Xiaomi issues price-friendly 60-inch TV and electric scooter

October 20th, 2015

Awake Goy

Xiaomi issues price-friendly 60-inch TV and electric scooter

A company’s general about-us description has exact resonance this week: China’s Xiaomi, which makes various consumer electronics devices, to be exact. “Xiaomi was founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Lei Jun, who believes that high-quality technology doesn’t need to cost a fortune.”

Welcome to the twin news announcements this week from Xiaomi, which is putting out its Mi TV 3 with its Mi TV Bar, and a self-balancing electric scooter (Ninebot Mini), all at attractive prices which, relevant to their product categories, are affordable.

Xiaomi has an about $800 Mi TV 3, which is a 60 inch 4K television. The Mi TV 3 has two parts: the display and main board. They can be upgraded.

Associate Editor, Engadget Nick Summers, turned a spotlight on the company’s Mi TV Bar. “To the naked eye it looks like a classic soundbar, but inside there’s a MStar 6A928 processor, 2GB of DDR3 RAM and 8GB of flash storage. Once connected through the Mi Port—which also carries power—you’ll gain access to MIUI TV, Xiaomi’s Android-based smart TV platform.” This works with the Mi TV 3, but you can also buy it separately (about $160) on its own.

The Mi TV Bar can be paired with any other screen via HDMI, said VentureBeat.

The new TV has an ultrathin 11.6mm aluminium metal frame, and the product description suggests its good looks as well—diamond patterned and double color anodized.

The company in its features list said the product had a 6M60 independent image processing chip. “Mi TV 3 is equipped with LG 4K display. NTSC > 85%+ MEMC motion compensation offers a flagship TV image quality.”

These devices are meant for China, said Summers in Engadget.

The other newcomer from Chinese company Xiaomi is the scooter, a $315 Ninebot Mini. “From a business strategy standpoint,” said Catherine Shu in TechCrunch, “the scooter is more notable because it is the first product launched by Ninebot, a Xiaomi portfolio company, since it acquired Segway in April, and also Xiaomi’s first personal mobility device.”

Paul Sawers in VentureBeat wrote that the Ninebot Mini was co-developed by Ninebot and Xiaomi, and its core selling point is its price.” Sawers said its knee-high stick can detect the movements of the rider’s lets for steering the device.

Dent in Engadget said you can monitor your speed, traffic data and systems via a smartphone.

The scooter is expected on November 3 in China. News sites had not learned of any plans to launch it in the US but Steve Dent observed an ad on a French site, showing the scooter and inviting viewers to fill out a form to stay informed.