launch the 55-inch Mi QLED TV 4K in India on December 16. This will be the company’s most premium –category-first— smart TV in the country to date. Contrary to many media reports, this smart TV will not be the same as the Mi TV 5/Mi TV 5 Pro already selling in China, Xiaomi has confirmed to Financial Express Online.
Come to think of it, the move is not very surprising. This is something that Xiaomi had already hinted in June.
Xiaomi is no stranger to premium smart TVs. Its first smart TV in India, the Mi TV 4, was billed as the world’s thinnest smart LED TV. It was gorgeous, alright, but its real USP was its aggressive pricing. A 55-inch 4K HDR-ready TV that looked as good and cost just Rs 39,999, was hard to imagine in 2018. It was later replaced by the Mi TV 4 Pro which, given it did not look as swanky, introduced a handful of useful upgrades including full-scale Android TV (in addition to Xiaomi’s PatchWall) support and a voice remote. The Mi TV 4X Pro that followed, brought further enhancements to picture quality and audio.
In many ways, the Mi QLED TV is a spiritual successor to the Mi TV 4. “Over the last two and a half years, we have gained a lot of expertise in this market. We have poured all of that knowledge into this product,” Eshwar Nilakantan, category lead for smart TVs at Xiaomi India, tells Financial Express Online in an exclusive interview. “In terms of performance, it is four-five generations ahead.”
