[REVIEW] Xiaomi Suzuki Jimny is a smartphone-controlled model car that will entertain not only kids

Xiaomi Suzuki Jimny is an RC car with smartphone control using Bluetooth technology. It’s a highly detailed model of the popular Suzuki Jimny in a 1:16 scale. You control it with your smartphone and it promises plenty of fun not only for the little ones. In the editorial office, we tried this car ourselves—and now we’re sharing our experience with you in the form of a review.

Where to buy the Xiaomi Suzuki Jimny

You can get the Xiaomi Suzuki Jimny remote-controlled car from multiple international sellers. We ordered ours from the popular e-shop Banggood, with delivery from a Czech warehouse and no extra fees.

Package contents

The Xiaomi Suzuki Jimny comes in a compact box with photos of the car in off-road terrain and basic technical specifications, but only in Chinese. Since this car model doesn’t have a global version for the European market, there’s also no instruction manual in English.

Inside, you’ll find only the car model itself, a charging cable, and a Chinese manual with a whole set of stickers. The car is placed in a cardboard insert and then wrapped in protective film as well, so it’s protected against damage or scratches.

Protective films are also applied to the model’s windows—so when it comes to packaging and protecting the product from any kind of damage, we have absolutely no objections. The product is packed really well.

There’s no remote controller included because this is a smart model controlled via an app on your smartphone and Bluetooth technology.

Build quality and design

Since this model was designed with permission from a Japanese car manufacturer, it’s a very faithful copy of the real Suzuki Jimny—just in a smaller scale. In terms of the body design, the model is indistinguishable from its larger original. It’s extremely detailed and gives a surprisingly high-quality first impression. In the following photos, you can compare the real car with its model.

The entire model is made of plastic, but it’s not cheap plastic that would feel low-quality. Quite the opposite—everything fits together perfectly. The chassis is also well thought out and offers 4×4 drive with a locked differential, which means the wheels rotate at the same speed at the same time. This feature is one of the key ones for off-road vehicles.

The driveshafts leading to the differential are also plastic, but given the low weight of the model—just 350 g—it shouldn’t be a problem. Of course, if some load-bearing parts were made of aluminum, their lifespan would be longer.

There’s also a well-sprung chassis with four shock absorbers. The suspension works well, complemented by soft tires that copy every obstacle. So the car is well-equipped even for demanding terrain. It’s usable not only indoors but also outdoors.

One interesting detail is the rubber rear-view mirrors. Thanks to the rubber material, they won’t break if the car falls or tips over.

First power-on

The Xiaomi Suzuki Jimny turns on from the underside with a round single button on the entire model. After switching it on, its blue backlight lights up and the model is ready to pair with the smartphone app. The app is available in the Google Play store and is called Mi Smart RC Car.

After opening the app each time, you need to pair the car via Bluetooth. The app must find the car using its serial number. The pairing is simple—just tap/click the discovered car, and everything will happen automatically.

After successfully pairing, the Xiaomi Suzuki Jimny model is ready to drive. Here we ran into a small issue – the app was also in Chinese and occasionally it still switches to this language. Thanks to the YouTube guide, we found an option in the app to switch the language to English.

Control via the app and settings

The main app screen provides all the controls for the car and displays the battery status. On the left side, you’ll find the throttle control (driving forward and backward), and on the right side there’s the steering control (right and left).

You’ll also find several settings here, such as a speed limiter or enabling automatic braking. In this mode, if we release your finger from the throttle control, the car stops and doesn’t continue coasting. Steering can also be controlled by tilting the smartphone.

You can also adjust how much the front wheels turn when cornering, which lets you influence the radius in which the car can rotate. With this setting, there’s also an option to fine-tune the straight position of the front wheels. So if the car doesn’t quite keep a perfectly straight line, you can dial it in here to perfection.

In the settings, you can also change the placement of the control elements on the main screen besides the language, so for left-handers it’s possible to swap the throttle to the right and the steering to the left. You’ll also find a tutorial that familiarizes you with the controls and information about the current app version. The app itself is simple, but it offers everything you need for operation.

The car responds to app control immediately, and even though we were skeptical at first, this kind of smartphone control is trouble-free and we didn’t have any issues with range either. Since the car measures about 235 x 120 x 115 mm, the signal is good and the connection doesn’t drop as soon as you can see it clearly enough. In outdoor spaces, the car is barely visible at a distance of 50 m, but the range is still good.

Driving features

As we mentioned above, the control is very simple and everything works perfectly. With this little car, not only kids have fun, but adults too. It’s a great little toy for relaxing and taking a break.

We mostly drove it indoors, but we also tried it a few times in nature or on the housing estate. It handles tougher forest terrain with obstacles without any problems; the only thing that gives it trouble is tall, dense grass, which of course it can’t overcome, since the car itself weighs only 350 grams.

When it comes to control, we prefer touch control and the on-screen control elements on your smartphone, but it’s interesting that controlling it by tilting the smartphone also works perfectly.

We might have only missed the lighting. It’s a shame the manufacturer didn’t integrate a few LED diodes into the headlights, so you could use the car even after dark. As for sound, the car is very quiet and you can only hear a faint engine noise accompanied by a slightly squeaky sound.

What’s under the hood?

We didn’t take the car apart, but from the underside you can see quite well under the body. There’s also a photo on the box without the body. Inside, there’s only a small, classic motor that powers the model car.

Besides the main motor, there’s also a servo motor in the front axle area that turns the wheels left and right. There’s also just the control unit and a Bluetooth module.

Runtime and charging

The car has a built-in battery with a capacity of 500 mAh. The manufacturer lists a runtime of 30 minutes per charge. We tested the runtime on a slightly sloped lawn, where the car drove for an unbelievable 54 minutes.

From roughly the halfway point of the battery capacity, the power started to drop, and toward the end the car mainly went backward much slower than with a fully charged battery. Still, the total runtime exceeded our expectations. Typically, the runtime of cars like this is around 20 – 25 minutes.

Charging is handled in a very interesting way. The manufacturer placed the charging port in the exhaust. However, the package doesn’t include an adapter, only a USB cable, which is enough to connect to a computer, a power bank, or any charger adapter for a smartphone. Charging takes about 1 hour.

Final verdict

Xiaomi Suzuki Jimny is an excellent toy for all age groups. We especially appreciate its great driving performance and very high-quality, well-crafted suspension.

Another plus is the integrated battery, which charges in the car in an impressive way through a charging port hidden in the exhaust. Since the car is controlled via a smartphone, you don’t need to carry any remote control with you. Just install the app, pair the car, and you can start riding.

The downside is the lack of any lighting that would allow operation even in the dark.