Search your favourite online store for TV accessories and spend the next hour looking through countless upgrades and accessories that differ wildly in price, usefulness, complexity and even sanity. 

On the more normal side of things you may find a sound bar, a wall mount or rechargeable remote batteries. All fairly standard stuff that may actually be useful depending on your needs. But then you look a bit closer and find the more absurd. Think of the giant screen protectors that essentially add a huge pane of glass and plastic to your TV for the sake of safety, or the universal remote which has been outclassed by phones and tablets. 

Then somewhere in the middle are accessories whose usefulness is debatable. These are items like lighting which fill up the space between the TV and the wall. Some are purely decorative while others plug into the TV to change the lighting depending on the scene. No matter the complexity many simply find this annoying strobing light that only distracts from what you’re actually watching. 

Rising from this sea of guff is tech giant Xiaomi which has not only produced the easiest way to upgrade your TV, but the company is now also selling this upgrade in South Africa for much less than you may be expecting. 

This upgrade is a total reinvention of your TV by way of the Mi TV Stick or the Xiaomi TV Box S (2^nd Gen). Both go about their tasks in different ways, but both are essentially replacement upgrades for the “brain” of your TV. Simply plug either of these magic little boxes into your TV – no matter its age, make or format – and you are instantly upgraded to a modern generation entertainment platform powered by Android TV and packed with features. 

The Xiaomi TV Box S (2^nd Gen) is what you want for 4K entertainment as this powerful, but compact, box can stream just about anything no matter the resolution. If you’ve had experience with lower power Android devices in the past, especially in cheaper TVs, you may find them lagging and struggling to keep up with the task of pushing out the huge resolution of 4K, even though these lesser options supposedly support it. 

The Xiaomi TV Box S (2^nd Gen) is packing a powerful quad-core CPU with 2GB of RAM and an 8GB ROM, more than enough to handle your favourite movies, TVs and more at the highest resolution. If you’ve already become accustomed to 4K then sit back and experience even more with Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Both bring a new dimension to the viewing party that has to be seen in person to properly appreciate. 

Still enjoying content at 1080p, or do you want something so small you can slip it in your pocket and take it with you? Pick up the Mi TV Stick. At around the size of a USB thumb drive, the Mi TV Stick is a proper streaming computer in a tiny package that can handle anything you throw at it. Simply plug this tiny device into the HDMI port of your TV (or any display, really) and get to enjoying your favourite content, no matter where it’s from. 

Both the Xiaomi TV Box S (2^nd Gen) and the Mi TV Stick support great features such as Google Assistant, Smart Cast, voice control and apps from the Google Play Store. Through the Google Play Store you can enjoy all the streaming apps natively, so you are not restricted at all. Some software that comes pre-packaged on stock TVs may have to wait for updates to streaming apps or even for a streaming app to be created in the first place, but the wide support of Android means that you’re never left without your favourite content. 

And if that content is already on your phone or tablet, there’s once again no stress. Chromecast is built in so you can stream anything from your mobile device right onto your TV. If you’re already running your life from your mobile device this gives you another way to wirelessly enjoy your content when you want it, all without breaking out cables or worrying about transferring content. We also love this feature for sharing pictures and videos that we have made, or to better enjoy mobile-only content on a bigger screen. 

No matter if you go with the Xiaomi TV Box S (2^nd Gen) or the Mi TV Stick, you will be surprised by just how little you need to pay to completely reinvent your TV and update it to a modern display. 

The Mi TV Stick sells for just R949 while the Xiaomi TV Box S (2^nd Gen) is only R1 199. Both are available right now in South Africa, just in time for the festive season, from Game, HiFi, Incredible Connection, Makro and Takealot. DM