Xiaomi’s Mi TV 5X comes as the new lineup of smart TVs from the brand, and as can be expected from Xiaomi, seems to offer good value too. Let me tell you why. The 5X lineup is available in 43-inch, 50-inch and 55-inch screen sizes, and the biggest of the lot is the one I’m trying out. Of course, screen size is the first filter for most people when looking for a new TV, and I really think the 55-inch screen size should hit the sweet spot for most people looking to balance their budget with immersive entertainment.
In terms of design, the Mi TV 55-inch looks quite premium, thanks to the slim metal frame that runs around the screen. Below, there’s the Xiaomi logo, which frankly, looks strange to me since I’m more used to seeing the Mi logo on devices from the brand’s stables. I’d just need to get used to it, since Xiaomi is the branding that the company has decided to use on its products henceforth. That apart, the TV largely uses plastic in its construction and features a decent range of ports towards the rear left side. You get three HDMI 2.1 ports, a couple of USB ports, Ethernet, optical line out and an AV input. Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and eARC support are there too, and the former should be appreciated by gamers.
The 55-inch IPS display supports most formats like HDR, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, and that is one of the key highlights of the device in its price range. The device can even control brightness automatically, thanks to a built-in ambient light sensor. Coming to the all-important image quality offered by the TV, you would need to get your hands dirty and dive into settings a bit, since it does some tweaking to offer the best image quality. While largely you’d need to tweak things a bit depending upon the lighting conditions in your room, the TV offers extremely good quality in low light. 
In brighter conditions, the colours don’t seem as punchy, and that’s why it’d probably be best to turn the ambient light detection off. There’s motion smoothing as well, and while that works best for certain types of content (like sports), you can turn that off for movies… though this can still be a personal choice. Reducing the backlighting is recommended as well. And once you have the settings all figured out, you’d notice that the image quality offered is extremely good for the price. On the audio side of things, the 40W speakers do a great job as well and can get quite loud. That said, bass isn’t their strong suit.
Yet another interesting feature (just goes on to show how feature-rich the Mi TV 5X is), is the always-on far-field voice recognition based on Google Assistant. Basically, you can just utter ‘ok Google’ and get the TV to respond without pressing any buttons. While the overall performance of the TV is quite snappy, I did find the Google Assistant a bit slow to respond. Also, there’s a bit of lag visible while the TV is streaming, but that only appears sometimes.
Software-wise, there’s Android TV of course, but like all Xiaomi TVs, you have the option of using PatchWall instead. For those who’re new to Xiaomi’s TVs, you should know that these devices offer the brand’s own smart TV interface dubbed PatchWall, which you can use instead of stock Android TV if you want. The platform still uses Android as base, so you can still use apps downloaded from the Play Store. Switching between the two interfaces is a matter of one button press on the remote. PatchWall I think, is really one of the stars of the show, and has really improved quite a bit over time. 
The big strength of PatchWall is content curation and discovery, and that’s where it really shines. Just as an example, it lets you find content that can be viewed in Dolby Vision, HDR, and / or 4K across different streaming services. Similarly, you can find movies by actor, movies by director, etc, or choose to filter by topics such as fitness, military, short films etc. One of the latest features PatchWall has picked up is IMDb ratings, so you can filter out content ranked by its IMDb rating too. Good stuff.
The bundled remote is a standard Xiaomi affair… simple to use, and features dedicated shortcut keys for Netflix and Prime Video. The only thing it lacks is a mute key. While you can double-press the volume down key for muting the TV, I think this function still deserves its own button.
Verdict
At the time of publishing, the Mi TV 5X 55-inch is listed for Rs 45,999 on the Xiaomi India website, and for its asking, presents good value for money. It does have a few small niggles, but the features and real-life performance outweigh those easily. Scoring high on aspects like design, connectivity, UI, image quality and audio, the Xiaomi Mi TV 55X looks like a decent choice if you’re looking for a large screen and don’t want to shell out too much.
Editor’s rating: 4 / 5
Pros:
- Premium looks
- Decent image quality and loud audio
- PatchWall platform is useful
- Good value
Cons:
- Brightness levels could be better
- Speakers lack bass
- Interface can be laggy sometimes
