Media streamers are ubiquitous these days and thanks to companies like Roku, Apple, and Amazon it’s easy to find a streamer for every budget. However, Xiaomi is hoping to shake things up with its new $69 Mi Box Android TV. Currently available at Walmart, it comes bundled with a generous Sling TV, Vudu, and Pandora credit that practically pays for the device itself. It’s a pretty great deal, and we like Android TV.
If you’re not familiar with Xiaomi, it’s one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world and renowned for offering high-end devices at very affordable prices. Back in June of 2015, the Chinese company launched its first U.S.-based online shopping portal and just this past summer, it announced it would soon enter the U.S. smartphone market.
However, before launching its first U.S. smartphone, Xiaomi has decided to release the Mi Box Android TV set-top media streamer. This Android-based box gives popular streamers from the likes of Roku and Amazon a serious run for their money. Like many of today’s high-end streamers, the Mi Box Android TV supports 4K Ultra HD resolution. After a quick software update to Android Nougat, the Mi Box will also support high dynamic range (HDR) imaging at 60 frames per second, as well as Dolby Digital Plus and DTS Surround Sound.
By comparison, Roku’s newest top-of-the-line streamer, the Roku Ultra, sells for a significantly higher $130. Meanwhile, the streamer closest to the Mi Box, the Roku Premiere, sells for $80, but doesn’t offer HDR support.
The Mi Box is powered by Android 6.0 and offers support for voice commands and Google Cast. The latter feature means it’ll cast onto your HDTV whatever video is playing on your Androidsmartphone or tablet.
Powering Xiaomi’s streamer is a quad-core CPU coupled with 2GB of RAM, 8GB of storage space, and a Mali 450 GPU. There’s support for the usual apps like Netflix and YouTube and you can also download and play games from the Google Play Store. An optional Mi Game Controller lets you turn your Mi Box into a makeshift gaming’console.
Currently, this Mi Box bundle is only available via Walmart and it includes a $5 movie credit from Vudu, a $50 Sling TV credit (it requires that you pre-pay three months of Sling TV), and a three-month Pandora trial.
6 streaming device deals you can’t miss this Prime Day
If you've been bored at home recently -- as many of us have been -- then you might want to look into getting a streaming device so you can easily watch all your favorite streaming services from your television. In the last few years, there has been a boom in cheap, easy-to-use devices that can turn any old TV into a smart TV with an array of streaming features. Now that Prime Day has arrived and there are tons of great Prime Day deals available, you could pick up a device like a Roku or Fire TV as part of the Prime Day Roku deals or Prime Day Fire TV deals, and you could even splurge on a TV to watch on with Prime Day 4K TV deals. We've rounded up some of the best streaming device deals available to help you choose the right device for you.
Looking for more? We’ve also rounded up all the other Black Friday Roku deals available right now.
Roku Express -- $21, was $30
The 5 best tech deals in the B&H Photo Memorial Day Sale
Memorial Day is right around the corner, which means that the summer sale season has almost officially begun. We've been enjoying great Memorial Day sales on all sorts of stuff since last week, but we're always the most excited about the tech. If you are too, then now is the time to snatch up some bargains before other big sales like Prime Day come along, and the B&H Photo Memorial Day Sale has plenty to go around. Below, we've smoked out our five favorite picks, but also be sure to head over to the sale page to see everything that's available.
Roku Premiere Streaming Player (4K) -- $33, was $43
Don’t miss these (rare) deals on the Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K
Since we're stuck indoors due to you-know-what, now's your chance to catch up on the latest shows and movies. If you are a bonafide Apple fan there's no better streaming device to get than an Apple TV streaming box. There are two devices to choose from: Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K. They're both on sale right now, with the former going for as low as $144 (down from $149) at B&H Photo Video and the Apple TV 4K for as little as $169 (instead of $179).
So, which one should you choose? Well, if you've got a 4K TV already or are planning to buy one in the future, it's best to go for the Apple TV 4K. While they both have the same super-easy-to-use tvOS operating system, the Apple TV 4K has the upper hand in terms of features -- extending further than the fact it can stream in 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160), up from the Full HD (1920 x 1080) that the run-of-the-mill Apple TV HD maxes out at.
Apple TV HD -- $144, was $149:
