media formats.
However, Xiaomi engineers have made sure that the processor has less work to do. The video accelerator provides hardware support for video in 4K resolution at up to 60 frames per second (for HEVC/h.265 files). In addition, the new product can work with file formats such as HDR10 and Hybrid Log Gamma HDR. Support for DTS and Dolby Digital Plus sound enhancement technologies is also announced.
This feature turns Xiaomi Mi Box 4 into the company’s most powerful console – and the most promising at the moment among all Chinese devices of this kind. It is HLG HDR and HDR10 that will become the most relevant video formats in the near future - both for games thanks to Play Station 4 Pro, and for watching movies.
The permanent memory of the set-top box is only 8 GB, since Mi Box 4 is equipped with a USB slot and can work with home servers, including via the DLNA protocol. For fast data exchange, the new product is equipped with a dual-band Wi-Fi transmitter, as well as a Bluetooth 4.2 LE module.
Through the latter, not only communication with external content sources works, but also the Xiaomi branded remote control, already known about the Xiaomi Mi Box 3 Enchanced Edition. It's been redesigned to place voice search, powered by a new smart search engine, above the click wheel.
Xiaomi Mi Box 4 is already on sale in China. At the moment, its price is $80, which is hardly less than analogues with 4K support, but without HDR support.
