[Unboxing and Review] Xiaomi Mi TV Stick Android Streaming Dongle

Heya! Finaaaally I got to publish this long overdue review on YouTube. The clips of this video have been sitting on my phone for months now and it takes up a lot of memory so it feels really good to finally have it out there. We've had the Xiaomi Mi TV Stick for around 3 already and I remember shooting the unboxing immediately, then totally forgot about it. 

The video covers some of the basic stuff you need to know about the Xiaomi Mi TV stick, what's in the box, specs, setup, and my general feedback about the product, which is good. So this blog post will pretty much be just a repeat, but with more details about the pros and cons I encounter along the way.

Let's go.

What's in the box

1. Mi TV stick
2. Voice remote (2 AAA batteries required - not included)
3. English user manual
4. Power adapter
5. HDMI extension cable
6. Micro USB power cable
   
   

Specs

• 1080p@ 60fps  max output resolution
• Quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU
• ARM Mali-450 GPU
• 1GB RAM
• 8GB storage
• Android 9.0 OS
• Wifi 802.11
• Bluetooth 4.2

You may also check the full overview from Mi Global site

Feedback

I liked the Chromecast feature a lot because it lets me listen to Spotify

We normally just watch on Netflix, Prime Video, or Youtube so in terms of memory and capacity, we're not overloading the stick given that it has a pretty low RAM. My hopes is that Disney+ will be available soon in the Philippines so we can download that as well!

I like how simple and minimal the remote looks, but it's a downer that it doesn't have an infrared blaster so I can't control the TV with it.

That said, you have to turn on the TV, then turn on the stick. I don't remember if I could launch the Mi TV stick directly with the TV off.

Google voice assistant is pretty cool, but it doesn't work on all apps and it's not that accurate too. 

It can be a bit sluggish when navigating.

It's not 4k ok? But that's ok for us. It's not like we have a big TV hehe.

It buffers a lot at home, which is weird because we're on Converge's 25mbps plan. We've tried it twice elsewhere and we didn't have any problems. We've tried it both on bigger TV's and slower internet speeds (hotel wifi and mobile hotspot) and it works flawlessly, so I wonder what gives.

I love how I'm able to connect my airpods to it so I can listen privately while watching. The only problem is it doesn't let me reconnect once the device is already paired. For example I just linked my airpods to the Mi TV stick, then I used it on my phone, then I want to get back on the TV. There's no option on the screen to reconnect. But somehow sometimes, it pairs automatically. It's so weird. So whenever I want to get back to listening on the TV, I have to unpair and pair my airpods again. Hassle lol.

Youtube buffering is bad. I rarely watch Youtube using the Mi TV stick because of how it buffers. The audio and video will just go out of sync, with the video paused while the audio keeps going, and then it catches up by fast forwarding the video until it's caught up with the audio. It's so bad lol. I'd rather have the video pause entirely instead of having the audio and video racing up to each other.

I wish it had a LAN port.

Overall it's still a pretty good portable streaming stick as it's very affordable. I mean, don't expect much for its price. If you're willing to shell out some more there's Roku!

It's a great staycation buddy. Now we don't have to bring a laptop to hotels anymore! Haha It's not our main though, to be honest. We have a Smart TV that's hooked up on LAN so it still gives the better experience.

Price and availability

I got the Xiaomi Mit TV Stick at Shopee Philippines for ₱1,699