By will-buy
Xiaomi has launched a new smart speaker only at India made to make non-smart home devices area of the smart home ecosystem through infrared. The Xiaomi Smart Speaker IR Control release marks china tech giant’s eighth anniversary in India, and almost two years after debuting its first smart speaker with Google Assistant in India.
Smarter Speaker
As with other international Xiaomi smart speakers, the Xiaomi Smart Speaker IR Control doesn’t use the company’s Xiao AI voice assistant, expanding beyond its Chinese-only linguistic limitation. The IR sensors are the standout feature from the new device, which is otherwise a technologically upgraded form of the Mi Smart Speaker from 2023 having a 1.5-inch full-range speaker, two microphones as well as an LED clock display. The four IR sensors let the smart speaker to bridge the space between older devices without a cloud connection and also the newer smart device ecosystem. Users can ask Google Assistant to show on or off televisions, air conditioning units, or other devices that always provide an IR remote control, making them a restricted a part of a smart home setup. The $75 IR Control can connect with others for simultaneous sound or two can be arranged for stereo audio. The smart speaker includes Chromecast support as well.
“With this smart speaker, you forget about have to worry about finding remotes. The smartness in the speaker also originates from this IR, that is infrared, remote functionality which enables you to take control of your non-smart handheld remote control devices through the speaker. The speaker has four IR sensors positioned at the top corners for full 360-degree coverage and that means you can now control any non-smart device everywhere in your house with only one single command,” Xiaomi India senior marketing manager Sandeep Sarma explained in a video introducing the device. “You can include all of your traditional home devices which have the IR sensor and start using through the Xiaomi smart speaker. The IR functionality will be suitable for all your IR-enabled devices.”
Adding IR control to some smart speaker fits with some of Xiaomi’s other smart device experiments, like a mouse with the XiaoAI voice assistant built in a partnership with Logitech. The company also sells a Nintendo Game Boy lookalike mobile device for kids known as the Xiaomi Al Ping Q, a voice-enabled electric scooter for kids, along with a voice-controlled cyberdog.
