Plagiarism aside! Is the 899-yuan Xiaomi air purifier worth buying?

Xiaomi seems to always be associated with "imitation and tribute". After Xiaomi routers successively "stuck" Apple Mac Pro and Trackpad, the launch of Xiaomi air purifier not long ago put the company's product concept at the center of controversy.

But I believe that there must be many people who did not know what Balmuda does before, and have never even heard of such a brand in Japan. The similarity in design is partly due to the fact that Xiaomi’s product team includes former Balmuda employees. This is a bit like the relationship between Aston Martin and Jaguar in the current automotive field.

But what we want to talk about today is not to talk about plagiarism or not, but to take a look through the most direct usage experience to see whether the Xiaomi air purifier priced at 899 yuan is worth buying?

Unboxing and exterior design

The Mi Air Purifier is definitely one of the larger products produced by Xiaomi, except for the Mi TV. In order to better show its size, we made a simple comparison with the Mi Phone 2.

When you open the package, the first thing that comes to your mind is the product assembly diagram printed on the inside of the outer packaging, and further down, "Always believe that good things are about to happen." In fact, this is a folder containing explanatory materials. In order to highlight the "goodness" of the product, it is placed on the top layer of the inner packaging.

The white protective cloth cover on the main body of the machine gives it a traditional home appliance feel.

The Xiaomi air purifier weighs 8kg, so it is not a big problem for men and women to move it. The height of the machine is almost the same as that of a normal desktop, and the space it occupies is only the size of an A4 paper as advertised.

There is a QR code for downloading the mobile app on the top of the Xiaomi air purifier, which can of course be removed.

The main control buttons and status indicator lights of the Xiaomi air purifier are designed in a corner of the body. In fact, when the machine is turned on, there is also a hidden indicator light at the air inlet below the machine, which is not very obvious in an environment with sufficient light.

The power supply of Xiaomi air purifier adopts a separate design. During the packaging process, the power cord is placed in the compartment for replacing the filter element, which is very clever, but the insertion of the power cord is more difficult. The socket is designed on the inside of the bottom, probably for aesthetic considerations, but it is inevitable to drag the cord.

Finally, let’s take a look at the filter element. Before use, you naturally need to remove the protective film of the filter element. The filter element replacement method is also very simple. Even if you are not a man or a woman, you can easily do it.

This replaceable cylindrical filter element with a diameter of 200mm and a height of 293mm is officially priced at 149 yuan, and the replacement cycle is 3 to 6 months. The Xiaomi air purifier comes with one when it leaves the factory. A simple calculation shows that the value of the machine itself is around 750 yuan. If the Xiaomi air purifier is used normally for one year, the user's total expenditure will be around 1,000 to 2,000 yuan.

Software and user experience

The Xiaomi air purifier itself is an independent hardware, which allows you to control it directly through the physical button of the machine itself. For purifier products, the one-button design is completely sufficient.

But Xiaomi is an Internet company and a smart hardware manufacturer, so the Xiaomi air purifier must also "combine software and hardware" to reflect the flavor of intelligence.

The mobile app for Xiaomi air purifier is called "Xiaomi Smart Home", which means that the app can not only adapt to purifiers, but also control smart sockets, routers and other products. As for Apple users, the iOS version has not yet been released, so users need to wait patiently.

Using Google's Nexus 5 to test, the software has no compatibility issues under the Android 5.0 system environment. The interface design is intuitive and easy to understand. In the Wi-Fi environment, the phone can easily connect to the purifier. Xiaomi's software development capabilities are still relatively reliable. It should be noted that you must log in with a Xiaomi account to use related services.

Using the "Xiaomi Smart Home" App, you can remotely control the switch, mode, and wind speed of the Xiaomi air purifier, which is equivalent to equipping the purifier with a remote control, and supports displaying and reminding the usage of the filter element.

As for the most discussed issue of Xiaomi air purifier operation noise, the sound of the machine is acceptable in "automatic" or "sleep" mode, but this problem does exist in "strong" mode.

To put it more vividly, the noise made by the Xiaomi air purifier in the "highest gear" in a home environment is like the sound of an F1 car equipped with a V10 or even V12 engine whizzing past you at the Shanghai International Circuit a few years ago. It is indeed difficult to accept.

When it came to the most critical purification effect test, because the outdoor air in Beijing has been so "bad" these days, we had no choice but to borrow a cigarette from Master Xu, who was cleaning downstairs, to test the true ability of the Xiaomi air purifier at close range.

In the time it takes to smoke a cigarette, the air index displayed on the Xiaomi air purifier App has approached the 500 mark, but the purifier starts working as soon as it is turned on, and the purification speed is so fast that we didn’t have time to take a screenshot of the phone screen at first. Just in automatic mode, after one minute, the indoor index has dropped to around 30, but the residual smoke can still be smelled.

Switch the Xiaomi air purifier to the "Powerful" mode. After about 3 minutes, the indoor air condition displayed on the App is close to the level of good weather outdoors. After about 10 minutes, the indoor air value displayed on the App has dropped below 5. The speed of "removing smoke" is faster than "smoking". If the software data provided by Xiaomi is accurate, then the purification efficiency of the Xiaomi air purifier is still satisfactory.

Summarize:

Whether it is copied or not, the Xiaomi air purifier is a relatively thoughtful product. If its purification ability is really as shown on the App, then its function is also worthy of recognition. Moreover, compared with the air purifier products on the market that cost thousands of yuan, 899 yuan is also a very affordable price.

However, the biggest problem with Xiaomi's air purifier may not be the product, but whether the product that seems to be cost-effective can be sold. Hardware products of different types and uses are indeed helping Xiaomi to "occupy a niche" in the smart home field, but unlike mobile phones which everyone has a "must-have" for, like the previous Xiaomi TV, users of Xiaomi phones may not even have a living room, so where would they put the TV?

The weather conditions in China are very bad, and every home should indeed have an air purifier, but having a "home" is still a dream that has not yet been realized for countless people in big cities, and this group also occupies the majority of "Mi fans". Even if the Xiaomi air purifier is designed to be portable, it is still an unnecessary burden for those who are wandering and struggling.

Therefore, smart home products first require users to have a "home". Xiaomi has lowered the prices in the mobile phone industry and has also made bold moves into smart homes. But, Lei Jun, when do you plan to enter the real estate industry and shake up the prices of houses?

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.