Xiaomi's next Mi Box could launch globally soon with a much-needed upgrade

The Xiaomi Mi Box streaming gadgets are among the better streaming boxes on the market, delivering fantastic value for money and decent specs. Now, it looks like global users are getting another product in the series.

9to5Google spotted a product listing for the Xiaomi TV Box S 2nd Gen on the global Xiaomi website. This points to an international release of some sort. So what should you expect from this streaming box?

The listing suggests you shouldn’t expect a massive upgrade over previous entries. But you’re still getting a chipset upgrade to a quad-core Cortex-A55 CPU and Mali-G31 MC2 GPU. That’s a welcome upgrade from 2018’s Mi Box S, which offered a sluggish quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU and ancient Mali-450 graphics. We indeed complained about the older gadget’s sluggish performance in our Mi Box S review, so this silicon upgrade should improve things.

What else to expect from the new Mi Box?

The Xiaomi TV Box S 2nd Gen also sports the Google TV interface instead of the Android TV UI like the older box. Otherwise, the company is still sticking with 2GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, so those hoping for more RAM and storage like the China-only Mi Box 4S Max might be disappointed. Other specs include Bluetooth 5.2 support, 4K/60fps playback, Dolby Vision support, HDR10+ integration, and a 3.5mm port. There’s no word on AV1 support, though.

Xiaomi’s new TV box doesn’t have microSD support, but it retains the older machine’s USB 2.0 port. That means you can easily plug your portable hard drive or flash drive into the box. This would be a refreshing change from the Chromecast for Google TV, which requires a USB-C hub for storage expansion.

We’ve asked Xiaomi about a US release and global pricing details and will update the article accordingly. But a US launch would be long overdue given that the Mi Box S landed in the country roughly five years ago.