If you’re planning to get a new affordable Android TV stick soon, you might want to wait a little longer. It seems like the Xiaomi Mi TV Stick will be getting a new 2021 variant soon, one that will of course have a little bit more horsepower than the current one. The device has just recently passed the FCC and while the design and the overall hardware specs seem basically the same, there are some tweaks and improvements as well.
9 to 5 Google shares that the new version of the Mi TV Stick will be slightly bigger than the one that’s currently in the market. It also seems to sport the new Xiaomi logo even though the design of the stick itself hasn’t really changed. The testing photos from the FCC confirm that the stick will be running on Android TV and not Google TV, the latter of which is already found on newer Chromecast and other Google products.
The upgrade that the Mi TV Stick will be getting is in its SoC. It’s getting the Amlogic S9O5Y4 chip which already supports 4K HDR and the AV1 standards. Technically, it will actually be slightly more powerful than the Chromecast with Google TV, at least when it comes to raw power. Other than this, we don’t know what are the other improvements that will come with the 2021 version of the TV stick so we’ll have to wait for the official announcement.
Compared to other streaming sticks like Amazon’s Fire TV, Android TV seems to be a bit behind. Last year we finally got it and Xiaomi was one of the early adaptors that used this platform on their Mi TV Stick. So it makes sense that the new version will still have Android TV rather than the shinier Google TV which Chromecast and other newer smart TVs are already running. We actually don’t know what Google’s plans are eventually for Android TV and Google TV so we’ll have to see.
There is no information yet as to when we can expect the 2021 version of the Xiaomi Mi TV Stick. There are also no other details revealed in the FCC filing but we’ll probably hear more leaks later on when more will be “leaked” or revealed.
