Android TV boxes haven’t gotten much attention over the last two years. NVIDIA dominates this segment with the Shield TV, which not only plays 4K content but also streams games with ease. But the Shield TV starts off at $190 and isn’t available globally. For a majority of users looking to pick up an affordable Android TV box, the default option is Xiaomi’s Mi Box S.

Mi Box S is powered by Android 8.1, easy to use and supports Google Assistant and Chromecast as well as delivering a world of content the whole family can enjoy.

The Mi Box S has a pretty basic design: it’s just a rectangular box made out of plastic with rounded edges. The reason for its boxy design is a larger heat sink that does a much better job dissipating heat away from the internal hardware. Round the back you have ports for power, audio-out, USB drive, and HDMI 2.0a.

There’s no dedicated Ethernet port, but it has a newer Wi-Fi ac 2×2 MIMO module that does a much better job staying connected to your home Wi-Fi network. I had a lot of issues with Wi-Fi connectivity on the Mi Box, but that just wasn’t the case on the Mi Box S — it had rock-solid connectivity throughout.

A full-fledged Android TV experience for less than the cost of a Chromecast Ultra.

As for the hardware on offer, the Mi Box S is powered by an Amlogic S905X SoC that has four Cortex A53 cores clocked up to 2.0GHz. There’s 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, and if the specs look familiar, it’s because they haven’t changed from the Mi Box.

You do get a new remote with dedicated buttons for Netflix and invoking Google Assistant. Assistant integration allows you to quickly launch TV shows or play videos on YouTube by issuing voice commands. The interface itself is identical to what you’d find on any Android TV device, and you get access to Play Store to download thousands of apps optimized for the TV.

Compatible with thousands of apps, giving you access to tons of premium video services and a constant stream of fresh new content

Output Resolution: 4K (3840 x 2160), CPU: Cortex-A53 Quad-core 64bit, GPU: Mali-450, RAM: 2GB DDR3, Storage: 8GB eMMC, Operating System: Android 8.1

Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2.4GHz/5GHz, Bluetooth: 4.1, HDMI2.0a: 1, USB2.0: 1, Power Interface: 1, Audio Out: 1, Support Language: Global

Video decoder: 4K@60fps，VP9， H.264，MPEG1/2/4，VC-1，Real8/9/10, Video Format: RM，MOV，VOB，AVI，MKV，TS，Mp4，3D, Audio decoder: DOLBY, DTS, Audio Format: MP3，APE，Flac, Image decoder: JPG，BMP，GIF，PNG，TIF. International Model, Works worldwide, Does not have US warranty.