Review of Xiaomi Mi TV Box 3 Enhanced - a smart TV box for $ 90

Xiaomi and its partners produce almost everything for China. Only the most popular devices come to us, but the company has decent little-known gadgets in its arsenal. Take the Mi TV Box line of media players, for example. These little boxes are the best of their kind. For just $ 90, the lucky buyer of the Xiaomi Mi TV Box 3 Enchanced gets all possible functions (even the branded joystick) and access to one of the most sophisticated ecosystems on the market.

Specifications

CPU	6-core 64-bit MT8693 (2 × Cortex-A72 + 4 × Cortex-A53)
GPU	Power VR GX6250
RAM	2 GB LPDDR3
Storage device	8GB eMMC 5.0
Interfaces	Wi-Fi 802.11a / b / g / n / ac; Bluetooth 4.1 + EDR
Connectors	1 × HDMI 2.0, 2 × USB 2.0, power interface
Output Resolution	4K (3 840 × 2 160)
Available codecs	HD MPEG 1/2/4, H.264, H.265, Xvid / DivX 4/5/6
Playable video formats	3GP, AVI, FLV, M2TS, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, TS
Playable audio formats	AAC, APE, FLAC, MP3, OGG
Playable photo formats	BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG
Dimensions (edit)	100 × 100 × 25 mm
Weight	190 g

Appearance

Most Xiaomi devices in their design can match Apple's technology. Xiaomi Mi TV Box 3 Enhanced is no exception.

The scope of delivery, as always, is very simple: only the essentials. The recycled cardboard box contains a small box, a proprietary remote control, a power supply, and an HDMI cable. The cable is short - you will most likely have to buy a longer one. But the remote control is beyond praise. First, it works via Bluetooth. And secondly, it has a gyroscope and an accelerometer, with the help of which the familiar control turns into a rather convenient joystick.

Interestingly, Xiaomi has chosen white for most of its multimedia players. The analogs are mostly made in black.

Stylish white box will perfectly fit into any interior. It's a pity not to attach it to the wall - in some cases it would be useful. We'll have to come up with something extra. And this is a serious task for anyone who mounts the TV to the wall, because after purchasing the Xiaomi Mi TV Box 3 Enchanced, most of the other TV companions can be thrown away. This means that the equipment stands will not be needed.

The lack of attachment to the wall is perhaps the only drawback. The device looks stylish, has an indicator with a pleasant matte light and, in general, has an extremely pleasant feeling.

Connecting is easy: plug the power and HDMI cable into the TV. Everything is ready to go.

Performance

Inside Mi Box 3 Enhanced hides a special single-chip platform for media boxes from MediaTek MT8693. Powerful, high heat dissipation. So hot that the developers had to equip the console with active cooling - a cooler.

The chip consists of two Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 2.0 GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.6 GHz and a PowerVR GX6250 graphics processor. The performance with this combination is very high.

Xiaomi Mi TV Box 3 Enhanced: AnTuTu Results

This non-standard solution gives 61,000 points in AnTuTu and can even compete with a mid-range smartphone. Of course, the real performance of such devices is not measured at all by the clock frequency and the number of cores, but by the hardware support for decoding the required audio and video formats. See for yourself: not every flagship smartphone can handle this test.

Xiaomi Mi TV Box 3 Enhanced: performance test

Plays 4K video H.265 / HEVC Main 10 (color depth - 10 bits) at 60 fps, H.264 / AVC High Profile (color depth - 8 bits) at 30 fps. There is support for Dolby (DTS) and 5, 1-channel sound.

The volume of LPDDR3 RAM is 2 GB, and the flash drive is 8 GB. Peripheral ports USB 2.0 and HDMI 2.0 with support for 4K allow you to connect flash drives up to 128 GB in NTFS and 2.5-inch drives without additional power.

Wireless interfaces allow you to connect to any type of device without restrictions, including a variety of manipulators (joysticks, mice, keyboards) and access points (including NAS systems and routers with external storage). There is AirPlay support.

Shell

Powered by Xiaomi Mi TV 3 Enchanced running MIUI 7 based on Android 5.1. With full functionality, you can install a browser or office suite.

Streaming video playback is within hardware support, but depends on the type of browser selected. It can slow down or, conversely, work very well. For specific formats, you can install separate codecs.

However, no one bothers to use branded applications of online cinemas, YouTube and other similar resources. It's Android! There is everything that only the soul desires. You can install Google Play if needed.

A prefix arrives with a completely Chinese OS, but specialized resources will prompt a quick way of Russification.

Xiaomi Mi TV Box 3 Enhanced: Russification

After that, it turns out that almost any series, films and TV shows in any required language are already available in the stock firmware. You don't even need to download anything - a stable Wi-Fi connection and an Internet channel of a suitable speed are enough.

Among the pleasant bonuses is the ability to customize the playback of content from your home Wi-Fi network. Not necessarily from a router or NAS - even from smartphones, computers, or any device connected via a USB port. FAT, NTFS and Linux formats are supported.

If the file is not readable, you can go to the app store and find a suitable one. In fact, this player can replace a home computer, since Android has everything you need for a modern user. Games work, and how!

Xiaomi Mi TV Box 3 Enhanced: support for games

conclusions

The Xiaomi Mi TV Box 3 Enchanced prefix turns any TV into a smart one. All you need is an HDMI port. Connect, set up the network, set the Russian language - you're done.

The functionality is very broad. Only the most expensive Smart TVs have a similar one, and the cost of Mi TV Box 3 Enchanced is only $ 90.

Only a new line of similar Xiaomi devices on Android TV can compete directly with the set-top box: Mi 3C for $ 63 and Mi 3S for $ 80. But that's a completely different story.