Battle for streaming sticks is heating up in the Indian market. Over the course of a year, we have seen multiple brands enter into this area and now the latest entrant is Xiaomi. The brand announced its latest Mi TV stick in the Indian market which will go head-on with the market leader FireTV Stick 1080p.
Here’s a quick comparison between the two to help you make an informed decision.
Design
In terms of design both of the stick sport a similar build, while the FireTV stick is more or less like a candy bar. The Mi TV stick has a slightly cylindrical shape. Both of them are made out of high-quality plastic with an HDMI port on one end and the microUSB power port on the other.
Specification
The Xiaomi Mi TV Stick has a Quad-core Cortex A53 CPU with Mali 450GPU. In terms of RAM and storage, you get a standard 1GB and 8GB setup respectively.
While the FireTV stick also comes powered with a Quad-core CPU and the same 1GB RAM and 8GB storage setup. The Fire TV Stick comes with Bluetooth 4.1 + LE whereas the Mi TV Stick has Bluetooth 4.2.
Ecosystem
The Mi TV stick runs the latest AndroidTV OS while the Amazon FireTV stick runs a forked version of Android customized by Amazon. The Mi TV Stick has access to the Google Play Store while the Fire TV Stick has access to its own app store. When it comes to apps, both the TV streaming sticks have a set of similar apps with the majority of popular OTT platforms available on both the devices, including Netflix, Prime Video, HotStar, and more.
Some newer OTT apps like the AppleTV+ at the moment are only available on FireTV stick which is a plus whereas there is no word on the availability of the same on Mi TV stick. When comparing head-on the Mi TV stick still has a wider selection of apps thanks to the PlayStore availability but judging by the demand, Amazon is also populating their app store at a steady pace.
Output
When it comes to audio and video output, both the sticks have the same spec. Mi TV Stick supports full HD resolution videos at 60fps, comes with Dolby, and DTS surround sound support which is the same on the FireTV stick as well. What’s different is the FireTV stick’s ability to pump-out Dolby Audio and 5.1 surround sound and HDMI audio pass-through up to 7.1 surround sound.
Smart Assistant & Remote
The Mi TV Stick supports the Google Assistant and the Fire TV Stick supports Alexa. Both of the smart assistants are good enough and provide the same array of tasks. Using each of them you could control your smart home devices and carry out various tasks.
Coming to the remote control, you get a fairly minimalistic remote with either of the stick. On the Mi TV stick remote, you get hotkeys for some OTT platforms depending on the region while the FireTV stick remote has a mute button, something the former lacks.
Conclusion
When it comes to specs and raw hardware power, both of the sticks come neck to neck. Both have the ability to stream content in 1080p and have robust OTT platform support. While Amazon has been successful in integrating Alexa with a bunch of devices and producing a far better ecosystem, something Google is still struggling to achieve.
In the end, it all comes down to the price, the FireTV stick in India retails for INR 3,999, and about INR 2500 during sales but the Mi TV stick takes a lead here with a sticker price of INR 2799 which could go down slightly during sales.
