The new Mi Smart Speakers from Xiami, currently sold only in India, offers room filling, bass-heavy audio at an affordable price.

As Xiami continue to expand beyond smart phones, they recently debuted their new “smarter living” products in India, including a smart soap dispenser, smart watch, smart shoes, smart bulb and a smart speaker.

The Mi Smart Speaker connects via Wifi or Bluetooth for offline use, however it must be connected to a wall outlet, so this one is designed for home use. With Google Assistant you can expect all the same smart functions as any Google speakers. Chromecast built-in allows you to easily cast online content directly to the speaker or even pair it with a TV to use as an external speaker. Pair two or any other Chromecast-enabled speakers for stereo sound.

  • Connect
  • Pair

Dual far-field mics are able to pick-up your voice from across the room, even with loud music playing. An Alexa-style LED ring around the top of the speaker will let you know when the assistant is listening. Alternative, use the touch controls on top of the speaker for volume, play/pause and mic off for privacy.

Controls

A front-facing 12W speaker and 63.5mm driver will produce loud, room-filling sound however will lack the 360 sound some of the Amazon and Google speakers provide. The speaker is housed in a cylindrical 0.7mm thick matte-stone black metal mesh. It should be noted Mi Smart Speaker is very bass heavy and this can muddy the mids and highs, but generally produces a more favourable sound than the Amazon Echo Dot or Nest Mini the speaker will compete with. Google and Amazon’s small, budget speakers aren’t designed for everyday music playback.

Driver

Mi Smart Speaker is on sale in India only, for Rs. 3,499 (around $48). Amazon and Google currently hold the majority of the smart speaker market share in India, but are expensive by domestic standards. At a similar price to the Echo Dot and Nest Mini, this is currently a great value speaker. Xiami are planning on increasing the speaker to Rs. 5,999 (around $82) after the introductory price expires.

Check out our top Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa-enabled smart speakers here.