The big-ticket Announcement at Xiaomi’s China event on March 27 was the Snapdragon 845 powered Mi Mix 2s, but Xiaomi also had a couple of surprises in store including the Mi Gaming Laptop and its Voice-activated AI assistant powered Mi AI speaker mini.
Priced at CNY 169 (Roughly around Rs. 1,800), The new speaker will be a more affordable alternative to the likes of Amazon Echo Dot and Google Home Mini. It will hit retail shelves starting April 3, and we presume this is one product that won’t expand beyond China for some more time to come.
This isn’t first AI Speaker from the brand, though. Last year, Xiaomi introduced Mi AI speaker that cost CNY 299 (Roughly Rs. 2,800). The newly launched Mini variant is, as you’d expect, more compact.
Mi AI Speaker Mini Features
The Mi AI speaker is quite portable and has nearly the same feature set as the non-mini variant. The music playback controls are on top, but there is no notification LED band this time. Xiaomi hasn’t detailed microphone array being used as of now.
The Mi A1 speaker will let you access a variety of content including music, live radio, audio books, children stories, etc. using voice commands. Besides, the smart speaker allows you to check your schedule, get traffic updates, and to set reminders. The AI trainer app can further be used to program custom commands for specific tasks. You can also add plug-ins using the companion app.
Would you like instant access to over 35 million books and songs? You need to get your hands on our new Mi AI Speaker mini! pic.twitter.com/KyoY7JtLip
— Mi (@xiaomi) March 27, 2018
Quite a few Xiaomi smart devices like Yeelight, TV boxes, rice cookers, air purifier, etc. Were compatible with Mi AI Speaker and the same should be true for the mini variant.
Who is the Mi AI Speaker Mini For?
The Mi AI Speaker Mini is meant for people who are already heavily invested in Xiaomi’s product ecosystem. Since a very limited number of such products have actually made it beyond Chinese borders, that isn’t many. Besides, it’s only meant for people who can speak Chinese further filtering prospective buyers. For everyone else, Google Home Mini and Alexa Echo dot should be better options.
