Is the Xiaomi smart home screen worth buying? The 999 large screen has been dusty for three months, and in the end, the only thing left is the 329 small panel at the entrance

Last year, I nailed my retired Xiaomi Pad 4 to the living room wall and locked the screen with the Mi Home app as the control screen. At the time, I thought this zero-cost operation was quite clever. After more than a year of use, it started lagging and stopped: the Mi Home app got heavier and heavier with each update, and that old tablet would freeze for two seconds after a single tap; The screen lock function pops up every few days, leaving you confused when your desktop is exposed; A guest wanted to turn on a light, but stared at the screen full of device icons, not daring to make a move. Later, I started picking up a few Xiaomi devices with screens. I borrowed the 999 Smart Home Screen 10 for three months, and installed a 329 smart home panel in the entryway, so I finally figured it out.

to put the conclusion here: a large screen isn't a necessity; a screen is a for "a quick glance on the way," not something to operate right in front of you. By understanding this point, you can save more than half your money.

to clarify first: screens are meant for those on the way

Imagine a scenario: sitting on the sofa wanting to turn off the lights, is it faster to take out your phone, or to get up and walk to the screen by the wall? No need to think, phones are always fast. So any screen placed in the center of the living room and expected to be clicked on is basically doomed to gather dust—my 999-yuan borrowed Smart Home Screen 10 turned dusty just like this: a 10.1-inch large screen with a 5-megapixel camera, and after two months of display, the whole family could count the number of times they clicked on it. The

screen is where people are truly watching—the three 'along the way': the entrance, where you can check the time, weather, and the camera at the entrance 30 seconds before leaving; At the bedside, if you don't want to touch your phone before sleeping, check dozens of device statuses on one screen and then say goodnight with one click; At the kitchen entrance, with dough stains on your hands, raise your elbow to tap the scene button—it's quieter than shouting through the speaker (you wouldn't dare to shout when your child is taking a nap). If the position is wrong, the screen is just a photo frame on the wall; If the placement is right, the 329 small panel can be used for a long time.

from 329 to 2499, the Mijia screen device aligns with a single table

Xiaomi's product line has a chaotic name: smart home screen, smart home panel, and smart central control screen, so many people can't tell at first glance. I combined the specifications I touched and verified into a table:

The most counterintuitive line in this chart is the 329 one. The 86-box panel screen is small and has few functions, but it's the only one that fits into your existing switch base box—no drilling or wiring, just changing the panel and it's already on the wall. When I tried it, its role was especially pure: a physical scene button that anyone could press without waking up or taking out their phone. When the wife pushes the stroller out, she taps her elbow to "leave home," and the lights and air conditioning turn off—this is more practical than taking out your phone and ordering a three-tier menu.

having a screen doesn't mean having a gateway; you still need to fix the Zigbee barrier

This is the most common pitfall before buying a screen. Mijia officially lists the Smart Home Screen 10 and Screen 11 under the "Central Gateway" category, so many people immediately assume that buying a screen and all the whole house devices are managed by it. I opened up my own account and reviewed it: these devices with screens have built-in Bluetooth Mesh gateways, so the Bluetooth bulb and Bluetooth thermo-hygrometer are fine; But the stack of Zigbee sensors at home—doors, windows, human devices, water floods—can't handle any of them, and they have exactly the same problem as the central gateway. I've written about this in this test of the central gateway.

so my current division of labor is like this: the brain acts as the central gateway, Zigbee sub-devices are registered under the multi-mode gateway as slave gateways, and I reconcile these in the on Bluetooth gateway; The 86-box panel in the entryway is a pure control terminal, not competing for the central hub's work; The living room speaker Pro continues to manage voice control. Each of the four things does its own thing, no one is superfluous. If you place an order with the idea of "one screen solves everything," you should know Zigbee still owes you on the day you receive the order.

the standard 369 central control screen from November 2025 is somewhat interesting, with a built-in Mesh gateway, following the "screen leads brain" approach. For small apartments with few devices, one screen plus a multi-mode gateway can really hold the business. However, the crowdfunding price looks appealing, but whether you can buy separately from the retail price and actual purchase is worth asking customer service before placing an order.

the night the internet was cut off, the screen went blind before the speakers

Last year, when the local fiber optic cable was dug up, I checked every device at home and recorded the performance of the devices with screens: the broadband was cut off, but the screen stayed on, and the local linkage system ran—the door lock was open, the entrance light was still on, because this logic runs on the central hub and runs on the local area network. But the cards on the screen that need cloud service turned gray: the camera image rotated, the weather didn't refresh, and buttons that didn't respond after two taps started to increase. I've written the details in the of the offline test article.

there's an even more thorough situation to remind you: the screen itself is a WiFi device. If the router died, the speaker could at least respond locally, and the screen would brick completely—hanging on the wall with a dark face, even more frustrating than the speaker being mute. So if your home network experiences frequent issues, first link scenarios this system runs steadily, then consider pinning the screen to the wall, making sure the order is not reversed.

three pitfalls before installing on the wall: bottom box, neutral wire, which wall to install on

86 box panel sounds nice, but I've stepped through three pitfalls for you during installation. First, the depth of the bottom box. The shallow bottom boxes of old houses from the 1980s have screen panels that are a bit thicker than regular switches, and when you stuff them in, the edge of the panel sticks out—ugly. The second is the neutral wire. Panels with screens consume more electricity than ordinary smart switches. In old houses, the switch box usually only has live wires. The single-fire power supply system even had lawsuits about "dim light at night" on smart lights. I wrote about the principle in this smart lighting —before ordering, just take a photo of your home bottom box and send it to customer service to ask if the box can fit. It's more reliable than guessing on your own. The third pitfall is the least valuable and easiest to go wrong with: which wall to install. Remember the principle of taking the right route: the entryway is within reach, the bedside is within reach, and the kitchen entrance is a closed-eye spot; The wall in the center of the living room is reserved for you to hang paintings.

By the way, if you have a retired tablet on hand, don't rush to buy a screen. I wrote about the gains and losses of using an old tablet as a control screen in the article the old tablet reemployment . Zero-cost solutions can hold up for a while, but they fail because the old system can't install the new app and doesn't have physical scene buttons—try it first, and if those two hit your mark, then it's not too late to spend money.

four types of people buy with their eyes closed, three types save money

I've gathered everyone around me who has bought these screens and have taken it personally:

My own outcome: the 999 yuan big screen was returned to a friend, the 329 panel in the entryway was restored, and the iPad mini 2 continued to serve as an electronic photo frame in the entryway. After a year of use, all its job was to go out in the morning to take a look, my wife would bump her elbow before leaving home, and my mom would just press without learning. Just these three things are worth 329. If you ask it to do more, it really won't.