Xiaomi Mi TV Stick is coming to India on August 5. The streaming stick by Xiaomi is based on Android TV and is the company's answer to Amazon Fire TV Stick. The Mi TV Stick was launched in Europe earlier this month and the company is now looking to bring the product to other markets now. It will enable dumb televisions to run Android apps, such as Netflix, YouTube, Google Assistant, and even some games, much like what the Fire TV Stick does.

In the European market, the Mi TV Stick is priced at EUR 39.99, which translates to roughly Rs 3,500. Although the India price will be revealed by the company on August 5, it will be much less than the translated version. Xiaomi recently launched the Mi Box 4K as its Android TV box in India with 4K support for Rs 3,499. Given the Mi TV Stick will not offer 4K display quality, it will be priced much lower. This means it will be a direct competition to the Amazon Fire TV Stick, which sells for Rs 3,999 in India. There is a 4K version for the Fire TV Stick, as well, which sells for Rs 2,000 more at Rs 5,999.

Xiaomi India made the announcement via a tweet earlier in the day while taking a jibe at the Amazon Fire TV Stick. Xiaomi India said: "The fire your TV has been missing" in the caption for the launch teaser. However unreasonable that jibe may sound, the Mi TV Stick will definitely counter the dominant Fire TV Stick in India. And since Mi TV Stick will be integrated with the Android TV ecosystem and Mi Home, it is more likely to use that as a pitch against the Fire TV.

For its specifications, the Mi TV Stick is a dongle-shaped stick that supports the regular HDMI port (female). It can max out at 1080p video resolution, video formats, and standard audio formats. There is no HDR on the stick, which means you will still have to rely on your TV's decoding capabilities for any additional improvement on the picture quality. Moreover, the Mi TV Stick runs Android 9 Pie-based Android TV and, needless to say, you can install nearly all compatible apps on the device and run them on your TV. There will also be a remote control along with it and it will feature a Google Assistant button. There are other hotkeys for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video as well on the remote control.