Review of TV Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4S 55.

Review of TV Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4S 55.

Xiaomi smart TVs are “first price” products, that is, there is no cheaper price. Of course, the “eaters of AliExpress” can find it even cheaper, but in terms of the totality of characteristics, the found product will be worse.

In other materials, I have already said this idea and will repeat it here. Xiaomi products are for those who go from bottom to top. Then there will be imperceptible flaws and compromises that the manufacturer had to make. There is nothing offensive in this. It is a fact. If you did not know all the charms of the Galaxy Note 9, then the flagship from Xiaomi will seem like heavenly manna to you. We didn’t brush our teeth with the top-end ORAL-B electric brush for $ 300 – a brush from Xiaomi (for $ 30) would be just super. The same can be said about TV..

Looking ahead, I’ll say: Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4S 55 is a great TV for its price. Especially if before that you had an older TV, perhaps bought five years ago, or even more, then, of course, the new Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4S will impress.

Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4S is a typical Xiaomi product. He offers more for his money, while he has drawbacks, but those that can be reconciled.

The main point that I want to convey: there is no free or more profitable cheese. There is an illusion that the product is cheaper than necessary. But it is important to understand that you are paying full market price for Xiaomi products. It is unprofitable to sell them cheaper, and it is impossible to sell them at a higher price, since more thought-out solutions are already inhabited above. But the gap between Xiaomi and these more thoughtful solutions is such that itching and a desire to save money appears in the soul. This is a great marketing strategy..

Difference between models.

Xiaomi introduced three models with different screen sizes: 55 inches, 43 inches and 32 inches.

The two older models have 4K resolution, the younger one has 1366 × 768 points. They differ in sound power: 10 W, 8 W and 5 W, respectively. Older models are given six months of subscriptions as a gift, the youngest – 3 months. 2 GB + 8 GB memory for the older model, 1 GB + 8 GB for the younger model No fiber optic port for the younger model.

What do they give as a gift?

When buying a Mi TV with a diagonal of 55 inches, you get access to subscriptions to online cinemas and video services as a gift: ivi, OKKO, KinoPoisk, MEGOGO, TVZAVR, 24chasaTV, MegaFon TV for 6 months. Gift activation period: until December 31, 2019, that is, on January 1, it will no longer be possible to activate subscriptions, but you can on December 31 and receive six months as a gift.

Appearance and equipment.

The TV is delivered in a regular box, protected by foam inside. On the one hand, the box lists all the regalia: 4K Ultra HD Android TV, HDR, built-in Chromecast and so on..

On the other side of the box is a positive inscription, suggesting to believe that “something wonderful will happen.” For example, you open a box, and there is not a TV, but tightly packed 5000-thousandth bills.

Outwardly, this is a classic 55-inch TV. It can be called beautiful. Laconic design, thin frames. Xiaomi considered that the metal body would be appreciated in Russia. Made the TV look like a large Ikea frame. There is a silver metal frame on the front and a black metal case on the back. Height – 710.8 mm, length – 1231.4 mm. The thickness of the TV is small, 83.4 mm. The TV is large but lightweight. Weight – only 12.5 kg.

I have no complaints about the assembly as a whole. If you look closely, you can, for example, notice that the joints at the metal frame are more than the standard. On the other hand, I noticed this only when I began to review and take a close-up photo. If, of course, you are a perfectionist who will gnaw at these joints from the inside, take the latest Samsung QLED series of the same size. Only 100 thousand rubles, and no compromises. If you don’t have 100 thousand for TV, then keep it simple.

View from the bed. No frames are noticeable. 4K HDR movie. The tape is called “The Wife” (2017). An excellent film about a wife who sacrificed a lot for her husband’s writing career. The film was suggested by the branded launcher PatchWall.

The TV set rests on two legs that you have to screw on yourself. It is assumed that you already own a screwdriver, because nothing is included in the kit. I had to go down to the car for a box of tools. Of course, that day there was a frenzied downpour.

By the way, I am generally an opponent of this design of legs, since the legs are at a distance of a meter, respectively, you need to choose a very wide cabinet as a TV stand. In my opinion, it is better when the TV has one stand in the center. Then it can be installed anywhere. But such a form factor is generally quite rare on TVs with a large diagonal..

There are 4 holes on the back of the TV so that you can attach the TV to the wall.

In the center – a sticker informing that the TV was made in the city of Gvardeisk, in the Kaliningrad region. Service life – 5 years. If there are owners of the Chinese version of the TV, write where your TV is made.

Having screwed the legs and installed the TV, I found out that there is not only a screwdriver, but also batteries for the remote control. Although the site says what should be included. But I got the TV, it seems, new, so I really don’t know. According to the law of meanness, I had AA and AAAA batteries, so I went outside again (but when will this damn rain end ?! As if I hadn’t left St. Petersburg) to the nearest store to buy two AAA batteries.

Xiaomi’s PR service sincerely got into the situation and asked: “Do you want us to send you batteries by courier?” Imagining how a courier was carrying a thunderstorm and a hurricane wind breaks through to my house, and then I open the package in front of him so that he can see that there are only two batteries, I even closed my eyes with pleasure, but then still declined this delightful offer.

The remote control is simple, made of plastic. You can’t say much about him. Everything is intuitive: volume, joystick, voice assistant, a separate “Mi” button to launch PatchWall (Xiaomi branded launcher, where all films and recommendations are collected).

I kept the remote control in the bag in which it was originally packed. And since we started talking. I love the idea of ​​a “remote control in a bag”. Especially the TV remote. You usually watch TV while eating, and it is better to slap the bag than the remote control itself. And what, you never dropped the TV remote control into a cup of tea ?! If it were convenient, then I would also pack the joysticks from the console in bags.

All ports are in the back center. This arrangement is inconvenient because you have to look behind the TV. It can become doubly inconvenient if you hang the TV on the bracket and it will be flush against the wall. On the very first plasma, I had it that way, and when I needed to connect the cable, I had to remove the TV from the wall.

I definitely did not like the lack of buttons on the body in the design of the TV. It turns out that you can control either from the remote control or from the phone, if you install the appropriate application. I think the pros and cons of such a solution can come up with your own.

Specifications.

Type: Smart TV Screen: 55-inch, IPS, Direct LED, 3840 × 2160 pixels, 60 Hz, HDR10, 8 bit + FRC, brightness 220 nits declared, minimum measured brightness 28 nits, viewing angle 178 degrees, matte, input lag 33 ms (?) (About input lag – in the “Screen” section) Power Sound / Speakers: 2 × 10 W with bass reflex Processor: CA55 (4 cores at 1.4 GHz), graphics Mali 470 MP3 Memory: 2 GB / 8 GB, no memory card slot Operating system: Android 9 (Pie) TV + proprietary launcher PatchWall Ports and communication: USB : 2.0 – 3 pcs. AV – 1 pc. Ethernet – 1 pc. HDMI – 3 pcs. 1 headphone jack CI + slot – 1 pc. Fiber optic port – 1 pc. Wi-Fi b / g / n / ac, 2.4 / 5 GHz, Wi-Fi Direct Bluetooth 4.2 Supported by DVB-T2 + DVB-C.

First turn on.

Plugged the plug into the outlet, pressed the power button on the bottom of the TV, and the screen lit up.

The first step is to connect the remote control. It is necessary to bring the remote control to the TV and hold down two buttons.

In our telegram channel, I wrote that after turning on the TV and discovering the lack of batteries, I realized that I could not turn off the TV. After turning off, the power button brings up this screen, and that’s it. It does not work as “OK” or as a joystick, that is, if you click on it, this window will go out endlessly. And you could turn it off only by pulling the cord out of the socket. Everything was fine after updating the firmware .

I really liked Google’s “quick setup”. You take your phone, say “Google, set up your device,” confirm the code, and the TV connects to Wi-Fi and your Google account. For some reason, it turned out only on BlackBerry, Samsung Galaxy Note 9 did not want to find the device in any.

Then the TV told me in greeting what he could do.

Screen.

I got the TV with the largest screen for my test: 55 inches, 4K HDR resolution, 60 Hz refresh rate. In fact, the TV menu works in Full HD, and 4K turns on only when there is appropriate video content. For example, expensive premium TVs always run in 4K and try to use artificial intelligence to “pull” content..

The declared brightness of the screen is 220 nits, in line with the measured. Minimum brightness – 28 nits.

It’s a clear day, the curtains are open. Good picture.

The screen has no PWM (does not flicker at low brightness). The sRGB color space on the TV is 100%. No glare on black background.

In the settings, there are options to customize the screen a little. For example, a picture can be warm, cold, or default. I, to my shame, did not see the difference. You can also change the brightness. No auto-tuning. In general, the change in brightness is not too foreseen by the manufacturer, since the screen settings are hidden on the third level of the menu and the brightness scale turns manually rather slowly. Would increase the speed in the next firmware, or something.

Some users asked questions in our telegram channel. They asked about INPUT LAG (this is the processing time of the signal from the source to the display). Since I did not have special equipment, I took the advice: I connected a laptop via HDMI and started a stopwatch. As you can see, on TV there are 239 thousandths of a second, and on a laptop screen – already 272 thousandths. It turns out that the input lag is 33 ms.

There was also a question “Do all ports support connecting a 4k 60p set-top box”. Answer: all.

There was also a question about how HDR works on PS 4 Pro. Answer: HDR works, but read the HDR section below..

About HDR.

The TV has declared support for HDR. I decided to add a small educational program on HDR. Initially, many manufacturers began to add HDR inscription to their devices, investing in it more of a marketing sense, since HDR standards have not yet been determined..

Then major manufacturers Samsung, LG, Hisense, Toshiba, Sony, Dolby, Netflix and others, members of the UHD Alliance, having discussed the state of affairs, announced the Ultra HD Premium certificate, which includes the minimum requirements for HDR. Thus, HDR does not mean “true” HDR. But it is important to note that, for example, Sony refused to use the ULTRA HD Premium logo, deciding to promote its own 4K HDR label..

However, it is important that minimum HDR standards have been established. They include a number of parameters. I will put a plus sign for those values ​​that the Xiaomi MiTV has:

Resolution 4K + 10-bit color + Minimum 90% DCI P3 color gamut (none, see picture below) There are two options for OLED and LED. For OLED, the brightness should be at least 1000 nits, but we have an LED TV, so the brightness should be more than 540 nits for white and less than 0.0005 nits for black (Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4S has a brightness of 220 nits for white and 0.6 nits for black)

White line – actual color gamut of Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4S, dark – DCI P3.

Accordingly, in the case of Xiaomi TV, HDR content looks visually more interesting than usual, but this should not be confused with HDR, which is played on premium TVs..

PatchWall Review.

The TV has two main screens. One is the Android interface (called up by the button with a circle on the remote control, I would call it the system “engine compartment” interface), the second is PatchWall, Xiaomi’s own branded launcher, which is an endless stream of movies, TV series and more.

There is a main screen (we will talk about it further), there is a VIP screen (paid selected content is published there), a movie screen, a TV series screen, a screen for children, a TV show screen, and if you activate a special option, the “For adults” tab will appear (about it we’ll also talk later).

Hot news are published at the very top. And since I did not activate gift subscriptions, there is also a banner reminder.

Scroll down the screen to select the source port.

You can also work with applications through the screen (download, run, uninstall)

Each screen is also more or less thematic. If you scroll down, entertainment appears. In addition to the channels, there are also video selections of memasics. You launch a category – cute, beauty, cognitive – and memasics start spinning without stopping. All this is accompanied by a delightful “Neverthink” intro.

Of course, in memes you can make a video in full screen..

Even lower – a selection of “Revisiting the classics of Disney”, even lower will be a selection of films about space, about karate, and so on ad infinitum.

If you click on the film, a screen with a description will open, and there will be more thematic options below. Please note that the signature is incomplete. To read the signature in full, click on it. Not being able to place a normal description on such a large screen is a disadvantage..

For the screen description of the film, Xiaomi gets bad. The fact that you need to scroll through the description is half the trouble. Where are the actors? I want to know who is in the movie. This is a flaw, since, for example, the built-in search is able to search for films by actors.

The problem with the lack of actors and in third-party apps built for the Xiaomi TV. Please note that for a full description of the movie, you still need to click on it, and a pop-up window will appear. Absolutely irrational use of free space.

By default, they offer to watch in a certain cinema, but if you click the “Other” button, the options will open. For example, here’s where you can watch the original cartoon “Aladdin”.

Adult Tab and Search Screen.

To select the “Adult” tab, you need to change the mode. Initially, the TV prompts you to set a password so that no one untrained will enter.

“Adult Tab” is not only erotic, but also various 18+ content. I liked this interpretation, as it allows you to protect the innocent mind of children from too violent films..

Kick again for the lack of actors. This is all the more offensive because, for example, in the description of “Cadavra” initially at the top there is an abrupt listing of actors, which completely disappears if you choose a full description.

Erotic content for adults is presented by a selection of channels.

There is also an abundance of various films (broadcast from online cinemas)

The search screen is a keyboard where you can enter the title of the movie or the names of the actors. The search will search in all directions. For example, by entering the word “empire” you can see all films with this word not only in the title, but also in the description.

Erotic videos are broadcast from online cinemas, and the choice, frankly, is small. For example, even a search failed to find Empire of Anal 3, the classic 2007 film directed by Frank Meir and Andrew Youngman. The main star of the film, of course, was Kati Karo. A 23-year-old blonde from Hungary with gray-blue eyes, who at that time was only taking her first steps and choosing anal scenes in hardcore porn as her specialization, she was not only able to breathe new life into the orderly distressed franchise, but also demonstrated remarkable acting talent. most fully revealed later in the tape “Anal Assassins 2: The Renegade”.

About Android TV.

If you press the button with a circle on the remote control, you can open the normal Android interface. In fact, everything is the same as in PatchWall, but without thematic collections and with an emphasis on YouTube (that is, Google’s own resource). Quite boring overall.

User experience and smart features.

I thought that it would be most optimal to tell in points.

The TV’s brightness is at the level of 5-8-year-old models, but it is quite comfortable for viewing. I have a south side and the sun shines during the day. There is glare on the screen, but you do not notice it as you concentrate on the image and not on the reflections. However, dark scenes are best left for the evening..

Dark scenes are best left for the evening. Here on the TV you can clearly see me, the stool that I brought to draw the curtains, behind the stool there are scales from Xiaomi. I was too lazy to shoot films from the TV.

There is little information in the descriptions of the films on PatchWall, there are no actors. In general, screen space is not being used rationally. I liked PatchWall itself. He fulfills his task perfectly. You can always find something to watch quickly and easily. There are collections of memasics. No Netflix app (not even on Google Play). While there is no content, the TV works in Full HD. The TV does not have a built-in web browser, can be found in the Google Play Store. But you can’t download any Google Chrome. TV does not see it, you have to choose from unknown “browsers for TVs”, which, frankly, are not very good. And the TV remote control is not comfortable for surfing the Internet. There is no way to increase your browsing speed in the YouTube app. For some reason, not all applications work. Example: I don’t know if Beeline or Xiaomi is to blame, but the Beeline TV application crashes, it’s worth starting a movie. The remote has a Google voice assistant. Works great. You can ask him to open something or turn off the TV. I repeat that I did not experience any suffering when viewing it during the day. So far, the TV has been updated only once, but it has done it extremely unceremoniously. Just started updating, spitting that I was watching a video. A lot of things go to the TV as a gift. For the trial, I activated “24 hours TV”, which includes the ability to watch all channels via the Internet, as well as access to “Amediatek” and “Megogo”. Subsequently, of course, each subscription will have to be purchased separately. In any case, when buying a Xiaomi smart TV, be prepared to pay for subscriptions, as otherwise PatchWall loses its value. In idle mode, the TV shows beautiful pictures. Only games that are “suitable for smart TVs” can be downloaded to the TV. All sorts of platformers, basically. It is also advisable to buy a joystick for games. The TV has a built-in Chromecast, so you can easily cast a YouTube video from your phone or PC to the big screen. Also, the broadcast function can be used to “drive” movies from the computer. Thus, I “played” a 30 GB movie in 4K via a VLC player via Wi-Fi. When rewinding, it lags, but if you turn it on and do not touch it, then everything is fine. In theory, you can download a torrent from the Google Play Market and even prescribe so that the downloaded is saved to a USB flash drive plugged into a USB flash drive. But, believe me, you don’t need it. It’s easier to download to your computer or phone and stream from there. The TV can be cleaned of “rubbish”.

The TV can work perfectly as a second monitor.

Conclusion and competitors.

A TV from Xiaomi is an interesting thing. With a stated price of 29,990 rubles, 4K resolution and 55-inch diagonal, it has no competitors. At a stretch, the closest competitor can be called Samsung UE55NU7090U (55 inches, Smart TV (Tizen), Edge LED). Officially, it is sold for 48,990 rubles. But, for example, in some half-white Moscow online store, you can find him for 36 thousand. However, this is rather an exception..

As a result, I have no complaints about brightness. And the time to watch TV is usually in the evenings..

I think this is a good product for the money. And he will find his buyer.