Xiaomi S Mini Led TV review: Great display and sound, and that one thing that could have been better

Xiaomi S Mini LED TV is rather impressive with its bright, vibrant display, deep blacks and powerful speakers. But while the hardware delivers a premium viewing experience, the sluggish PatchWall software often gets in the way of an otherwise excellent TV.

Xiaomi S Mini Led TV review - 8/10

Pros

• Vivid, bright QD Mini LED display
• Slim bezels, clean design
• Solid quad-speaker audio

Cons

• Software lags

In Short

• Xiaomi S Mini LED TV delivers bright visuals, deep blacks and vibrant colours at Rs 51,999
• The 34W speaker setup delivers clear, room-filling audio
• Xiaomi's software sometimes feels sluggish and slow

Everyone wants a premium TV experience. Everyone wants deep blacks, bright colours and immersive sound. And everyone wants that in a TV that doesn’t cost the way an OLED does. That's where Xiaomi's S Mini LED TV, with a price tag of Rs 51,999, comes in. It promises a viewing experience that gets close to TVs with high-end panels while being easy on the pocket.

On paper, the new Xiaomi TV certainly looks impressive. You get a QD Mini LED panel, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, up to 1,200 nits of peak brightness, Dolby Audio, DTS support, and additional features aimed at gamers, including a display refresh rate of 120Hz.

But as always, a spec sheet only tells part of the story. Here at India Today Tech, I spent roughly three weeks with the 55-inch Xiaomi S Mini LED TV in my small-ish room.

During this period, it was wall-mounted and served as my primary screen for everything from Netflix binges and YouTube videos to late-night movie sessions and even the occasional karaoke night.

The overall experience that the S Mini LED TV offers is impressive. The TV gets a lot of things right, particularly when it comes to picture quality, sound and overall viewing experience. However, there is one aspect that consistently held it back for me. Let me take you through it, one by one.

Slim design that looks premium

The Xiaomi S Mini LED TV looks good.

The bezels around the display are slim enough that they almost disappear once your eyes are locked onto the screen. The TV comes with a stand in the box, but I chose to mount it on the wall. Do note that wall mounting comes at an additional cost.

Mounted on the wall, the TV looks modern and premium without drawing unnecessary attention to itself. It certainly does not look out of place in either a living room or a bedroom setup. The overall build quality feels solid too. The S Mini LED TV also scores well when it comes to connectivity. All the ports are neatly positioned on the side, making them easy to access even after the TV is mounted on the wall.

You get multiple HDMI ports, including support for eARC, dual USB ports, an Ethernet port, optical audio output, AV input and a 3.5mm audio jack. So whether you want to connect a gaming console, a soundbar, a set-top box, a streaming stick or even older accessories, the TV has you covered.

I never found myself searching for an adapter or wishing for an extra port. Everything I needed was readily available, and the side-facing placement made plugging in devices quick and hassle-free.

The QD Mini LED display shines bright

If there is one reason why I recommend this TV, it is its display. Sure, this is a mainstream TV. There is no OLED here, there is no top-end panel with some exotic materials and wizard tech in it. But for a mainstream TV, this new Xiaomi sports a panel that can challenge more expensive Rs 1 lakh and above televisions.

Essentially, Xiaomi has done a great job with the screen on this TV. The Xiaomi S Mini LED TV uses a QD Mini LED panel with support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+, and in day-to-day use, it delivers an enjoyable viewing experience.

Xiaomi claims up to 1,200 nits of peak brightness and, in my experience, the display was bright enough for almost every situation. I watched everything from YouTube videos, Prime Videos and Netflix shows to late-night movies. Whether sunlight was streaming into my room during the afternoon or all the lights were switched off at night, the TV remained comfortable to watch.

The colours are also one of the highlights here. Reds are punchy, greens look rich, and skin tones generally appear natural. The colours never look washed out or faded. Blacks are also surprisingly deep for a Mini LED panel.

The QD Mini LED also delivers well when it comes to viewing angles. Xiaomi claims 178-degree viewing angles and, while I did not exactly pull out a measuring tape to verify that, I had no issues watching content from different parts of the room. The picture remains consistent even when viewed from the side, especially when the room was packed with family and friends.

Overall, Xiaomi has done a commendable job with the display. It is bright, colourful and immersive, and certainly one of the biggest reasons to consider this TV.

Another thing that impressed me was the sound. The TV comes with a 34W speaker setup consisting of four speakers. Through these speakers, the sound is loud, clear and remains controlled even at higher volumes. In my experience, it never became scratchy or distorted.

But the software

Now let's talk about the issue that consistently frustrated me: PatchWall.

For those unfamiliar, PatchWall is Xiaomi's software layer that sits on top of Google TV. On paper, it sounds useful. It offers content recommendations, universal search and a number of additional features designed to help users discover content more easily.

While using theXiaomi Mini LED TV, however, I found it on the slower side. Maybe it is the amount of RAM — 2GB — that was the pain point here. As I used the TV, its menu occasionally felt sluggish, navigation was not always as responsive as I would have liked, and the overall experience felt slower than it needed to be.

This also made me wonder whether the problem was the software or the hardware.

As it happens, I was also testing a third-party streaming device — the new Fire TV Stick — along with the TV. The moment I switched to that, the whole experience immediately felt smoother. Apps loaded faster, navigation felt more responsive, and the overall usability improved significantly.

Another bit I want to highlight is the remote. It deserves a brief mention because I found it to be simple and functional, just the way I like it. With its remote, Xiaomi has kept things simple and straightforward. There are no flashy design choices or overly complicated controls. Everything is laid out in a way that feels familiar, which means you can pick it up and start using it without much of a learning curve.

Xiaomi S Mini LED TV review: Should you buy it?

The S Mini LED TV gets the basics right. Most importantly it comes with an excellent screen, which punches way above its price point. And the screen is the most important aspect of a TV. The display is bright and colourful. Black levels are impressive for a Mini LED panel. Dolby Vision content looks great. The second most important aspect is the sound, and there too the new Xiaomi TV delivers in spades.

Xiaomi S Mini LED TV delivers a premium viewing experience without asking you to spend OLED-level money.

However, the PatchWall experience remains its biggest weakness at least for now. During my time with the TV, the software often felt slower than the hardware deserved. Overall, this is a TV I can recommend. But with one caveat, it would be best experienced with an external TV box like Fire TV Stick, or something like Apple TV. Without that you may run into software that may feel slightly sluggish, although how sluggish will depend on your own perception of what you find slow and what you find fast.

- Ends