The Xiaomi Redmi Smart TV X65 is one of those products meant for buyers looking for luxury at bargain prices. The idea here is simple—strip all vanity features and offer what is absolutely essential to make a good television. Think of it as an affordable yet quality replica of the premium televisions that companies like Samsung, Sony and LG sell in India.
For a 65-inch TV, the price tag is really affordable, if you consider all its features. It has a decent screen, an array of ports and Xiaomi’s own software, which makes it unique in a sea of smart TVs in the market today. But, as far as large screen TVs go, it just doesn’t have the premium feel. As far as picture quality on affordable TVs go, the Redmi TV is definitely amongst the better ones, just not the best. The colours could be more vibrant, and contrast could be better, but you can say that for any 65-inch TV that’s priced below Rs. 60,000. In its defence, though, it supports both Dolby Vision and HDR10 — two formats that are essential for playing modern high dynamic range content — and you have a winner on your hands. There’s even in-built software for motion smoothing, noise reduction and more. We’d recommend turning these features off at least once though, so that you can pick the kind of picture you like, instead of choosing what’s set by default.
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It runs on Google’s AndroidTV platform, which means that even if you don’t want to use Xiaomi’s Patchwall software, you have dependable software to rely on. It supports most every streaming app that you can download from the Google Play Store. You could give Patchwall a shot though, the company has done a decent job of aggregating content from across streaming apps and satellite TV, putting it all into one searchable interface.
It really is difficult to find fault with this television. The price seems to justify almost every corner Xiaomi has cut. But the one thing we perhaps cannot forgive is the lacklustre audio performance. It gets quite loud with its two speakers and 30W audio output, but it’s not very good quality sound, and audio separation between dialogues and background noise was a problem quite a few times. Perhaps this is an improvement Xiaomi can bring in the next generations of this TV.
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But even if you want to nitpick, it’s tough to find a competitor for this TV. TCL, Kodak and Daiwa have options that will offer the same features, but none of them can match Xiaomi’s price. Xiaomi also has a more accessible support network across the country than most of these other brands.
Pros: Extremely affordable, decent picture quality
Cons: Audio output could be better, lacks the premium feel of big TVs
Price: Rs. 57,999
