Xiaomi unveils MiBox 3s Enhanced Edition TV box

Xiaomi has revamped the Mi Box s and is launching it as a MiBox 3s Enhanced Edition. In addition to the slight spec bump, the box gets a new remote control that will undoubtedly remind you of the Wii Remote that made Nintendo's gaming console quite popular back in the days.

Xiaomi’s latest TV box will be available in China starting March 18th 2016.  The MiBox 3s Enhanced Edition has some pretty powerful hardware.

This Mi Box 3 Enhanced Edition is extremely fast? But how fast could it be?

Under the hood, the processor has been upgraded to a MediaTek MT8693, a 64-bit hexa-core processor running at 2 GHz max, up from the quad-core setup of last year. RAM has also been doubled to 2 GB LPDDR3 and storage is now 8 GB of eMMC 5.0 flash.

Together with the PowerVR GX6250 graphics chip, the Mi Box 3s Enhanced Edition is promised to be 80% faster in CPU processes and a whopping 240% better when it comes to the GPU. Besides that it also support OpenGL ES 3.1

The MiBox 3s Enhanced Edition features a MediaTek MT8693 hexa-core processor with two ARM Cortex-A72 CPU cores and four ARM Cortex-A53 cores and PowerVR GX6250 graphics.

It also has 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1, two USB 2.0 ports, and HDMI 2.0 output with support for 4K video at 60 Hz.  802.11ac 2X2 WiFi improved the transfer speed up to 300 Mbps

Mi Box 3 Enhanced Edition is using 4.1 Bluetooth which has a low power consumption

Mibox 3s supports H.265 10bit 4K@60 FPS with Dolby and DTS Sound

All of us like to compare a device's performance by using Antutu. Mi Box 3 Enhanced edition scored up to 66,016 which almost doubled the Mi Box 3

The box measures about 4″ x 4″ x 1″, which makes it a lot bigger than last year’s MiBox Mini… but that makes sense, since the new model is also a lot more powerful.

The MiBox 3s Enhanced Edition is still an Android box, though not an Android TV one. It naturally uses the OEM's Android-based MIUI TV, which is based on Android 5.1. That could give it at an advantage of having access to apps that would normally be blocked on Android TVs because they weren't designed for it.

We know that heating will slow and affect the performance of a gadget or device. In this MiBox 3s Enhanced Edition we have our own unique cooling system which automatically adjust the speed of fan
Xiaomi thinks that the upgrade is so hot, figuratively and literally, that it put its own "unique cooling system", that adjusts the speed of the fan. Yes, this small TV box has a small fan inside.

Perhaps the next, or probably even more, interesting upgrade is the remote control. Xiaomi has added a sensor inside, it says, that you can use to play games. Presumably, it means a motion sensor, which pretty much makes it like a Wiimote. The strap makes that even more evident. That said, there really aren't many Android games that could take advantage of swinging motions.

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MiTV 2 - MIUI in English Interface

Since the MiTV 2 is currently only available in China, all menus, sub-menu and apps all come in Chinese interface only.

If you do not understand Chinese, it would be difficult to operate the TV, unless you memorise each icon by the graphics apperance, or guess what the actual menu means.

Unless Xiaomi starts to export the MiTV outside of China market, like what they did with their handphones, it is very unlikely the interface will come in language other than Chinese.

Currently the only way is to to root the MIUI operating system, and run some third translation tools to translate the interface to other languages.

Even if going through the rooted process and the translation tools, NOT ALL interface will be changed to English, as some of the label / menu come in hard-coded graphics, and the translation engine is not able to translate these Chinese characters done in graphics.

This is the original main menu of the MITV2, the top row and main menu items are done in text, and in Chinese.

After rooted service and translation process, notice only the top menu are available in English, the text in the graphics are still in Chinese.

This is the original Setting App, all in Chinese interface only

After Rooted & Translation
The Setting apps is now available in English, so are all the sub-menus items, all now in English. Some terms may look funny, as we guess the translation is done using Google Translate. Like the item below "With Respect to", which should be "About Us"

All sub-menu are originally in Chinese Only

After Rooted and translation, the detail sub-menus are now in English, e,g, when you click on "Image and Sound" from settings menu above

Most of the Apps are now displayed in English, apart from some of the Chinese App, which still remained in Chinese

One of the most used app would be the media player (HD Player in photo above), which you use to playback video, music and photo.

The original sub-menu are all in Chinese

After rooted and translation, even the sub-menu in the media player app now display in English:

Like the English?       

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Xiaomi's MiTV 2 - Un-boxing

The MiTV 2 arrives in two separate boxes, one with the 49-inch 4K TV inside (23KG) and another with the sub-woofer speaker inside (11KG)

When you open up the box, you will see a set of accessories coming with the original TV package

The box contain the bluetooth wireless remore control, power cable for the soundbar, and two pairs of 3D glasses

Also the audio cable to connect the soundbar to the TV, one screw driver plus a set of screw to mount the two TV stands, and TV antenna connectors.  

The two pairs of 3D glasses

The box comes with two TV stands, one left and one right

Mounting the TV stands with the screw driver coming with the tool-kit box.

After mounting the TV Stand, this is how it look like.

Another angle of the TV Stand

Connect the audio cable to the soundbar

Audio cable on the soundbar end, and the power cable

The MiTV 2 has three HDMI ports, one USB 2 port, one USB 3 port and a MicroSD slot, on the side panel

The third HDMI port is at the bottom panel of the TV, with a VGA port, RCA AV port (the red-white-yellow cable for older equipment), UTP port, audio port, and the TV antenna.

Note - The MiTV 2 comes with the China power adapters, you'll either need an multi-extension code with the two pin adaptor, OR

Get 3 traveler adapters like this, one for the TV, one for the soundbar, and the third for the sub-woofer.

Getting The Remote Control paired
After you had powered on the MiTV, and the Bluetooth Wireless loaded with the battery, you'll need to hold the "Home" and "Menu" buttons simultaneously, aiming at the bottom right hand corner of teh TV, until you hear a "beep", then release both buttons.

You'll need to hold the remote control close to the MiTV, for them to pair under bluetooth.

Connecting the Soundbar & sub-woofer 
Make sure both your soundbar and sub-woofer are connected to power supply and switch on. Connect the supplied audio cable between the soundbar and the MiTV, press and hold the "Play" button of the soundbar, you'll hear "Reconnecting sub-woofer" (in Chinese audio), hold until you hear "Sub-woofer connected successfully. Then the MiTV is now connected to both the soundbar and sub-woofer.

You can also connect the soundbar directly to the MiTV without the audio cable by pairing the soundbar with MiTV directly under Android's bluetooth settings.

Tuning Local TV Stations
While we tends to access all online streaming contents or access locally available content via NAS (e.g. MiWiFi), MiTV 2 is also a normal TV, with antenna adapters that can connect to your outdoor antenna.

Being a smart TV, the nice thing about MiTV 2 is that they can store you local TV channels as TV walls. What you need to do during initial setting up is to scan all available channels, as the smart TV detected a new channel, it will create a small tab on the TV wall..

Once all channels are created, this is what it will look like. You can always have an overview of all available channels, before you select the one you would like to watch.

Watch the following unboxing Video - 小米电视2爱极客评测 Xiaomi MiTV 2 Review By IGeek, audio is in Chinese


This is another MiTV 2 review in Russian

You can purchase the MiTV 2 from here      

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