Even though Xiaomi is most widely known as a smartphone manufacturer, for me it's a fantastic home appliance and electronic accessories maker. They're great value for their price. I've come to own so many of these without even noticing myself:

- A great body weight scale that I use almost everyday, for around 100 yuan (~14 dollars). Has Bluetooth and syncs with your phone. I bought a second one for my mom.

- Four air purifiers. 699 yuan each (~100 dollars). A third or a fourth the price of rivals from traditional home appliance makers. Two for me and two for my mom. They also have a great app that connects them to my phone. These are such great values that my friends and colleagues bought ~10 more in total based on my feedback. Given the terrible smog in Northern China it's no surprise they've been out of stock for weeks this winter.

- One 10,000mAh power brick for my wife. I think it was less than 15 dollars. Many of my friends use Xiaomi's battery pack too.

- Countless cheap Lightning cables.

In addition to these, I'm also planning to buy another two of their products for the coming Chinese New Year:

- A water purifier for 1999 yuan (~290 usd). Good design that let's you change filter without fuss. Also connects to phone.

- A robot vacuum for 1699 yuan (~250 usd). Two of my friends bought it and feedback has been positive. Also has an app, naturally.

- Another air purifier.

My point is that if you're a watcher of Xiaomi, you have to look beyond the phones.