Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has introduced a surveillance camera, the “Xiaofang” for RMB 99 (USD 15), launched as part of Xiaomi’s MIJIA smart home ecosystem.
MIJIA introduced the product on Xiaomi’s crowdfunding platform on Tuesday; it has already exceeded its funding target sixteen times over.
Since the Xiaofang is currently the cheapest camera on Xiaomi’s platform, it is worth making a comparison between the Xiaofang and the HERO Session, the cheapest camera made by American camera maker GoPro.
Price
The Xiaofang is a home surveillance camera targeted at ordinary consumers, with a price at RMB 99. The GoPro HERO Session is more a professional camera for sports purposes, priced at RMB 1,598. A big price difference, albeit with a markedly different purpose.
Dimensions and weight
As indicated by its name – “Xiaofang” in Chinese implies a “small cube” – the main body of the Xiaofang camera is almost a perfect cube. It has a length of 50 mm, a width of 50 mm, and a height of 56 mm. Its body weight is 100 g.
The HERO Session camera has a smaller body than the Xiaofang; at 74g, it is also lighter.
Other details
The Xiaofang camera has an F2.0 aperture and a field of view (FOV) at 110°. It has infrared night vision with an effective range of nine meters. It can shoot videos with a resolution at 1080P. It can support a microSD card at 64GB, and can be connected to a smartphone by Wi-Fi. It also has a smoke sensor and a loudspeaker.
The GoPro Hero Session can take both 1440P and 1080P videos, and can take pictures with a resolution of eight megapixels. It has a 1000mAh built-in battery. It is waterproof to 10 meters, and it can be connected to a smartphone by Wifi or Bluetooth.
The Xiaofang is manufactured by a MIJIA member company called iHealth Labs Inc.
MIJIA is a brand owned by Xiaomi; often it is used to distinguish Xiaomi products that are manufactured by third parties. Member companies manufacture a variety of Xiaomi products, including air purifiers, power banks, rice cookers, and Mi Bands, as well as the Xiaomi drone that was launched in May.
The first batch of the Xiaofang cameras will be delivered to consumers on November 22.
(Top photo from Home.mi.com)
