DETAILED REVIEW OF THE XIAOMI MI TV 4A PRO 49-INCH
The biggest problem with buying a inexpensive smart TV in India nowadays is that they all run on AOSP (Open Source Android Platform). That said, even if you have access to hundreds and thousands of apps on the TV, including Amazon Prime Videos and Netflix, the experience is very disappointing because they are mobile versions of the apps and the potential of the panel cannot be used on your TV. Today we have with us the Xiaomi Mi LED TV 4A Pro 49-inch TV. The TV runs on Android TV 8.1, as well as the company’s own PatchWall operating system. It brings some updates compared to the previous version of PatchWall. This is the first time Xiaomi has launched a 49-inch TV in India, which is packed with features. Should the competition be worried?
THE MOST IMPORTANT SPECIFICATIONS at A GLANCE
Plate size: 49 inches
Panel type: IPS
Screen resolution: 1920 x 1080p Full HD
Panel refresh rate: 60 Hz
Support HDR 10: Yes
Compatible with Dolby Vision: No
Weight (with stand): 10.9 kg
HDMI connections: 3
USB Ports: 2
Bluetooth: Yes, 4.2
WiFi: Yes
Ethernet: Yes
Speaker: 2 x 10W
Processor: Amlogic quad-core 64-bit
Graphics processor: Mali-450
Memory: 2 GB
Built-in memory: 8GB
BUILDING AND DESIGNING
With the construction of the Xiaomi Mi Led TV 4A Pro, it is not the thinnest TV on the market and that’s fine. However, it has relatively thin lenses around the screen, which give the TV a nice look, but they are not as thin as the ones we saw on the mi TV 4. You can fix the TV on the wall or put it on a table. We placed the TV on a table and the two plastic legs are sturdy, well built and keep the TV in place.
CONNECTIONS AND CONNECTIVITY
In terms of connectivity, the Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV 4A Pro has HDMI 3 ports (one of them is ARC), two USB ports, an Ethernet port, an AV input, a good old antenna port and S/PDIF for audio. The TV only has one s/PDIF port for audio output, which is a disappointment. It also has an HDMI arc, but I have a pair of speakers that support 3.5mm or RCA, and I can’t connect them to the TV, which is disappointing. You will need to invest in a digital coaxial cable if you want to connect your speakers to RCA or 3.5mm connectors. If you have a pair of Bluetooth-compatible speakers, you can connect them to the TV via Bluetooth. The TV is also compatible with Wi-Fi.
In total, 3 HDMI ports are a good number, but the lack of an optional audio output such as RCA or 3.5mm is disappointing. The placement of the HDMI connectors is very convenient – they are all located laterally, which means t hat they are easy to reach, even if the TV is connected to the wall. You still need an HDMI extender if you want to connect a Fire TV key to the TV.
Display and image quality
The Xiaomi Mi LED Smart TV 4A Pro has a panel with Full HD and supports HDR. Xiaomi says that the TV will be available in VA and IPS panel options and did not tell us the manufacturer of the panel. The test device we have has an IPS panel. A tip for those of you who want to know which control panel your TV has. Simply activate the content and tap on the control panel. If you see a rainbow-like color effect in the area you touch, the control panel is VA. If you don’t see the rainbow effect, it’s an IPS panel.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the Xiaomi mi LED TV 4A Pro 49-inch has an 8-bit panel. For those of you who don’t know, a TV must have a 10-bit panel to reap the true benefits of HDR. An 8-bit panel can create 256 shadows for each of the primary colors (red, green and blue). This means that an 8-bit panel can offer 16.8 million colors (256 x 256 x 256 = 16,777,216). That seems like a lot and if you have a really good 1080p TV, you can appreciate the look of the content. However, to create HDR colors, you need a 10-bit panel. Instead of 256 colors per base color, a 10-bit panel can produce 1024 colors per base color. This means that a TV with a 10-bit panel can produce more than a billion colors, that is. 1024 × 1024 × 1024 = 1 072 341 824.
How can a TV with an 8-bit panel produce HDR content? Well, here’s the deal: HDR works with two main factors: color depth and contrast. An 8-bit panel may not be able to reproduce the colors of a 10-bit panel, but you can increase the contrast (the difference between whiter white and blacker black to get a more beautiful image). In addition to increasing the contrast, the TV should indicate to the source of its content (either a Blu-ray player or a game console) that it can display HDR content. This is achieved by selecting the HDMI 2.0 option in the TV settings of this Xiaomi TV. Once this is done, the content source (your game console, Blu-ray player, etc.) will be displayed.) starts the transfer of HDR content to the TV. In theory, this should work fine, we practically got a dark HDR performance. Let me explain the performance of the image in detail.
