Why Mi TV 4A could become India's smart television
Less than a month after launching its Mi TV 4 at a glittering event in Delhi, Chinese tech giant, Xiaomi, has gone ahead and announced two new products to add to its television line-up in the country.
Much like the 55-inch Mi TV 4, the two new 43-inch and 32-inch displays help form smart TVs that come running Xiaomi's PatchWall UI that on paper at least promises much. The custom PatchWall OS, as Xiaomi calls it, is based on Android and uses "deep learning AI for "making intelligent content recommendations" tailored for individuals.
PatchWall not only promises support for connecting myriad devices with the TV, but also promises seamless transition between the TV's smart apps, set-top-box, and other devices connected to it.
However, despite the presence of PatchWall the two new TVs are being sold under the moniker Mi TV 4A to differentiate them from the flagship Mi TV 4 which boasts of not only a bigger but also a better display.
What's the catch?
There isn't one. Not technically at least. The difference in price between the Mi TV 4 and the 4A line-up is more down to the technology powering the TVs and less about the size of the displays.
While the Mi TV 4 is a device that is one for the future with its sleek bezel-less 4K HDR panel, the Mi TV 4A starts its line-up with a 32-inch HD resolution (1366x768 pixel) display while the 43-inch Mi TV 4A goes only up to full-HD resolution (1920x1080).
The differences don't just end there. As opposed to the really impressive hardware powering the flagship TV, the two new TVs bring with them slightly downgraded specs – a 1.5GHz quad-core Amlogic T962 Cortex-A53 processor coupled with Mali-T450 GPU.
Smart option?
So does it all add up to the two new TV becoming smart options to buy? The answer to that is, yes. Despite the downgrade in internals, the Mi TV 4A line-up makes more sense for the Indian consumers than the 4 did.
To begin with, the two TVs are available across a number of platforms — Mi.com, Mi Home Stores and Flipkart – and carry with them extremely aggressive price tags with the 32-inch variant available for Rs 13,999, and the 43-inch TV available for Rs 22,999. In comparison, the flagship Mi TV 4 sported a Rs 39,999 price tag.
This makes these two the most aggressively priced smart TVs in the country. No doubt they pale in comparision to the MI TV 4's specs sheet, but with the inclusion of 1GB of RAM and 8GB of flash storage Wi-Fi (802.11ac) and Bluetooth 4.0, along with 20W speakers that support DTS audio, the 4A line-up out muscles any other TV in the price segment and comes out looking like an overall better deal than the Mi TV 4 which to be honest is slightly pricey for the average consumer looking for a HD/Full HD TV below the Rs 25-30K mark.
Both the Mi TV 4A TVs offer more than enough value for the average buyer as they come with panels that support 60 Hz refresh rate along with 3 HDMI ports (including 1 ARC port), and 2 USB ports, as well as an Ethernet port on the 32-inch Mi TV 4A and 3 HDMI ports, 3 USB ports along with an S/PDIF port on the the 43-inch Mi TV 4A.
The lack of streaming content available on Netflix and Amazon Prime remains a bummer even with the 4A TVs, but the blow is softened as the TVs don't require a library of 4K content – as is the case with the Mi TV 4 – to work to their best.