Amazon Fire TV Stick vs Xiaomi Mi Box: A Comparison

What's the “go-to” budget digital media player for digital signage? We get asked this question often. There are so many great hardware choices that it can be difficult for the average consumer to know which one to choose.

Here, we’ve taken two popular devices—the Amazon Fire TV 4K Stick and the Xiaomi Mi Box S— and compared their pros, cons, and superpowers to give you a rounded view.

Amazon Fire TV Stick

We wrote an in-depth guide to the Amazon Fire TV Stick, including what it is and how it works. The short version is that it's a small HDMI device that, when plugged into a TV or computer, adds processing power, onboard storage, and WiFi capabilities that allow you to install and run apps from Amazon's app store.

Fire TV Sticks sell for around $40 on sites like Amazon (go figure) and in stores like Target, Best Buy, and Currys.

Up until February 2024, the Fire TV Stick was our top pick for digital signage on a budget. Unfortunately, operating system updates that make it harder to jump straight into our ScreenCloud Player mean that we no longer recommend these devices.

UPDATE; As of September 2024 the Amazon Signage Stick is the recommended device for Amazon based digital signage media players.

Xiaomi Mi Box 

The Xiaomi Mi Box is powered by Android TV and makes for a robust and affordable device for digital signage, with great value for money. It can handle demanding content with ease and is easy to cast to your device with Chromecast built-in. This is another excellent Android TV device that runs on the latest Android 11 operating system and comes with a larger app store and a few extra ports.

Which is better for Digital Signage?

The Xiaomi Mi Box S is definitely the better option in 2024. With the Fire TV Stick, you will have to manually open your digital signage player after turning the device on. The Mi Box S, however, lets you enable a setting for jumping straight into your digital signage without any button presses or default home screens. If that distinction doesn't affect your decision, it might come down to whether you're more invested in the Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa ecosystem.

Ultimately, though, the Chromecast with Google TV is our favorite digital media player in this price range. Or, if you are looking into a more enterprise-level device, we suggest our ScreenCloud OS device.

But if you're forced to choose between Amazon and Xiaomi, here’s a digital signage-led comparison.

Setup

Both devices are “plug and play”, which means they’re both easy to install. Plug the device into the HDMI port of your screen, plug in the power adaptor, and connect to WiFi.

As you’d expect, you need an Amazon account to set up the Amazon Fire TV Stick and a Google account to set up the Mi Box S.

Both devices come with voice-controlled remotes, with Alexa powering the Fire TV Stick and Google Assistant on the Mi Box S.

When turning on or rebooting the screen, the Fire TV Stick will always send you to the Amazon home screen, whereas the Mi Box S can skip the Google TV screen and open your digital signage player. Both streaming devices support 4K content. However, since the Mi Box S runs on Android, its app store is noticeably larger than Amazon's. 

Price

Both devices frequently go on sale, so the prices jump around. Generally, the Amazon TV stick ($45) is slightly cheaper than the Mi Box S ($54). If you wait until Prime Day, you can get various discounts on the TV stick, making bulk buying a dream. However, the Amazon Fire TV 4K stick is only available in certain regions.

Power

The Amazon Fire TV Stick runs well with ScreenCloud, but it isn’t as powerful as the Mi Box S, which has a slightly faster processor and more RAM. 

Tech spec of the Mi Box S vs the Amazon Fire TV Stick

Usage

One glaring difference between the two devices is their size and weight. If you don't have much space behind your screen, there may not be room for the Mi Box S.

Secondly, although both streaming devices support HDR content, the Fire TV Stick has a slight advantage in this area as it also supports Dolby Vision.

Which device is for you?

Although we strongly prefer Xiaomi's option, there are plenty of pros and cons based on a variety of use cases:

For further questions on the two devices, contact our knowledgeable team on support@screencloud.com.