Xiaomi just made a hoverboard

At a Xiaomi event in Beijing this afternoon, the phone maker’s founder and CEO Lei Jun showed off a self-balancing scooter the company has produced in conjunction with Ninebot, the Chinese startup (which Xiaomi helped fund) that acquired Segway back in April.

The Ninebot Mini costs just RMB 1,999 (US$315), making it the same price as some of Xiaomi’s Android phones. Rather than being quite bulky and having a handlebar, like most Segways, the Ninebot Mini is a lot smaller, making it look a lot like a “hoverboard”. Yes, it doesn’t hover and hoverboard is a dumb word, but that’s the term so many media outlets are using in the absence of a snappy, single-word moniker for those things.

The little handle on the Ninebot Mini seems to be just for carrying – it’s way too low (it goes up to knee level, according to the photos distributed by Xiaomi) for you to hold on to whilst moving. Considering how easy it is to fall off those little self-balancing whatcha-ma-call-its, the protruding handle looks like it could do a lot of damage to one’s crown jewels.

Xiaomi’s hoverboard weighs a hefty 12.8kg and can get up to 16km/h. The company claims 22km on a single charge. Xiaomi’s accompanying smartphone app allows users to control the Mini remotely as well as view a speedometer and see how much charge it has left. It’s now listed on Xiaomi’s website, with sales beginning November 3 – but only in mainland China.