Low-Price Wonder

Xiaomi's 55-inch Mi Smart LED TV 4 is set to disrupt the television category

- Tushar Kanwar

AFTER DISRUPTING THE budget smartphones segment, Xiaomi is out to turn yet another product category on its head: televisions. At its jaw-dropping price of Rs 39,999, the 55-inch Mi Smart LED TV 4 (Mi TV 4) begs the question — where’s the catch? I mean, look at what’s on offer – a 4K, HDR10 compatible display (based on a VA panel from Samsung) with Xiaomi's own PatchWall user interface that uses AI to make intelligent content recommendations, all at half or a third of competing brands. There must surely be a catch, a clause, a hidden term or condition, right? Having spent Rs a couple of weeks watching a 39,999 ton of content — streaming, locally stored and regular TV — I can safely say, there simply isn’t.

Straight out of the box, the Audio / DTS-HD, Mi TV 4 is a head-turner — 2 x 8W it’s really slim, like thinner-than-smartphones-slim. At its slimmest point, the Mi TV 4 measures a mere 4.9mm, though it does thicken at the bottom third to accommodate Ports: 1 USB 3.0, 1 the internals and the ports. USB 2.0, 1 HDMI (1