Xiaomi Mi Box

What a lemon – We had the box for 4 days and it was a terrible experience. The streaming was scratchy and the remote froze every 10 minutes and it required constant paring. We tried everything to fix the problem. We removed the HDMI cable, turned the box on and off, we also removed and replaced the remote batteries with no luck. With that frustration, we purchased a Blaupunkt android tv box and we now have zero problems. We do not recommend Xiaomi.  Show details

Recommended only because it's so cheap – I wanted to get a Chromecast Ultra but I stumbled across the Xiaomi Mi Box. It is basically an Android TV box with ChromeCast Ultra built in and a remote for only a few dollars more than the ChromeCast. Setup is a little clunky but once sorted it only takes a few minutes. It needs AC power, an HDMI connection and wi-fi. It works on both 2.4Ghz… Read more

and 5Ghz bands which is great if you have many devices already using 2.4GHz. Once started, log in with your Google account, it will probably do a few updates and then you can start using it. The interface is responsive at first but slows down noticeably after prolonged use. A restart fixes this. The remote is poorly laid out and can be frustrating to use. It works well streaming and playing your own videos. Most games look great and you can connect bluetooth devices to it like, game controllers, keyboards and mice.

Hardware wise, it cannot reliably play back 4K video. It struggles to provide smooth playback with obvious skipped frames and audio stuttering. A simple matter of inadequate processing power. All lower resolutions played without issues.

This sounds pretty good given the price they're asking for the Mi Box but it has some serious issues that make the device less attractive. First off, you cannot switch the Mi Box on using Google Assistant. If the Mi Box is in sleep mode or switched off, you cannot cast to it and have it automatically wake up. The remote uses bluetooth and no universal remotes will operate it.

Depending on your requirements, this might just what you're after, but if you want to use it mainly as a Chromecast Ultra, it's inability to be switched on remotely and the sleep issues mean it's usage is severely limited.

Powerful smart TV upgrade at a fraction of the price – Out performs my woefully expensive Sony Bravia. Has that lean and slick native AndroidTV feel, worth spending those extra couple of dollars than a cheap non-AndroidTV media player. Bit average on 4K/Ultra-HD due to a average CPU, limited memory and no network adapter. Wireless-only Show details

Good little device overall – For the price, I am very happy with it. Yes sometimes it crashes on you (if you load it with too many apps) Love the voice search funtion- comes in handy with youtube You can add a USB stick if you want to load games etc. Show details

Pretty Good – Very solid runs well, remote is very handy Would be great if it had an L A N onnection Perfect for PLEX, Kodi, streaming apps and playing large files that TV's will not support Remote is great as well Show details

It's a Chromecast on steroids! – The Android TV interface is pretty but still lacks all the apps I'd hope to see, for example I expected to see Google Photos...nope, you'll need to buy a third party app to view them (which doesn't really work properly anyway). The remote is Bluetooth and I have to say I love it! It's simple, it's beautiful to hold and use, Xiaomi really nailed… Read more

it. Additionally, you can easily pair an XBOX One controller to function as a remote and also gaming controller of course, a nice touch.

I mostly use the box for Kodi and it's built in Chromecast feature, yes it has a chromecast built in, most people don't know that.

No complaints on the picture quality but you'll only get 2 channel audio out of this thing although I read somewhere it should pass AC3 I haven't witnessed any form of surround on my Yamaha amp so far.

Biggest let-down of all, and I believe it's affects all Android TV boxs (unless you can root them) is the fact you can't write to USB devices, read-only access. I believe it's a Google directive as they need to protect the streaming content from piracy (eg Netflix etc) There is a feature which allows you to encrypt a USB drive to use as storage however it didn't work with any of my drives unfortunately, bit of a shame really.

Nearly perfect – I like this box, I have two of them. I have sideloaded Android apps (such as SBS, 9now) and use to watch foreigner channels (by using a smart DNS on router). The remote is amazing. Some of the side loaded apps though don't seem to work with remote provided. Netflix is hd and also ultra he, which is incredible for the price.  Show details

Perfect replacement for TV subscription – Was a very good and great replacement for my current TV subscription as it wasn't worth paying so much just for a few selection every month. TV box was very small as well, no lag in watching tv shows, dramas and movies. Quality was very good also. Still exploring other options on watching live tv and using the Kodi. Seller provided an AU plug adapter as well.