Part of its ‘Mi Ecosystem’ Xiaomi’s Induction Heating Pressure Rice Cooker is affordable and yet sports an ergonomic design.

It would seem that Xiaomi wants to not only own the entire smartphone place but also your living room, kitchen if not your entire house. It has forayed into air and water purifiers, home appliances and security sensors. Is it wanting to be like Muji and Ikea – produce devices and gadgets with good design and quality but make them affordable to the masses as well?

With the launch of the Mi Induction Heating Pressure Rice Cooker, Xiaomi has entered the Chinese household market with a high performing and yet affordable rice cooker which comes with its own app.

At around $150 or 999 yuan, the rice cooker is nearly five times cheaper than its equivalent from Japanese companies such as Toshiba, Zojirushi, and Tiger.

Food cooked in pressure cookers have the added advantage of preserving their vitamins as well as since it uses steam to cook, the trapped steam speeds up the cooking process due to the high temperatures. In Xiaomi’s case, the smart pressure rice cooker uses 1.2 atm to push the temperature up to 105 degrees Celsius.

Thanks to the companion app, a quick scan of the barcode of the rice package, will let you know how to cook it just right. Since there are many varieties of rice, getting the preferred softness will depend on the variety and its origin. Although Xiaomi does not provide any details on how many kinds of rice it has categorized, it does mention however that you can use 2,450 cooking methods with this cooker.

Despite the cheap price tag, Xiaomi wants to make it clear that it not cut any corners: the inner pot of the rice cooker is made of grey cast iron to achieve optimal regenerative heat and to ensure that the rice is cooked evenly. The pot is Teflon coated so it has non-stick properties. Furthermore its been designed by a former Sanyo engineer and co-inventor of the IH pressure rice cooking system.

During its launch, the designer has been quoted saying that he wants to “make a better rice cooker, and then sell it back to Japan.”

The rice cooker forms part of Xiaomi’s Mi Ecosystem. You can find it in stores from April 6 onwards.