The Smart Speaker IR Control is Xiaomi’s latest audio product, at least in the Indian market. It is a modestly priced device for its category with an interesting novelty; lets you control devices in your home with just your voice, as long as they work with an IR remote.
Drawing
The Xiaomi Smart Speaker is a relatively compact device, measuring 14 cm in height and 9.5 cm in diameter. It is made of matte black plastic which unfortunately shows dust quite easily and requires regular cleaning.
On the front is a four-character seven-segment LED display that serves primarily as a clock. The display is cleverly hidden when it’s not turned on. Since it shines through the plastic body, the light diffuses a little. It is usually still easily visible, but it can be difficult to see if there is a lot of direct light reflecting off the front surface.
Below the display is the grille for the single speaker. The grille spins all the way around the device as the sound comes out from all sides. On the back there is the port for the power cable. The device requires a constant power connection and has no battery.
At the top are controls to adjust the volume, play / pause and mute the microphone. In the center is an LED that lights up when you speak to the speaker and while processing your requests. It turns orange when the microphone is muted and stays that way until it is turned on again. The light can be uncomfortably bright at night. Around the controls are far-field microphones.
Build quality, fit and finish are good enough for a product in this price range. It’s not something you physically interact with much, so it doesn’t matter much. The design is simple but not unattractive; looks a bit like a mini Mi air purifier. As mentioned above, it requires regular cleaning so as not to look dirty. A white option would be nice but not offered.
Software and features
The Xiaomi Smart Speaker requires configuration via two different apps. First, you need to set it up using the Google Home app. Once done, you will need to make further settings via the Mi Home app. You can uninstall both apps later as the device doesn’t depend on them for normal smart speaker functionality, but they do have some useful features to keep them around.
Google Home settings
The Google Home app lets you do things like adjust sound quality, activate Voice Match for different members of the house, volume levels for alarms and timers, accessibility features, and more. The Mi Home app allows you to change the home automation settings and configure the IR control function.
With this feature, you can configure the device to control objects in the room that work using IR remotes. You must first find the device you are trying to check through the list of supported ones. It can be a TV, set-top box, air conditioner, fan, media player, or projector (called a lamp for some reason in the app).
Mi Casa settings
Once set up (works like a universal remote), you can simply use voice commands to control simple tasks like turning the device on or off or changing the channel or volume. It’s a neat feature and works well, as long as both the Xiaomi Smart Speaker and the device that is the controller are in the same room and in line of sight.
Aside from that, the Xiaomi Smart Speaker behaves like any other Google smart speaker, with full support for Google Assistant functions and integration with Chromecast. There’s also Bluetooth support, if you’d rather just send the audio over Bluetooth.
Performance
The Xiaomi Smart Speaker has good audio quality, provided you tune it a little.
Out of the box, the audio is biased towards the low and mid frequencies. Bass lacks low-end intensity as one would expect from a small 1.5-inch driver, and it’s mostly just the mid-bass and upper-bass sounds that tend to come out, albeit a little mild.
Mid-range is mostly what you’ll hear, as there’s decent coverage and timbre for vocal sounds. The sound, however, diminishes as it goes from the high mids to the treble range.
One of the big drawbacks of down-firing speakers is that the upper frequencies are smoothed out after being fired down. There is an inverted cone to spread the sound in every direction, but higher frequencies tend to be very directional and lose their impact if you don’t shoot directly at the listener.
To make up for this lack of high-end performance, you have to make judicious use of the treble control in the Google Home EQ settings. I had to get it close enough to max to bring some treble energy back into the mix and even then it seems like only a small portion of the treble range has been boosted. However, it has a positive impact overall and it would have been nice if the speaker had just been shipped with this preset pre-applied.
Once set up correctly, the sound is good enough for a small room. Every now and then you get some bass energy, the vocals have a good tonality, and the highs are adequately bright albeit a bit erratic. For the indiscriminate user, it might even pass for good sound quality.
Microphone performance was also adequate. The issues I faced were mostly about the Google Assistant being a klutz rather than any problem with the device itself. The speaker gradually loses its ability to hear you as the volume level increases, but you can still speak normally up to 50% of the volume and be heard. And 50% is still quite noisy for a small to medium sized room.
Conclusion
The Xiaomi Smart Speaker IR Control is priced at INR 5999 ($ 75), although it usually retails for INR 4999 ($ 62). For that price, it competes with the Google Home Mini and Echo Dot. It definitely sounds better than both of them even though it doesn’t look that good. Amazon, however, has the Echo Show 5 for a little longer and has a full 5.5-inch touchscreen, which adds a lot of value.
None of these other devices can do the IR control trick that the Xiaomi speaker can do, so if you want something that can or just a smart speaker for pure audio use, the Xiaomi Smart Speaker is a great choice in that range. price. Otherwise, the Echo Show 5 is the best option for a little extra.
Start a new Thread