The Smart TV market is another of many in which Xiaomi wants to be present before a new purchase by a user. In the past we have already told you about our experience testing some of the first smart TVs that arrived in their catalog. And today, following that trail, it is the turn of one of the members of his P1 series family. I have been able to test the 55-inch Xiaomi Mi TV P1 and I want to tell you all about it and if it is so worth it or not.
A TV (almost) without frames
First of all, as you can imagine, I want to talk to you about the external appearance. A section that is becoming more and more valuable when buying a new Smart TV for our homes.
Here we are faced with a fairly thin screen that is striking for having 3 frames that are almost non-existent . This, as you are seeing in the attached image, are the top and the sides of it. Having such well used frames makes the design section a great plus since it can even make the TV immersion with the environment much greater. Then, the lower edge is somewhat thicker and is where we can see the Mi logo and just below it, the physical on / off button of the screen.
In its back it has a protuberance where it houses all the panel technology and where we find the different connections (and connectivities) that we are going to have:
- HDMI eARC 2.1
- 2x HDMI 2.0
- 2x USB 2.0
- A switch for the microphone.
- Ethernet port
- Bluetooth 5.0
- 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz Wi-Fi
This entire screen is held by two legs that act as a support. Feet that do not stand out too much, without a striking design and made of plastic. But yes, they fulfill their function perfectly and do not give the television a feeling of instability.
Fast, colorful and eye-catching
Now that you know it a little more on the outside, let me tell you everything that it includes inside and how it has been my experience trying it these days.
As I mentioned before, it is a 55-inch panel (although in this same family there are options of 50, 43 and 32 inches as well) with 4K resolution in which everything we reproduce on it looks very good. All this is thanks to a series of characteristics attached to it, such as, for example, that it is compatible with Dolby Vision and HDR10 + . This means that the amount of detail that this screen is capable of reproducing is very high. It also offers a 94% coverage of DCI-P3 , which will finally end up giving us a range of intense colors that will improve the experience of any content that we see through it.
Regarding the audio, this panel has 2 10W speakers compatible with Dolby Audio and DTS-HD . I know that this may seem like a lot of surnames a bit confusing but, so that you understand it better, they leave us a clear, enveloping sound that when playing series and movies will allow us to enjoy them much more.
The truth is that, after having tried it during the last week, I have really enjoyed everything I have seen through the Xiaomi P1. The colors are quite striking, the sound is loud and clear, and that feeling of having almost no frames on the screen seems great to me.
All that experience is enhanced, as you can imagine, by two sections: hardware and software. Regarding the components, the one in charge of giving all the power to this TV is a MediaTek 9611 processor, along with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage .
Regarding the operating system, Xiaomi continues to work with Google to bring Android TV 10 to its televisions. A system like any other Smart TV with its menus, options and settings, except for one detail: Xiaomi’s “customization layer”.
This “layer”, although we could better call it an interface application, is called PatchWall . We can access it through the apps installed on our television, or by pressing the “my” button on the remote controller, about which I now want to tell you a couple of details.
Personally, I had not tried this interface until now and it seems more than successful, even more so than Android TV itself. On the home screen we see the categories of: home, movies, series and children.
Through the home screen we can find different content recommendations for all the platforms that we usually use, a line dedicated to the apps on our TV, another with access to the different ports of the equipment to quickly access them, etc. And from there down, endless endless content that can interest us with movies, series, section for Pixar, Marvel, DC and much more.
Of course, as you may be imagining, being a Smart TV with Android TV, we can interact with it through the smart assistant of the big G, in addition to sending content to the screen through our phone. We can ask you about the weather, ask you to play a series or a movie or, for example, to control one of the smart devices that we have at home. And this invocation to the assistant can be done from its remote controller.
A remote control with a design that seems correct to me, with different buttons with shortcuts to Netflix, Prime Video, Google Assistant (as I mentioned) or, for example, for the characteristics related to the audio of what we are seeing in that moment (subtitles or language, for example). An additional detail is that this remote does not work through an infrared signal like many others, but incorporates Bluetooth connectivity . It may seem silly, but this means that we do not need to point to the TV to interact with it.
Quality adjusting the price, what else do you need?
Having said all this, it is time to talk about the decisive section when it comes to getting a new TV for your living room: the price. The official sale cost of the 55-inch Xiaomi Mi TV P1 is 649 euros . But, taking advantage of its arrival in our market, we can get hold of it until June 20 for a price of 549 euros through Media Markt, Fnac, Amazon, PC Components, Mi.com and the Mi Store.
Is this Smart TV worth it? In my opinion, yes. The almost frameless design, together with the good experience left by both the image and the sound section, are at a high level. Also, I love the feeling of fluidity when it comes to moving through the menus and options of its interface. So, if they asked me about an option to buy a new television, it would be within my chosen ones.