Xiaomi Released the 8K-Capable ‘Mi Box 4S Pro’
- Xiaomi refreshed the 2018 MiBox Pro, releasing its fourth iteration of the low-cost streamer.
- This time the decoding capabilities have reached 8K levels, making the device future proof.
- The device isn’t extremely powerful, but it does the job just fine without breaking the bank.
Xiaomi unveiled the next generation of the Mi Box series, one of the most popular Android TV boxes in the market. The ‘Mi Box 4S Pro’ is going up to 16GB of internal storage, 2GB of RAM, HDMI 2.1 support, and Bluetooth voice controls. We expect the typical USB port and a 3.5mm headphone jack to be present as well, although Xiaomi hasn’t bothered to show them. Most notably, though, the new device supports playback/decoding resolutions of up to 8K.
8K is a future-proof resolution counting 7680x4320 pixels. Generally speaking, the difference between 8K and 4K is small for the users, but that depends on the viewing distance and the TV size. 8K should be enough for even the most demanding users who own relatively large screens, and the only issue is the lack of availability of such high-res content to view. Also, streaming content at 8K would require a seriously speedy internet connection.
Related: Xiaomi Launches New Affordable Mi TV Stick in Europe and India
To push all these pixels without stutters, Xiaomi has chosen the 64-bit Amlogic S905X chipset with four ARM Cortex-A53 cores and the Mali 450 GPU. Not exactly a power-horse, but adequate to carry the task out.
In terms of software, the new device runs on a “PatchWall UI”-styled Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which is quite old. To ensure amazing connectivity, Xiaomi added dual-band WiFi 5 support.
The price for Xiaomi’s new device was set to 399 Yuan, which is about $60. This places the device in a competitive position, right around where all inexpensive streamers are priced.
For now, the device was launched in the Chinese market, but we expect it to see it rolling out globally in the following months. Possibly, the only difference will be the use of a clean Android TV interface, instead of the MIUI TV that is used in China.