Xiaomi TV P1E 55 review: what is Xiaomi’s most affordable Ultra HD TV worth?

This TV uses a VA (Vertical Alignment) type LCD panel. This display technology provides good contrast by effectively blocking the backlight; in return, the viewing angles are narrower than those of an LCD IPS or OLED television. This Xiaomi TV shows a brightness loss of 75% at 45°, slightly more than on other VA TVs – which often show a decrease of around 70%. Only very high-end models equipped with an optical filter (Samsung QE65QN95A True Sony XR-75Z9J) manage to improve the viewing angles of a VA panel. In any case, it’s a long way from what OLED technology offers and the 25% variation at 45°.

The Xiaomi P1E displays an average image. In film mode the colors cannot be considered as accurate, but the drift is still limited (mean delta E measured at 3.7). Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the color temperature, which with an average of more than 11,000 K – very far from the 6,500 K reference – results in a very cold image with a strong blue pull. The gamma curve is also unstable with hidden dark grays and overexposed light grays.

The scaling engine allows you to resize SD, HD and Full HD content to display correctly on this Ultra HD panel. This engine is quite basic and gives a fairly blurry and very smooth image. Fortunately, it doesn’t distort the original source and limits artifacts. On the motion compensation side, the engine does its best to limit shocks, but in the absence of a 100 Hz panel it cannot improve sharpness. The 50 Hz prevents the insertion of black images via backlight scanning. The various motion compensation modes (called “motion smoothing”) are not really effective. In addition, the slightest change in the setting causes the TV to switch to “custom” mode, losing the near-accurate colors of movie mode.

The Xiaomi P1E 55 is compatible with HDR10 and HLG signals. It ignores formats that support dynamic metadata (HDR10+ and Dolby Vision), which are still very useful on entry-level TVs.

As with all entry-level televisions, the image quality in HDR is very poor; the error of a peak of brightness is limited to 320 cd / m² resulting in the image due to weak dynamics between the zones that are supposed to be very bright and the dark zones. This TV also takes some liberties with respect to following the reference EOTF curve (in yellow), as it displays an image that is systematically less bright than requested. When the signal requires a brightness of 100 cd/m², the television is satisfied with a brightness of 60 cd/m². We lose a lot of detail as a result and the whole is generally underexposed, which is a shame for an HDR image. That’s a shame, because with an average Delta E of 4.2, the colors are respected quite well, which is quite rare on entry-level HDR TVs.

In terms of colorimetric coverage, it is again a long way from high-end models and even its direct mid-range competitors. The Xiaomi P1E is content to cover 51% of the Rec.2020 color space and 69% of the DCI-P3, the space mainly used by cinema and series. In comparison, the TCL 55C725 shows 69% of the nuances of the Rec.2020 space and 86% of those of the DCI-P3.

The remanence time measured at 19 ms is far from that of the best LCDs on the market, such as the Samsung QE65Q85R and Sony KD-75XG9505 they go to 11 ms. This very high afterglow time is reflected in the image by a trail behind moving objects (effect ghost images†

The display delay is no better. The 53ms translates to just over three frames behind the source (at 60Hz), making the TV incompatible with playing competing network video games. The solo video game remains practically doable.

By setting the color temperature to “Warm”, the TV will display near-accurate colors in game mode (average Delta E of 4.2). However, the gamut remains erratic and the color temperature is still too high (over 11,000 K).

Ultimately, this TV is not a good playmate.

This TV has a fairly classic design, matte, without a false note. The perimeter is a fairly well-finished black plastic, while the feet are plastic.

The bezel around the screen isn’t particularly thin, but it’s far from chunky. More interestingly, the finishes are good for a TV in this price range, and the assembly is well done.

With its Direct-Led backlighting system, the Xiaomi TV P1E 55 isn’t exactly thin. The size of the TV cabinet is linked to that of the legs. Count on a depth of 26.7 cm. This television is therefore perfectly at ease on our reference TV cabinet (160 x 40 cm).

The back is very classic. The black plastic is basic. There is the power supply on the left and the connectors on the right, down and to the side. The TV is compatible with VESA 300 x 300 mm wall mounts.

The connection consists of three HDMI 2.0b inputs (HDCP 2.2 and HDR), three USB 2.0 ports, an optical digital audio output, a composite input, an Ethernet port, a headphone output, a PCMCIA (Common Interface CI+) port , as well as the TNT/cable and satellite antenna connections. This model features a DVB-T/T2/C/S/S2 tuner, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

The Xiaomi TV P1E 55 uses Android TV in version 9.0, but uses the new Android 11 interface with a collection of personalized content and recommendations. The Android TV system is one of the most complete on the market and especially the one that offers the most applications. In addition, the integrated Chromecast makes it possible to receive and display a video stream sent from a smartphone, tablet or computer. Surprisingly, the system is fluid on this entry-level TV, which is far from the case for all products in this price range. It now remains to be seen if the fluidity will still be real over time, especially with only 8GB of storage and 2GB of RAM.

The Xiaomi P1E also has an internal overlay that should make it easier to use. This interface is accessible via the button at the bottom left of the navigation pad, which is not necessarily practical, as this location is usually reserved for the “Back” button. Dealing with mistakes is common and it is often painful. The PatchWall interface highlights the different sources – a good point – and some applications.

As with all Android TVs, the first boot takes longer. Here it takes about 43 s. Fortunately, the TV wakes up in 6s, while on standby it consumes less than 1W. Anyway, that’s a lot longer than Samsung’s Tizen or LG webOS systems, which boot in less than 5 seconds. Finally, as is often the case, standby is instantaneous.

Despite the affordable price, this television comes with a complete remote control with microphone. It is very pleasant to use with its very quiet rubber buttons and especially its integrated microphone, essential to make the most of the connected functions, especially for performing searches on YouTube or via Google Assistant. The weak point lies in the location of the “Back” button, which has been replaced by a shortcut to the PatchWall interface which leads to some processing errors.