JOIN USXiaomi Mi Smart Speaker review: Amazingly good
With the launch of Amazon Echo and Google Home (now branded as Nest Audio) smart speakers, in 2017 and 2018, respectively in India, there has been a steady rise of interest in Internet-of-Things (IoT) among Indian consumers.
It has to do with the convenience of doing tasks with just voice commands. Users can just tell Google Assistant or Alexa to turn on the light and with smart plugs, he/she can make any home appliance including a water heater, Air Conditioner, camera to switch on or off with a phone sitting in the office. Even read out news early in the morning and in the night, tell bedtime stories to the children.
However, there has been a dearth of alternatives to Google and Amazon-branded smart speakers, and India is a vast market for other players to join the game. As it happened, Xiaomi on September 30 forayed into the smart speaker business with the unveiling of the new Mi Smart Speaker in India.
It is competitively priced under Rs 4,000 and it is powered by Google Assistant. I have been using the Mi Smart Speaker for a few days and here are my thoughts.
Design and build quality
The new Mi Smart Speaker is really big in its class. It is close to 6-inches in height and 5-inches wide. It also has a light strip at the edge of the oval circumference of the speaker on top and is optimised to light up like the aurora effect when the Google Assistant hears and responds to the command and even listening to the music. For now, it supports a few colours, but the company plans to release a software update to bring a wider range of colours.
The Xiaomi's new speaker weighs a little over 850gm and its no surprise, as the speaker has premium metallic mesh (with 10,531 holes), which is very rare for a budget speaker. Most of the models in the market, come with fabric cover, and it is a bit hard to clean them. But, with a full metallic body, it is easy to wipe the dust on the Mi Smart Speaker with a clothe.
On the flat top, it has dedicated touch buttons-- volume up and down at placed at the opposite side with pause/start and mute buttons in the middle. On the back, it has a power port and the device has to be connected to the power source at all times.
Down, it has a soft base and sits comfortably on a flat surface. It can be noted that the top and the bottom caps are made of polycarbonate material and it is really sturdy when held in hand. Over-all the build quality, it is really exceptional for a low-cost speaker.
User-interface and performance
Setting up the Mi Smart Speaker was a simple affair. You just have to download the Google Home app and follow what it says on the phone's screen. It took me less than three minutes from powering up the speaker, detecting it on Google Home app and finally setting it as the bedroom speaker. After that, it was all smooth sailing.
It has a 2.5-inch 12W speaker, 63.5mm sound driver, DTS Professional tuning, and Texas Instruments’ TAS5805M Hi-Fi audio processor. Yes, Mi Smart Speaker was able to excel in its job.
I am very impressed with the sound quality and even with the maxed out volume, there was very little distortion in terms of clarity of the singer's voice or the acoustics in the background. In terms of audio delivery, it is much better compared to the peers--Google Home Mini and Amazon Echo Dot-- in the budget class. When kept it in the middle of the living room under full volume, it can fill up any normal living room space with a punchy 360-degree surround sound effect.
It has two mics on top with far-field voice wake-up technology and they are well placed to hear the command and respond even when playing the music.
As far as the utility is concerned, users can connect thousands of IoT devices in the market. Also, there is no need for buying expensive smart home appliances. Just go smart plug and this is enough to make any device smart. Repeat the same procedure to set it up like the Mi Smart Speaker and name it accordingly so there is no confusion when you want to operate a gadget in a particular room.
If you have set the Mi Smart Speaker in the living room, you can turn on the water heater with-- 'Hey Google, turn on the water heater'. But make sure, the smart plug the bathroom is named water heater on the Google Home app.
Final thoughts
Xiaomi's Mi Smart Speaker is a really good budget IoT device. It responds well to the commands without any fuss even while playing music. It is really big compared to the peers and yes, the surround sound output is just fantastic; have to say, it is better than puny Amazon Echo Dot or Google Mini, which by the way falls under the sub-Rs 5,000 price segment.
The new Mi Smart Speaker costs Rs 3,999 and as part of the launch offer, it can be purchased for Rs 3,499 for a limited time on Mi.com, Mi Homes, Flipkart.com, and retail stores. Prospective buyers can avail 1-year free subscription from Gaana as well.
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