Xiaomi Air Purifier Pro Review
I ordered the Xiaomi Air Purifier Pro., despite misgivings about the WiFi features, hoping that I would be able to control it sufficiently without using an app. It was ordered from the official Xiaomi Lazada store to avoid hassles dealing with a China region device. I went with the Xiaomi air purifier only because all other units I found for sale domestically were absurdly overpriced, as is the norm for appliances sold in Singapore.
This was my experience upon plugging in the device:
- Max setting is unbearably loud
- The button on the machine can only toggle 3 settings:
- "Sleep" / "Night" (moon symbol, no words)
- "Heart" - maximum noise
- (A), presumably "Auto", which either does nothing or behaves erratically as the sensor is disturbed
So, I was unable to use the medium setting out of the box. The app is required to use the purifier. The only options without the app are silent, which seems to have so low airflow as to be useless, or max, which is intolerable, or auto, which is also useless.
A positive: the display can be turned off with a button, and the unit will emit no light. I was concerned that the device may have an LED somewhere that cannot be disabled, making it useless for a bedroom.
The filter has an RFID in it. I don't know if this merely restricts me to buying official Xiaomi filters, or if it also forces me to replace the filter on a schedule regardless of the actual remaining lifespan of the filter. I cannot recommend any product that imposes these arbitrary restrictions.
I signed up for the Mi app to try to control the fan speed. After creating an account, I received a "service unavailable" message. This is precisely why a mundane appliance should not require internet connectivity to function.
Signing in again dispels the error, and I deny all "Mi App would like to use..." permissions requests. I find my way to the Devices menu. The app complains that it cannot find the air purifier without enabling Location Access it requested earlier, and I enable it.
I follow the procedure to connect the device several times, but it always hangs at "connecting to device" and implores me to move closer to the router that is beside me.
I go back to the app and find a QR code scanner function. I scan the QR code that is in the instruction manual and it tells me, "Invalid content, copy link and open in your browser". The link leads to the app store to download the same Mi app that I used to scan the QR code.
Based upon comments in this thread, I try to change the region to China. I search "China" and no region is found. I think to myself that I shouldn't have to do this anyway because I purchased the export model from the official Mi store on Lazada. Later, scrolling through the region list I find the option as "Chinese mainland".
I try to connect the device once more and it works. I switch back to the Singapore region and try again and it also works. I don't know if I was making some mistake in the prior attempts or if the app is buggy.
I notice the PM2.5 value reported in the app is different from the value displayed on the device, so that function is useless.
I was also required to accept 2 different Terms and Conditions and one Legal Agreement in order to use the app and connect the device.
The manual fan adjustment within the app works and is nice enough to have a slider rather than fixed high/medium/low settings, although it may only slide between 4 or 5 fixed settings. I set it at about 25%, any higher is annoyingly loud.
Pros:
- Sliding adjustment of fan speed
- Can turn off all lights
Cons:
- RFID-restricted filters; can only use official filters, no cheap Taobao replacements
- Default fan speeds without the app are useless, loud or useless and loud
- Internet is required to adjust fan speed
- App is required to adjust the fan speed; app configuration takes 30-60 minutes with troubleshooting and binds you into legal agreements