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The Chinese tech giant, Xiaomi, has released a bouquet of products in Bengaluru.
When the company entered India in 2014, it focussed solely on smartphones that were solidly designed, worked with feature-rich software and sold at unbeatable price points. Xiaomi today expanded its portfolio in India to many more products while maintaining this formula.
Smart TVs
Claiming sales of half-a-million Mi TVs, Xiaomi has now upgraded their offering and added a 49-inch model to the existing options of 32-inch and 55-inch TVs. The new ‘Pro’ models are based on Android 8.1 and even have Google’s Chromecast built-in. This will mean being able to use Google Assistant commands to search and play movies. The search is ‘universal’ and extends to all content sources offered. Users can even do general searches such as asking for ‘Cricket’ or a specific actor, for example. PatchWall, the interface debuted for the Indian market on previous models, will continue and is now available with more features such as voice control.
Amazon’s Prime Video will now also be part of the content sources offered, as will Jio, Hooq and others.
The new TVs are aggressively priced at ₹14,999 for the 32-inch 4C Pro, ₹29,999 for the 49-inch 4A Pro and ₹ 49,999 for the 55-inch 4A Pro.
Mi Band
The highly popular Mi Band has been launched in version 3 with a bigger touch screen and is now water resistant for up to 50 metres. The fitness band retains its battery life of 20 days though it has additional features. Now the user can read WhatsApp messages, notifications and answer or reject calls. The Mi Band 3 can also, of course, count steps and calories, heart rate, and not forgetting that it is a smartwatch can also tell the time. The Mi Band 3 costs a mere ₹ 1,999.
In China, Xiaomi has partnerships with over 200 companies for products that are designed and sold under the Mi brand. The company has begun bringing these into India starting with the Mi Air Purifier, which has been available for over a year in the country. At the event in Bengaluru, Xiaomi has launched an upgrade of the air purifier Mi Purifier 2S, at ₹8,999, with a display showing air quality level and integration with the virtual assistants.
Security camera
A 360-degree home security camera with two-way audio has also been released for ₹2,699.
And finally a product category that is not internet connected, Mi Luggage, is an offering two sizes of suitcases — 20 and 24 inches priced at ₹2,999 and ₹4,299, respectively. These are equipped with TSA locks and are made of tough polycarbonate in a honeycomb pattern.
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