Let go of your phone with this brand-new Xiaomi gadget, which only costs $40.
By introducing new kinds of connected devices, companies like Xiaomi are demonstrating the enormous potential of the smart home. Now it’s the turn of another device to send your phone into retirement.
We are not talking about sending the mobile phone into retirement, but about the classic telephone that is still adopted in many homes as the best and cheap alternative to talk to anyone. The Xiaomi Smart Camera Video Call Edition is the successor of this same concept, updated to suit the current era; this opens the doors once again to new functions that were not possible until now and that will help us protect our home.
This new device is essentially a tabletop smartphone. It has a built-in 3.5-inch display with a resolution of 320 x 480; thanks to IPS technology, it should provide ideal viewing angles, which is important in a device that will stay in one place, although it is small and light enough to be placed wherever we want, as long as we have a power outlet nearby.
Curiously, the screen is not touch-sensitive since its main function is to display video calls; although it also has a clock mode that displays data such as time, calendar, and weather forecast, it is possible to choose between different screens with different styles, as well as activate the night mode so as not to disturb us while sleeping. As a clock, it also allows you to set different alarms.
Like a smartphone, this device has a front camera, although in this case it is more important. With a resolution of 4 megapixels, it is designed for video calls with family or groups, and its lens with a viewing angle of 131 degrees will allow recording the entire room. The built-in infrared light also stands out, which improves results in low-light conditions, such as at night.
Since the screen is not touch-sensitive, the device has a physical button to answer calls with just one touch; in this way, the operation of the device is simplified as much as possible, which is ideal for the elderly, for example.
It's easy to forget that video calls aren't the main function of this device, which is actually a security camera; it allows us to remotely connect to our mobile phone to see our home at any time and has AI-based functions such as person and sound detection with direct mobile phone alerts. Thanks to HyperOS Connect, the screen can display video from our connected cameras.
The Xiaomi Smart Camera Video Call Edition is available in China for 299 yuan, or about $40; at the moment, the company has not confirmed its launch in the rest of the world.