Xiaomi made a $150 rice cooker that you can control with your phone

Xiaomi's latest smart home product is a $150 rice cooker that you can control with your phone. Dubbed the Mi Induction Heating Pressure Rice Cooker, the product is the first in Xiaomi's Mi Ecosystem sub-brand, which will house all the smart appliances made by the vendor.

Mi Induction Heating Pressure Rice Cooker

Xiaomi dabbles in more than phones and tablets, with the vendor collaborating with other brands to produce water purifiers, air purifiers, blood pressure monitors, and a Segway clone called Ninebot. The Mi Rice Cooker features Wi-Fi, and connects to your phone through a dedicated app. It can also differentiate between 200 kinds of rice, with over 2,450 heating methods available to ensure that the rice is always cooked to perfection:

Users can scan their pack of rice to identify the type of rice, brand and origin, and based on that, the rice cooker can adjust its heating methodology to best suit the type of rice. It currently supports more than 200 brands of rice, and this will be expanded in the future. Users can also set their personal preferences within the app.Mi Induction Heating Pressure Rice Cooker employs a magnetic relief valve to precisely control the pressure inside the rice cooker to 1.2 times the atmospheric pressure, corresponding to an ideal boiling point of water at 105 degree Celsius, which results in more flavourful rice.The cooker uses electromagnetic heating technology for higher thermal efficiency and to ensure even cooking.

There's also a magnetic relief valve that regulates the pressure, and the lining is made out of grey cast iron. PFA powder coating at the bottom prevents the rice sticking to the cooker. The Mi Rice Cooker will go on sale from April 6 for ¥999 ($154), which according to Xiaomi is 40 percent lesser than the price of a high-end cooker.

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Harish Jonnalagadda
Senior Editor - Asia

Harish Jonnalagadda is a Senior Editor overseeing Asia at Android Central. He leads the site's coverage of Chinese phone brands, contributing to reviews, features, and buying guides. He also writes about storage servers, audio products, and the semiconductor industry. Contact him on Twitter at @chunkynerd.