Xiaomi's Mi Smart Speaker: Built-in Chromecast, modest price

New Delhi: Smart home speakers have come of age with Amazon Echo and Google Home devices and sensing the opportunity here, Xiaomi has brought Mi Smart Speaker to India which is affordable, comes in a bigger form factor, and runs Google Assistant to perform your daily tasks.

The USP of the Rs 3,999 speaker is that it comes with an in-built Google Chromecast platform to let you stream shows, movies and music on TVs or listen on the speaker itself.

Let us see why this smart speaker is set to give some tough competition to the established players in this genre.

Weighing 853 grams, the device features a metal mesh with 10,531 sound holes for a rich, immersive sound. The 12W Mi smart speaker comes with DTS professional tuning, delivering a 360-degree surround sound experience in an extra-large sound chamber.

It gets easily synced with the Google Home app and can connect several smart homes appliances like lights, thermostats, security cameras and more.

The design looks elegant with the control panel and touch-sensitive buttons neatly placed on the top.

The light Ring strip on top with a music-lighting effect was awesome.

The Mi Smart Speaker can be paired in the same room for a perfect cinematic stereo sound experience.

The device offers over 10 lakh Google actions in English and Hindi -- play and control music with your voice, align your daily tasks, check the weather, get answers, set reminders and more.

The microphone array (2 mics) offers far-field voice wake-up support. The device supports Bluetooth 4.2, Android 4.4 and iOS 9.0 or above.

The beautifully-crafted device produced rich sound, redefining the smart speaker range.

A built-in 'TAS5805M hi-fi audio processor by global semiconductor design and manufacturing company Texas Instruments (TI) provided high power, low distortion and advanced multi-band dynamic response control algorithms.

The 'TAS5805M' is a high-efficiency, stereo, closed-loop Class-D amplifier offering a cost-effective digital-input solution with low power dissipation and sound enrichment.

The sound was in the same immersive range as offered by Amazon or Google smart speakers.

One can easily control the speakers with apps from iPhones, iPad, Android phone or tablet, Mac or Windows laptop or Chromebook.

The buyers can also avail one-year free subscription from Gaana.

Conclusion: With the Mi Smart Speaker powered by Google Assistant, getting any information, playing music or streaming shows is just a voice command away.

The device comes with an inaugural price of Rs 3,499 which is a value-for-money deal in the world of smart home speakers.