I know I haven’t written about it on this blog but, I have an android TV box. Precisely Xiaomi MI Box. I got it from Gearbest and I’ve been using it for quite some time now. Precisely about 4 months or so. And till date, it is still working perfectly fine.
A couple of days back, the Android TV Box received the Android 8 Oreo update. This is something I have been expecting, sorta.
I did watch the video where the guys at Google talked about the new features coming to Android TV and for that reason, I was anticipating.
You know that feeling of having to test something new? Yeaaaaah!
Anyway, free days back, while the Xiaomi MI Box Android TV was turned on, it suddenly started making preparations for an update. How? The TV box is always connected to a WiFi network in the house. Hence, I’m guessing it automatically made the update. Heck! Let’s put that in a heading.
How To Upgrade XIAOMI MI Box Android TV To Android 8 Oreo
As earlier mentioned, the update spring up on mine without having to force it. However, a steady internet connection is needed.
To further explain this for your understanding, here is how to upgrade your Xiaomi MI Box Android TV to Android 8 Oreo.
- First, make sure your Xiaomi Android TV Box is connected to a steady and equally fast internet connection. This is usually via WiFi.
- On the Xiaomi android TV box, go to Settings
- Select About
- Select System Update.
- Under the system update window, select Check for update.
If there is an update for your TV box, this will pop up. If otherwise, you may have to be patient or perhaps, reboot.
Bare in mind, this is exclusively to Xiaomi Android TV Boxes. If you happen to use a different TV box, this may not be case.
What’s New With Android 8 Oreo OS On Xiaomi Android TV Box?
Having discussed how to upgrade your Android TV Box to Android 8 Oreo update, let’s discuss what’s new.
This is solely based on the new features I can clearly find on mine.
Redesigned Home Menu UI
OH yes! The Android 8 Oreo update for android TV boxes comes with a redesigned home screen.
This is clearly different from what it used to be.
To put this in prospect, it went from this;
To this;
Which do you think is better?
As you can see the home screen has been redesigned. You have apps and files displayed in segments. They call it, channels.
More like, additional details, files or videos being presented in-line with the particular app and service.
No more recommended app session. However, there is recommended videos which of course, was present in the former.
Under the apps session, is a few apps displayed. These apps of course, are already apps installed on your drive. You can choose to add more apps to this segment by selecting the + option.
The play next session is basically tailored to give you an insight on movies and TV shows you left off. From this session, you can simply continue watching those movies. You can also add programs directly by long-pressing on a movie or TV show and selecting “Add to Play Next”.
You can further customize the channels displayed on the homepage by scrolling to the end of the page and selecting customize channels.
Google Assistant
Oh yes, Google assistant AI has been incorporated into Android TV Box.
The Xiaomi MI Box does have voice feature embeded. By voice features, I mean, being able to make voice searches. This is something I have come to love and works accurately 85% of the time.
With Google Assistant, the whole experience becomes better. You can simply say, Play a YouTube video, search for funny shows, what’s the weather and the AI will present a feedback.
This is something I am still yet to fully experiment with though.
Settings
The settings placement has been changed. Initially, on the home page, you would need to scroll down to the end of the page to access the settings.
Now, it’s positioned at the right side of the homepage. Just scroll to the right side of the page, select the gear icon and the settings will be displayed.
This takes a small session of the home page. Very different from the former which opens a new window containing settings.
Wrapping up
There is a whole lot more features Android 8 Oreo brings to the table on the Xiaomi MI Box. However, these are the ones I could notice right out of the bat.
Did I also mention there is a notification tab now? That’s not something I saw on the former.
Hopefully as time goes on, if I discover more new features worth mentioning, I will update this post accordingly.
Until then, hope you have a much better experience using your Xiaomi MI Box device. In subsequent posts, I will talk on more technical abilities on the MI Box including how to install apps from other sources.
