Beyond smartphones and connected home appliances, Xiaomi is expanding its product portfolio with a different kind of communication device. Introducing the Mi Walkie Talkie and it’s priced at only 249CNY which is about RM160.
The Mi Walkie Talkie is a product under the Mi Jia ecosystem and it supports UHF and VHF Bands with 0.5W / 2W power output. According to Xiaomi, that’s good for up to 10 km in sea level environment or up to 6 km in urban areas without obstructions.
For ease of use, it comes with a 160×100 pixels resolution monochrome screen and there’s even an option to connect a number of users onto the same frequency quickly without having to change channels manually.
It also comes with an FM Radio and you can track your other teammates through a mobile app which is connected to the device by Bluetooth. For better clarity, there’s also a built-in digital audio filter which reduces noise and signal interference. In addition, you can always plug in your own headphones as it has a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The Mi Walkie Talkie gets a 2,600mAh battery which can be charged via microUSB. This means you won’t need to carry a separate charger and you can juice it up with any powerbank. A full charge takes 3 hours and that gives you 17 hours of usage and up to 8 days of standby time. Overall, it is 24mm thick and it weighs 200 grams.
While it is unlikely that Xiaomi would sell this walkie talkie officially in Malaysia, you might be able to get one from a grey importer pretty soon. For less than RM200, it’s not bad for casual use and we like the convenience of its microUSB charging port.