Xiaomi unveils new smart home display hub
Xiaomi has continues to develop its smart home ecosystem and, alongside the Mi 9 smartphone, has also announced a new smart display intended to act as a central hub for all its smart home gadgets.
Reminiscent of the Google Home Hub and Lenovo Smart Display, the new XiaoAI Touchscreen Speaker also leverages an AI voice assistant known as XiaoAI. XiaoAI is already popular in China and integrated a range of Xiaomi smart speakers and also the brand's smartphones. Outside of China, Xiaomi's smartphones integrate Google Assistant instead.
The hub device features a 4-inch display with a section for a customizable digital clock. The smart display can also be used to browse and play music and videos, and even comes pre-loaded with multimedia from iQiyi, Sogou, and Sina and Tencent's QQ. Naturally, you can install apps on it for additional functionality.
The XiaoAI smart speaker can also be integrated with a range of smart home gadgets including cameras, speakers, doorbells and several others, serving as a user-friendly control center for the who smart home ecosystem. It's still not clear whether this device will reach markets outside of China, but if Xiaomi continues making inroads around the world, it's not inconceivable that we'd see a version, perhaps with Google Assistant, arrive in the US and European markets.
Pricing and availability are as of yet unknown, but the smart display hub will open for beta testing on February 28.
What do you think of this smart speaker from Xiaomi? Should the Chinese brand offer more smart home products in Western markets?
Source: Gizmochina
The AI Voice Assistant feature along with the build and sophisticated look of the gadget and a MediaTek support platform makes it a reliable and powerful gadget for an addition to any smart home