Xiaomi has just presented its new Q2 television, successor to the rather good Mi TV Q1. Available in 50, 55 or 65 inch versions, it features an Ultra HD LCD Qled panel with quantum box which improves the coverage of the colorimetric space, and therefore displays a greater number of colors. The manufacturer thus announces a coverage of 92% of the DCI-P3 colorimetric space mainly used in cinema and in series. That’s fine, but high-end Qled models from Samsung (QE65QN95B) and TCL (65C835) cover almost 100% of that space, as do Oled and QD-Oled TVs.
More surprisingly, while the Xiaomi Mi TV Q1 was equipped with a Full Led backlighting system with 192 zones (albeit with a limited peak in brightness), the manufacturer does not communicate on the nature of the Q2’s backlighting system, which is usually not a good sign. We therefore expect a fairly basic Direct LED type backlighting system with a brightness limited to 300 or 400 cd/m², and consequently a fairly limited HDR dynamic range.
The panel retains a frequency of 50/60 Hz while the main competitors, such as TCL with its C735 and C835 models, now offer 120 Hz, as does Philips on its The One television (PUS8807). The 120 Hz frequency is far from essential, but constitutes a guarantee of quality concerning the reactivity of the panel and allows the insertion of black images between each image at 60 Hz in order to improve the sharpness of moving objects.
The novelty on this model is the integration of Dolby Vision IQ, a technology which adapts the rendering of the image according to the ambient lighting thanks to a light sensor. To put it simply, dark areas will be overexposed in order to see details in daylight. At night, on the other hand, we keep the optimal settings that respect the fidelity of the image. This mode is identical to the Filmmaker with Intelligent Sensing mode that we tested on the Panasonic HZ1000.
For the rest, this television is close to what the Q1 offers. The connection consists of three HDMI inputs, including one HDMI 2.1 compatible, two USB ports, one Ethernet port, one optical digital audio output, one composite input, one PCMCIA port (CI+ Common Interface), one rake antenna connector, one satellite connector and headphone output. It has a DVB-T/T2 (TNT), DVB-S/S2 (satellite) and DVB-C (cable) tuner and embeds wifi 802.11a/b/g/n, as well as Bluetooth 5.0 for connection with a wireless audio device (headphones or speaker).
We find the Google TV system with a Cortex A55 processor, a Mali G52 MC1 GPU, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage. This model also includes two microphones that allow the use of the Google Assistant without touching the remote control. Just pronounce “Okay Google” to wake up the TV and ask it all sorts of things: “What’s the weather like?”, “Launch Netflix”, “Put Digital on Youtube”, etc. As for the audio system, you have to make do with two 15 W speakers with support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
The Xiaomi TV Q2 television is already available on the brand’s store in 50, 55 and 65 inch versions at the respective prices of 699, 799 and 899 €, with a 50 € discount until October 7. By way of comparison, the TCL 55C835 with its 120 Hz panel, HDMI 2.1 connectivity and its Mini-LED backlighting system that can reach 1000 cd/m² is currently sold for around €1000 with a reimbursement offer of €150, i.e. a price of 850 € which seems an excellent quality/price ratio.
The 65-inch model (TCL 65C835), sold for €1,400 with an ODR of €150 as well, is a little less interesting. The TCL C735 with its 120 Hz panel and a basic Direct LED backlighting system benefits from a more attractive price. This model will be tested during the month of October.