On July 26, 2017, millet It released its first smart AI speaker - Xiaomi AI speaker. Xiaomi AI speaker Inheriting the consistent style of Xiaomi family products, the ultra-low price of 299 yuan makes the entire Chinese AI speaker market terrified. You should know that even if this is not an AI speaker, the market price of ordinary speakers with such sound quality and volume is 300~500 yuan. The emergence of Xiaomi AI speakers has a great impact on the domestic smart speaker market.
For the overseas market, Amazon Echo occupies the vast majority of the market share, while the later Google Home Series AI speakers rely on Google's ecological software and hardware integration capabilities and a large Google user base, both of which are the dominant players in the AI speaker field. Unfortunately, although Amazon and Google are powerful, they have no intention of entering the Chinese market for some irresistible reasons. For the domestic smart home market, which is in the white hot stage, no one wants to let go of AI speakers, and the most feared opponent is Xiaomi.
The Mijia ecological chain under Xiaomi has a huge and almost complete smart home product line;
Xiaomi has a strong ability to integrate software and hardware;
Xiaomi has a huge user base and strong online channels;
Xiaomi has huge financial support;
We Love to play computer games At present, we also have this Xiaomi AI speaker. Let's see what kind of intelligent experience this Xiaomi AI speaker, which costs only 299 yuan, can give us.
appearance
Xiaomi AI speakers are packaged in boxes. The black outer package is a white Xiaomi AI speaker inside. After opening the outer package, there is a Xiaomi AI speaker body, a charger and a product manual inside.
Xiaomi AI speakers inherit the consistent simplicity style of Xiaomi family products, and the color is also the white that Xiaomi has always used most, and the speaker only has a white color. Xiaomi AI speakers adopt the columnar design of most AI speakers. The outer circle of the speaker top is a ring LED light, equipped with several conventional touch buttons, and the inner circle is a ring touch panel (for volume adjustment). At the same time, six ring microphones for radio reception are also built in.
The bottom of Xiaomi AI speaker is the sound outlet of the speaker. Inside is a passive speaker equipped with two 33CM ² loudspeakers. There is also an annular diaphragm device at the bottom, which can bring a 360 ° annular sound field. It is worth mentioning that the Xiaomi AI speaker has no built-in power supply, and it must be connected to the power cord for use.
Sound quality&matching
Xiaomi's smart products have always been fond of white porn. You will find that most of Xiaomi's smart products use white as the main color, especially the smart home products.
For technology products, white can be said to be a versatile color match. Although it can not appear distinctive, different and unique, it is at least elegant. Especially for smart home products, white can give users a sense of comfort and relaxation. Although Xiaomi AI speaker does not have outstanding design and distinctive color, it is also such a simple white shape that makes it harmonious and natural in a variety of different use scenarios.
As an AI speaker, intelligence is important, but we need to know that an AI speaker has one major premise: first, it must be a speaker. Although Xiaomi also launched Xiaomi earphones, we have to admit that Xiaomi's audio equipment has no say in the whole audio market. Fortunately, the Xiaomi AI speaker is not a professional speaker, and most users who buy it are also attracted by "intelligence", that is, as long as it can achieve the same sound effect as the speakers at the same price in the market, it will basically meet the needs of user groups.
There are two very important and basic parameters for the speaker, one is the size of the box and the other is the size of the speaker unit. The external volume of Xiaomi AI speakers is 221.6mm x 88mm x 88mm, so the volume can produce shocking sound quality, and the two 33CM ² passive speaker units are worth the price of the speakers at this price.
How about the sound quality of Xiaomi AI speakers? Here the author（ Mo Changyou ）Use what I wrote before Sony SRS-XB3 To compare with Xiaomi AI speaker, this Sony wireless speaker costs 999 yuan. The overall effect of Xiaomi AI speakers is between Sony SRS-XB3 without EXTRA BASS and Sony SRS-XB3 with EXTRA BASS. In short, its sound quality is absolutely worthy of its 299 yuan price, Even if Xiaomi AI speaker does not have intelligent AI function, it is worth more than 299 yuan by sound alone.
intelligence
At the press conference of Xiaomi AI speakers, Xiaomi officially said that it used the voice recognition technology of NUANCE, SPICH and Sogou; TTS technology is provided by Orion Star; Array microphone technology is supported by sound intelligence technology; That is to say, Xiaomi AI speakers mainly integrate various technologies, which is also the practice of most AI speakers in China at present. For example, Jingdong Dingdong speakers use the voice recognition technology of iFLYTEK.
Thanks to Xiaomi's powerful smart home ecological chain, Xiaomi AI speakers are currently rich in controllable smart home devices. In addition to Xiaomi's own home, it also supports Philips yeelight、 Osk and other brands, and more devices will be added to the support list later.
The official app of Xiaomi AI speakers is called Xiaomi AI. Its functions are mainly divided into three parts: music playing, voice conversation recording, and smart home configuration. Xiaomi AI App can record the chat content between users and Xiaomi AI speakers every time. By viewing the chat record, we can clearly understand whether Xiaomi AI speakers are "wrongly heard" or "wrongly answered".
use:
In terms of speech recognition, Xiaomi AI speakers need to wake up each time with the voice command "Xiaoai classmate";
Support many Mijia smart home devices and Xiaomi smart home devices, and more devices will be connected in the future;
Function:
Real time recording of voice conversation and music on demand through App connection;
Support the control of smart home products within the support range through voice operated switches (see the diagram for the list of supported products);
Support weather query, stock, alarm clock adjustment, reminder, translation, music play, news play, encyclopedia Q&A, joke telling and other functions;
Experience:
In the actual test, Xiaomi AI speakers can wake up through the normal speaking volume within a radius of 3 meters. The simple voice operations such as setting the alarm clock, setting the schedule, checking the weather/stock, etc. can be completed smoothly, and the response time is not too long.
Xiao'ai supports simple semantic recognition. For example, when you ask "Xiao'ai, what's the weather like today", then continue to ask "Xiao'ai, what's tomorrow?" and then continue to ask "Xiao'ai, what's the day after tomorrow?" Xiao'ai can accurately recognize that you are asking Tianqi, and the second and third questions are related to the first question, Xiaoai will normally answer the weather conditions of your three days separately.
In terms of music resources, Tang Mu (the general manager of Xiaomi Exploration Laboratory), the head of Xiaomi AI speakers, said in an interview that Xiaomi AI speakers had not been able to negotiate cooperation with QQ Music when they were priced and listed. At present, only the free music library of QQ Music can be used. However, from our actual experience, Xiaomi AI speakers are not only free music that supports QQ music until they are published, Some paid music resources of QQ music can also be played.
summary
In fact, after using it for a period of time, the author also thinks that smart speakers are really not useful at present:
Your home may not have matching smart products;
Its music library may not have the music you need;
It takes a process to adapt to the voice operation of speakers;
But as the author said above, Xiaomi AI speakers are so cheap that you can think that its "intelligence" is free. In fact, it is reasonable to buy Xiaomi's Bluetooth speakers for 299 yuan. In fact, not only Xiaomi AI speakers, but also domestic smart speakers on the market have the above problems. "Intelligence" is hardly the main reason for you to buy such products. The domestic market environment determines that most of the current application scenarios of smart speakers are still used as a speaker, not as a smart home central controller, nor as an AI voice assistant.
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