A TRANSPARENT TV from Xiaomi FOR 7000 USD

It’s not a projector, it’s not special effects, this is a transparent television, the Xiaomi Mi TV Lux Transparent Edition. This is the world’s first commercially available transparent 4K TV and it’s in Singapore, so let’s talk about it.

They’re not being sold here in Singapore at this time. There are only two sets available here and they will only be showcased at retail locations. This TV is sold exclusively in China right now, so it’s a privilege to get a first look at this.

Natively, everything is in Mandarin and there is the Mi Stick that is attached to this so you do get the sort of the whole Google TV/Android TV experience on this. We’ll talk a little bit about the specs and all that great stuff, but this is more of a first look at some really cool technology we’ve never seen before.

Xiaomi is the first to bring out the commercially available transparent TV in 4K. First off, it’s 55 inches and it only comes in one size. It’s a 4K 120Hz refresh rate display so you can game on this if you got a PS5 or Xbox. You’ve got an assortment of HDMI plugs at the back of it, USB 2.0 plugs as well as optical for your audio interfaces. You’ve got pretty much everything here, but it does have to be attached to the base where the speaker is at. It is sort of almost a 360-degree speaker in a way, so this is really going to give you a nice ambient sound around your home or your room, wherever you have it placed.

The display is very, very thin but it’s beautifully made, and you know, when we first heard about a transparent TV, I thought: “Okay, this is going to be really low resolution. The picture quality is not going to be that good. The viewing angles are going to be really limited.” But it’s not the case, I found the viewing angles to be really impressive and it’s still sharp, still clear, the colours look vibrant, everything looks as it’s supposed to, so Xiaomi’s done a tremendous job in terms of the technology, the viewing angles and the overall resolution with this television.

This is going to be really equivalent to a lot of 4k TVs we see on the market, but this does come at a premium. We’ve heard it could cost somewhere around S$10,000, but again, it’s a transparent television, it’s 4K, it’s 55 inches. That’s actually not a bad price when you consider the technology that’s behind this.

So what’s cool about this TV is that when you’re watching the TV, you really don’t see what’s behind it. You can focus on what’s behind it, of course, but it’s not like the transparency really bothers you. It just kind of goes away, so depending on where you’re going to put a TV like this, that will make a big difference. I wouldn’t put it against the wall, I would put it on an island table because you want to show this off. This is a TV that when people come to your home or to your office, they’ll go: “wow, that’s transparent.”

It’s a TV that looks wicked and it’s that kind of thing that makes you go, yeah, that’s where the future is going with these things. Think about it, this is proof of concept for retail shops where the glass in a retail shop can now be a television set for all your ads or your promo material or anything that you want to showcase. You can highlight all the latest deals and all the latest collections and it can just stream on the display and it’s transparent so it doesn’t impede on the kind of experience going into a restaurant or shop.

It’s definitely cool to see a concept TV like this, but here’s to hoping Xiaomi decides to bring this to the masses here in Singapore.

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Content by Bobby Tonelli