The Xiaomi Mi Box S is now getting its Android 9 Pie update. The Mi Box S is an Android TV player that’s available to buy without having to commit to any lengthy contracts or opt in to specific services. It is currently one of the cheapest ways to get started with streaming through the Android TV platform.
The Mi Box S launched in 2019 and is the latest version of the Mi Box to go on sale in the U.S. The big selling point with the device is the price as it retails for around $60 although it can often be found online for much cheaper than that. It’s downside is that it’s not the best performing or supported of streaming players. Regular updates is a prime example of this and especially when it comes to major upgrades. For example, in spite of the Mi Box now getting its Android 9 Pie upgrade, the NVIDIA SHIELD received the same upgrade mid-way through last year.
Technically, the Mi Box S Android 9 Pie upgrade has been available for months to select users as a beta. However, the upgrade is now rolling out to all Mi Box S owners naturally and as a stable update. Those who have turned on their device in the past twenty-four hours might have already seen the update prompt, while others still might have to wait for it to be delivered. The update itself weighs in at more than 600 MB.
What does Android 9 Pie bring to the Mi Box S?
From the user perspective, this upgrade does not bring any massive changes. That is, ones the user will notice. Android 9 Pie cosmetically follows on from Android 8 Oreo and so the general interface and the way the user navigates will remain unchanged.
What Android 9 Pie does bring to Android TV is a number of important performance and security improvements. Therefore, the system is expected to run and work better after upgrading. However, be warned some users are already running into varying issues following the upgrade.
Arguably, the biggest and most useful change from the user perspective is the addition of Amazon Prime Video support. Prime Video was largely missing from the Android TV platform up until last year when Amazon and Google announced their intention to better support each other’s features, services and products. Since then Prime Video has started to become available on more Android TV devices, although it is still missing from some.
This upgrade adds Prime Video as a preinstalled app on the Xiaomi Mi Box S.
Source: Reddit
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