If you’re out to grab an Android TV box in an effort to make your old TV catch up with the modern world or to just get over whatever software the maker of your TV bundles it with then other than the NVIDIA Shield TV, Xiaomi’s Mi Box is likely your next best bet.
The Mi Box S is Xiaomi’s latest Android TV streaming box, taking over from where the Mi Box 3 we reviewed last year left. While not much has changed, at well over half the price of both of the old Shield and the new Shield TV Pro, the Xiaomi Mi Box S definitely can’t be wished away.
As days go by, it is making an even stronger case for itself. In coming days, the device is set to receive the long-awaited Android 9 Pie update, upgrading it from the Android Oreo it’s been running on since launch.
With the update, several new features will be making their way to the device. These include the ability to select audio formats, quickly taking screenshots by holding down the on/off button, audio via USB as well as a new settings menu.
With Amazon and Google finally having made up and settled their old scores, the Mi Box S will be joining the many other Android TV devices in finally getting ready access to the Amazon Prime Video application. The app, which had, until the recent truce between the two tech giants, been exclusive to the NVIDIA Shield, is said to be included as a system application on the Mi Box S with the Android 9 update.
The NVIDIA Shield received its Android Pie update back in July.
Xiaomi had reportedly opened up the Android 9 Pie beta to up to 400 Mi Box S users. That has since closed and everyone has to wait for the official rollout once it exits beta.
Or… you can download the beta here then go ahead and flash it on your own (it’s easy: just rename the downloaded zip file to update.zip, put it in a USB flash drive in FAT32 format which you then insert into your Mi Box S, boot into the recovery of your Mi Box S, factory reset your Mi Box S from recovery, then choose to apply an update using the file you renamed and wait for it to finish flashing).
