A thousand Rand just doesn’t go as far as it used to. The increasing downturn of the economy the world over, the ever weak nature of the Rand, and long-lasting supply chain issues from the pandemic all work to make R1 000 not stretch nearly as far as it did previously.
Thankfully there are still some companies which are not only working to bring you well-priced products, but they are also ensuring that your money goes as far as possible.
One of those companies is Xiaomi which you likely know from its dominance in the smartphone and wearable market, two areas where it strives to bring the most premium features to lower price points, especially in South Africa where localised pricing makes these devices all the more enticing.
But what you may not know is that Xiaomi brings these same philosophies to all parts of its device portfolio, so today let’s look at just one example where the company wants to reinvent how you enjoy your entertainment, all for less than a grand.
The Mi TV Stick Media Player is available in South Africa right now from your favourite retailers such as Takealot, Incredible Connection, HiFi, Game, and Makro where the RRP is just R949. If you have a thousand Rand to spend you can get this transformative device and still have R51 to use how you please.
But what does this do and why is it so game changing? The Mi TV Stick is essentially a super compact, but still powerful, computer that runs Android TV. Plug it into a free HDMI slot of any TV, monitor or other display and it instantly becomes a modern streaming and Android platform.
Download your favourite streaming apps and use the included remote control (see above) to instantly access services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
The top button of that remote also tells you about more smart features of the Mi TV Stick in the form of voice control. Press it to activate voice control and search hands free for the next movie or TV show to watch.
Movies, TV and more all look great in full 1080p, bolstered by DTS and Dolby multichannel HD audio decoding. This is quite a feat for a device that weighs just 28.5 grams and easily fits into your pocket or bag for trips.
With that in mind consider the 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage which allows you to make the most of that portability.
Let’s say you’re going on holiday and want to enjoy some videos, but you’re unsure if there’s going to be internet where you’re staying. Download a streaming service with offline downloads, such as YouTube, and save some videos onto that internal storage. Plug it into the TV when you arrive and get watching seamlessly. Outside of streaming services you could even put your own files onto the Mi TV Stick as it has native support for all manner of video and audio formats.
The Mi TV Stick can completely reinvent and reinvigorate even much older TVs, allowing you to keep using them with modern features and saving you the huge expense of a complete replacement. That RRP of R949 becomes all the more impressive with this in mind.
