Since our launch last year, we have sold more than three million smart TVs in India,” said Manu Jain (vice-president, Xiaomi global and managing director, Xiaomi India), who always wears the Xiaomi T-shirt with pride.

With more and more OTT platforms coming into play, the importance of a good display cannot be underestimated in 2019. If the introduction to a web show happens on the smartphone, users soon move the action over to a smart television. And this is a space that Xiaomi continues to have its eyes on.

On Tuesday, the Beijing-HQed company rolled out four television sets and a number of its ecosystem products that, in the next few weeks, will certainly draw a lot of attention, thanks to some cool features and, needless to say, the minimalistic design the company has come to be known for.

Here’s more from Sudeep Sahu, product manager, Xiaomi India, who a little over four years ago was just a Mi fan but today he speaks for the TV division.

The flagbearer of the new Mi TV 4X series

Let’s talk about the Mi TV 4X (65). It sounds like the TV is just 10 inches bigger than before but if you calculate the surface area, it’s 40 per cent more. That’s huge and you will notice it when you put it up in your living room.

Since this is our flagship TV, we wanted to build it with premium material. There is metal all around the frame. Not just that, the TV has very thin bezels, so thin that while watching shows the picture will almost merge with the surrounding. The bezels measure less than an inch (0.43 inch) and the TV fits in any environment and you can watch it from any angle.

This will be the first TV to come with Vivid Picture Engine. VPE is our proprietary technology that offers the perfect balance of colour, contrast, brightness and saturation. The TV also has an ultra-bight display. The screen offers a wide range of colours, covering 88 per cent of the NTSC colour space.

Then comes the Reality Flow Engine. Most of the broadcast content that you watch comes in 24 frames per second. But the Mi TV has a 60Hz panel. The technology inserts frames to interpolate the picture on a 60Hz display. The pictures will appear super smooth and it works across everything. You can also switch off the option. It is a 4K TV and ships with HDR10, which will give deep colours, saturation and contrast.

On the PatchWall front

In way of PatchWall (interface), the content on the homepage is refreshed every day, so you get to watch anything you want. We see almost 40 million hours of content being streamed every month through PatchWall. We are adding partners as we progress and we have just added four more, including ABP News. And then there is one more, the most requested... Netflix (besides Amazon Prime).

Google’s Data Saver mode

When we look at Mi TV users, especially the 32 and 43-inch users, many are connected through hotspot or dongle. These are people who stop streaming after 60-70 minutes because they run out of their daily quota of data. We wanted to do something for them. We have worked with Google and have come up with a solution. Mi TV will be the first in the world to come with Android TV’s Data Saver feature. The most important thing is... say if you have a data limit of one GB each day, you get to watch roughly one hour of content. With the Data Saver turned on, you get to watch three times more. That’s three hours.

The Telegraph

Also launched

Mi Smart Band 4

The new Mi Smart Band 4 further bridges the gap between a fitness tracker and a smartwatch. The device comes packed with new features, including a full touchscreen colour AMOLED display, new smart actions and 5ATM water resistance.

The 0.95” display is now capable of not just displaying notifications but also enables music control, with unlimited customisable watch faces on Mi Smart Band 4. Band 4 can also track swimming with automatic stroke recognition.

Mi Motion Activated Night Light 2

This is a night lamp that automatically turns on upon detecting motion. It sports two brightness settings and conserves energy by shutting off in 15 seconds if no motion is detected.

The Mi Smart Water Purifier Picture: Xiaomi India

A game changer — Mi Smart Water Purifier

There are plenty of problems with water purifiers in India. First, they are costly. Second, most look ugly. Third, we don’t know what kind of replacement filters are given. And then, we have to wait for a technician to come and spend an hour or so to change filters. Xiaomi plans to change all that with the Mi Smart Water Purifier, which may just well be a cracker of a product.

Here’s what Raghu Reddy, head of categories, Xiaomi India, had to say.

The idea

We found that even after using a water purifier, people were not sure of their products. And they were not happy with the product design. On the product side, people were unsure of the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) levels and they were not sure when the filter life was about to expire. On the service front, getting the filters replaced has been a big task. The cost incurred is something that concerned a lot of the customers.

The product

It is designed to fit modern kitchens and is very simple to operate — there are two buttons that need to be used when it comes to replacing filters. The purifier also comes with a seven-litre tank and this is one of the features that had to be made for the Indian market; the one in China is directly connected to the tap. In India there are issues around water and electricity supply.

Purification process

The advanced purification process involves five stages. There are three cartridges inside the purifier, which can be changed by anyone. One of the issues around filter replacement has been timing the arrival of the mechanic and also the time taken. With the Mi purifier, even a child can change the filters and it hardly takes a few seconds to change the same. You can also check the life of the filter from the app and order the same from the app itself. You get details like how much water has been purified as well as before and after TDS levels.