Xiaomi entered the television segment in India in early 2018 with the Mi TV 4 55, and has made a big impact on the industry since then. Its online-focused sales model and competitive pricing have made it among the top television brands in India, and the range now has options starting at under Rs. 15,000. However, for people who bought Xiaomi’s first television in India, there’s bad news. Xiaomi has confirmed that the Mi TV 4 55 won’t receive any further software updates.
This will be disappointing for users who rely on streaming services on the Mi TV 4 55, since it could eventually cause performance issues and app incompatibility problems. Xiaomi states that it isn’t able to update the software due to the use of a custom chip on the TV which does not meet the requirements for Android TV codecs. The company has pushed out updates to much of its range of televisions, but this technical roadblock prevents the Mi TV 4 55 from being added to the list, despite it being just over two years old in the market.
However, Xiaomi is offering something of a consolation to those users, with a Rs. 1,000 discount on the recently launched Mi Box 4K. This will bring the price of the streaming device down to Rs. 2,499, making it a tempting purchase given the feature set and specifications on offer. The Mi Box 4K supports Ultra-HD streaming and HDR10 for high dynamic range content, and lets users install various apps and games available on the Google Play Store for Android TV. Interested Mi TV 4 55 owners can sign up to receive the discount code here.
Since the Mi Box 4K is a new launch, users will be able to use the latest version of Android TV, and are also promised future updates. The Mi Box 4K is, of course, a separate streaming device that must be connected to a TV through the HDMI port. This will allow Mi TV 4 55 users to bypass the TV’s built-in smart functionality for the newer, improved firmware on the Mi Box 4K. However, PatchWall users will still need to rely on the Mi TV’s interface, since the Mi Box 4K only has plain vanilla Android TV software.
Mi TV 4X vs Vu Cinema TV: Which is the best budget TV in India right now? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.