Let’s start with the design. The new streaming stick appears a bit longer than last year’s model. It sports the same dual-tone finish but does away with the “Mi” branding and adopts the new Xiaomi logo. In fact, the FCC listing refers to the device as Xiaomi TV Stick instead of Mi TV Stick. And that’ll likely be the official marketing name for the product. If you’ve been following the news recently, you probably know that the Chinese company is in the process of phasing out the “Mi” branding. The same branding revision can be seen on the remote control as well. The images attached to the FCC certification suggest it’s otherwise the same remote from last year.
Xiaomi TV Stick specifications
The Xiaomi Mi TV Stick is one of the first Android TV-based streaming sticks. Launched in August last year, the device is about as basic as it gets. The company is seemingly looking to upgrade things a bit with the second-gen model. The FCC listing reveals that the upcoming Xiaomi TV Stick will feature an Amlogic S905Y4 SoC. This quad-core chipset features four ARM Cortex-A35 CPU cores and the Mali-G31 MP2 GPU. It supports 4K HDR streaming, a significant upgrade from FHD streaming (1080p) the base variant of last year’s model offered. We don’t yet have details about RAM and storage. But it should be safe to assume that Xiaomi will stick to last year’s configuration: base variant with 1GB of RAM and a higher-end variant with 2GB of RAM, both with 8GB of storage. Other notable features include Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, HDR10, and DTS HD. Supported codecs include AV1, VP9 P-2, H.265, and H.264. The new model also improves on Wi-Fi speeds. It promises up to 866.7 Mbps downlink speed and 300Mbps uplink speed. The remote control supports Bluetooth LE (low energy) and runs on two AAA batteries that you need to purchase separately. Xiaomi will bundle an HDMI extender cable, a power adapter, and a USB cable in the box though. It’s unclear whether the new device is still using micro-USB or the newer USB Type-C for power. The images on the FCC listing suggest that the upcoming Xiaomi TV Stick will be running the older Android TV, not the newer Google TV.
