PACKAGING

I’ve found the packaging for previous Smartmi products always nicely designed, and protect the contents very well. The packaging for the E1 is no exception. The product is front and centre, so you know exactly what you’re getting, and all the relevant info you’re likely to need is printed on the box too.

It supports Apple Home, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa, but there’s no mention of SmartThings. It also doesn’t support Matter, which for HomeKit users isn’t going to make a lot of difference, but does change things slightly for users of the other two platforms.

The included HEP13 filter is designed to tackle the usual pollutants, like dust, pollen, odours, smoke, pet dander, and PM2.5, which some of these come under anyway. It also has a layer of active carbon in the filter, so this should deal with VOCs to a large extent. As you can see, this is really only meant for small to medium size rooms, with the ideal size being 205 sq. ft./19 sq. m.

This being the case, as you can see from the image on the box, it does have a space saving design, so for small rooms like a kids bedroom for example, this would probably be ideal for taking up minimal space, whilst also being powerful enough for that typical type of room.

The E1 is unique (for an air purifier) in that the replacement filters available come with artwork printed on them. Of the three pictured above, I’ve only really seen the cat design, so I guess they’ll expand on these depending on how well the E1 sells, ultimately.

The E1, like all of Smartmi’s devices, uses standard 2.4GHz WiFi to connect to your network, and your smart home. That being the case, there’s no requirement for a hub.

THE PURIFIER

There’s not a lot in the box; the E1, a metal stand, the manual, and some mounting parts. The filter comes preinstalled, and the grey cover is actually part of the filter itself in that the cover, frame, and HEP13 filter are all one unit. Once you replace the filter, the cover – whether its the plain grey pattern or one of the art style covers – is also gone.

With the filter removed, you can see the fan that draws in air through the filter, which is then pushed out after pollutants are caught in the filter.

The inside is also home to the Apple Home QR code. There’s only one instance, so do make a backup in case. There’s a handy (if not necessary) diagram to show you how to replace the filter. In the third image, you can see the depth of the filter (), with the cover being glued onto the filter frame.

The filter is proprietary, which means you’re unlikely to find or be able to fit generic filters from other manufacturers. This being the case, you’ll need to purchase replacements from Smartmi, who have said that if you don’t want the artwork filters, the plain grey ones will also be made available.

The back of the stand has three keyhole slots that allows the E1 to be hung on a wall or other vertical surface. This, as you might now gather, is the reason for the art covers! If you don’t plan on hanging it off a wall, the unit has two holes for affixing the provided metal stand to the E1.

I think most people will opt for the stand option, although as already mentioned, mounting it to a wall does sort of create even more space, when its at a premium.

The back also features a vent area at the top where the clean air is expelled once it has passed through the filter and the fan. At the top of the unit is a small but brightly coloured panel featuring the controls for both the fan speed (three in total), and a power button.

There are small LEDs representing the power and WiFi connection, as well as the three aforementioned fan speeds. If these are likely to bother you at night, the good news is they can be turned off, although only via the Smartmi app.

First impressions are pretty good, and despite looking similar in concept to the much cheaper Ikea Förnuftig air purifier, the design is a lot more stylish in my opinion, looks way more sturdy, and the latter isn’t smart in any way, so it’s easy to see the Smartmi as a better product ultimately.

SMARTMI LINK APP

the Smartmi Link app is pretty bare-bones when it comes to features, which is a shame as it’s nicely designed and laid out. Any devices you have will appear as large tiles showing the devices themselves with a quick on/off control. Tapping on the tile brings up the main screen which has the standard on/off control as well as a sort of carrousel section to choose from three different speeds, listed as ‘gears’ for some reason. Aside from that, there’s the option to turn off the LEDs, as well as a basic schedule/timer section. The app also stores the HomeKit code, and allows you to bind the E1 directly to HomeKit via the app.

APPLE HOME

The Apple Home app fares little better, although as you can have the E1 interact with HomeKit devices from other brands, this is where it takes over from Smartmi’s own app, and for good reason, as I’ll explain later.

You get all the standard stuff, so a single tile for the E1 that allows for on/off control. Tapping anywhere other than the icon will open up the control screen; this is a slider control and power button. Even though the E1 has three distinct speeds, the slider doesn’t snap to those presets, so setting the slider to the relevant speed can be a bit of guesswork. I did mention this to Smartmi, who promised to remedy this via an update. Beyond that, in the settings panel, you get a different slider, that still controls the fan speed, as well as details for filter life and filter condition. That’s pretty much it.

With many devices, there are hidden controls you can access via third-party apps, but this generally isn’t the case for Smartmi devices, so if you want to turn the LEDs off via an automation, or simply via HomeKit, you’re out of luck, as it can only be accessed via the Smartmi app.

REPLACEMENT FILTERS

As it stands, replacement filters are only available as a triple pack, and they also only come with the ‘art’ selections. I’m told by Smartmi that the plain grey filter, like the one the comes with the E1 as standard, will also be available for purchase soon, so hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later.

Above is one of the artwork filters sent for this review, and although I’m not a cat person, per se, it does look cool. I dare say it would look great on the wall too, but that does require a commitment to drilling some holes into the wall, so it’s over to you!

PERFORMANCE AND POTENTIAL MINUS POINT

The main issue that some will have is that unlike many purifiers, the E1 doesn’t come equipped with a built in PM2.5 sensor – or any sensors at all for that matter. The company’s other purifiers – P1, P2, AP2, Jya – all come with PM2.5 sensors built in, so this is the reason for the lower price point of the E1. I personally don’t think it’s a problem, as I’ve found time and again through tests that the sensors in purifiers tend to measure the air immediately around themselves, and as such don’t tend to give realistic measurements for the room. This I’ve found is in part due to the air surrounding the device being cleaner due to the job it’s tasked with, whilst it seems logical to know the levels of PM2.5 the room in general, not in the immediate vicinity of the purifier.

My take on this is to get the E1 to turn on and off (via automations) based on measurements from an external sensor. There are plenty of PM2.5 sensors available for all budgets these days, and because they’re dedicated to a specific task, chances are they’re going to be at least as good, if not better than any built in sensor. You can also place these external sensors wherever you think the concentrations of pollutants is represented best, possible near a window facing a main road, for example.

Aside from this point, I don’t have any complaints, and in month I’ve had it running, I’m happy to say that it hasn’t gone offline once so far, which to me is always a worry. The usual price point is a little high at US$161 (it’s currently on offer for just US$129.00), considering the superior Smartmi P1 is available for just a little more. Still, it takes up little space, can be wall mounted, and comes with artwork printed on the covers, so it certainly has it’s own niche.

The post Smartmi Air Purifier E1 (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Unlike many recent devices from the company, the Evaporative Humidifier 3 is not HomeKit compatible. However, it can be added to either the company’s own Smartmi app, as well as Xiaomi’s Mi Home app, which is compatible with Siri Shortcuts.

To maintain cleanliness, integrated air drying technology activates automatically for 3 hours when water levels run low, eliminating the risk of harmful bacterial growth in stagnant water. This proactive approach prevents mould and odours while promoting long-term hygienic operation.

The Evaporative Humidifier 3 provides up to 14.2 hours of uninterrupted hydration to sizeable spaces. Its built-in pump guarantees a consistent flow of water onto the evaporator, ensuring a continuous moisture output of up to 350 ml/h. The top-fill design allows easy-access refilling during operation, eliminating the need to pause humidification. The Evaporative Humidifier 3 incorporates a high-precision sensor for real-time water level monitoring and offers a transparent viewing window on the water tank’s side. Users can set their desired humidity level, monitor it remotely via the Mi Home app, and seamlessly integrate it with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, as well as control almost all functions and features via Siri Shortcuts, once set up.

The device’s noise levels are below 50dB, allowing the Evaporative Humidifier 3 to run throughout the day and night. Its LED display automatically dims in sleep mode too.

The Evaporative Humidifier 3 introduces a constant humidity mode, allowing users to adjust optimal humidity levels between 30% and 60% in automatic mode, to maintain a comfortable environment. The separation of electronic components at the top and the water tank at the bottom prevents leaks from reaching electrical components. For safety and spill prevention, the humidifier features an automatic shut-off when the tank is removed and a child lock function.

Pricing and Availability The groundbreaking Smartmi Evaporative Humidifier 3 will debut in the CIS, Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions in September 2023, with prices starting at $169. For more information and notifications regarding availability in your area, please visit www.smartmiglobal.com.

The post Smartmi Launch Evaporative Humidifier with Siri Shortcuts Support appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

PACKAGING | CONTENTS

Upon receiving the package, I was surprised at how big it was, but then this is a big device – almost twice the height of the aforementioned MistFlow. They really have gone to town when it comes to the ‘theme’ of the product, with the imagery reflecting the ‘Rainforest’ name to a tee, and for good reason. One side shows the compatible smart home badges – Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home. There’s no SmartThings integration, and this is not a Matter device, so it uses legacy connectivity via the cloud for the latter two options.

One side of the box lays out the features, of which there aren’t many, to be fair. Due to the method by which it generates humidity, which I’ll go into later, it actually creates sounds quite similar to that of rain hitting a window. It comes with a very nice, but very simple LED display, and there’s an option to have it ‘self-clean’ with the aid of citric acid.

There’s not a lot in the box, just the device itself, a power supply, and a manual in three languages – English, French, and Spanish. The humidifier is really something to behold, giving off the air (no pun intended) of the kind of device you might see on the set of a Star Wars film, given its white plastic, gold accents, and see-through middle section.

Here are some specs for those that find it of interest;

• Net weight: 3.3kg/7.275lb
• Wireless connection: WiFi 2.4GHz b/g/n
• Rated input: 100-240V 50/60Hz, 0.3A
• Rated voltage: 12V
• Rated power: 7W
• Operating humidity/temperature: ≯80% (RH) / 10~40°С
• Noise: less than 50dB
• Humidifying capacity: 200ml/h
• Water tank capacity: 3L / 6.34pt (US)
• Operating principle: evaporative

THE HUMIDIFIER AND ITS PARTS

The front is home to a single capacitive touch button that allows you to cycle through the three different modes it’s capable of – Favourite/Manual, Auto, and Sleep. The rear features a single power button at the top, with a humidity sensor below that. A single HomeKit QR code is stuck to the back, but the manual doesn’t come with a backup instance of the code, so make sure you make a note of it somewhere, or better still, use the HomePass app by Aaron Pearce. Directly below the code, is the coaxial port for powering the unit.

The device comes in four main sections, with the top half containing the LED display, which is also one route for refilling the water tank – I kid you not. This section also contains the fan to draw humid air up and out to the room it’s placed in. Below the fan is the water droplet chamber, which I’ll go into in a bit more detail in a bit.

With this main section removed, you then get to a polymer mesh filter that sits inside a sort of plastic cage. This isn’t the kind of tightly woven filter you might see in an air purifier, as water needs to pass through relatively easily, but it will catch small particles that could get into the tank and be sucked up again, possibly causing damage to the fan or other parts.

This filter should last as much as twelve months, and it can also be washed, so replacements aren’t going to be something you need to purchase too often, although regularly cleaning it is quite essential, to avoid the build-up of mould, especially as it may not be as easy to see.

The filter surrounds a pipe, and once removed you can see the pipe connected to the bottom section. This pipe is connected to a water pump, that sends water through the pipe, into the upper chamber where it hits a spinning wheel. This wheel is connected to the fan in the top section, so when water collides with the wheel – which is going at a high speed – it breaks the water into droplets that are then smashed into the inside of the clear plastic chamber. The fan does double duty by then drawing the moist air upward and out through the vents surrounding the LED display.

With the water pump section removed, you’re left with the water tank itself, which is reported to hold 3 litres of water, although I managed to get another 500ml right up to the ‘max’ level line for some reason. The underside of the tank has four rubber wheels to keep it from sliding around, although at 3.3kg, plus the weight of a full tank, this is unlikely. If it was knocked over, there’s a power cut-off feature to avoid any potential hazards involving electricity and water. Speaking of power, the section containing the water pump is also home to five pin connectors. These match up with five contacts found as part of the top section.

THE DISPLAY

The top of the device is mostly made up of a display, although there’s more to it than that. At its basic, the LED screen, which could be described as a large ‘contact lens’, has a convex shape, the reason for which is that you can actually pour water over the top of it in order to (re)fill that water tank below. The water drops from the display to an opening encircling it, which then filters through the transparent chamber and eventually down into the water tank. Pretty clever stuff.

The display itself is quite simple and uncluttered, especially compared to their purifiers. In the centre is the current humidity level where it’s located, with a WiFi icon to let you know it’s connected. If this icon flashes, there’s a connectivity issue. Above the humidity reading will be one of three icons that represent the different modes – a Heart for Favourite mode, a capital A for Auto mode, and a crescent moon for Sleep mode.

Surrounding all of these graphical icons is a colour ring split into four segments. Each segment represents roughly 25% of the water tank’s capacity, and as the tank begins to empty, one by one, each section will change from green to white, indicating the estimated amount of water left in the tank.

When the tank is devoid of water, these four segments will turn red and begin to pulsate to let you know the tank needs refilling.

The display is surrounded by a gold-coloured ring, that is separated from the outer edge by another set of vents that let out the humidified air. As you can see from the sticker on the display, you should use purified water to avoid limescale building up or to prevent other impurities being pushed out into your room.

THE SMARTMI LINK APP

It’s probably easier to set this up in the Smartmi Link app first, and even if you plan on using this solely in HomeKit, you’ll still need the app for a couple of settings not available elsewhere. You will need to set up an account and choose an appropriate server, but luckily, devices don’t seem to be region restricted in the way that Xiaomi or Aqara devices are, so you can choose any region you want.

Smartmi devices, whilst using WiFi, also have a Bluetooth chip inside for initial connection (or commissioning, as it’s now referred to for Matter devices). It discovered the unit as soon as I plugged it into power, which was impressive. As this uses 2.4GHz WiFi only, you need to provide suitable credentials for the unit to connect to. Once connected, you’re set – all rather painless.

If you have multiple Smartmi devices as I have, they’re all shown on the main screen, with a simple on/off button for quick access. Tapping on the relevant tile opens up a full control panel. The unit in question is much like the other products, although as we’re talking about humidity, not air quality, there are differences. The display has a carousel bar to switch between the three modes previously mentioned, along with the power button. In Manual mode, you get a sliding bar to adjust the ‘intensity’ although it’s basically the fan speed you’re adjusting. The top of the screen shows the current humidity, which is reflected in the half-hidden panel at the bottom, which also tells you how much water is left in the tank.

This bottom panel expands when you slide it up, to reveal a slider for target humidity along with extra options. These extras include the display, which can be set to full brightness (light), dimmed (shimmer), or off. There’s a simple option for setting on/off timers, and a section that explains how the unit can be set to self-clean. As with all Smartmi devices, you can also turn off the standard beep sounds emitted whenever you change anything.

In the app, you can also add it directly to HomeKit. As it’s already connected to your network, there’s no need for your phone to be on a 2.4GHz network, so the process of adding it to HomeKit is generally much quicker at this point.

IN THE HOME APP | HOMEKIT

In HomeKit you get one tile for on/off. Tapping elsewhere on the tile reveals the standard slider control, although this is not for the fan speed. The slider controls the target humidity (i.e. the level of humidity you require). Below that is the power button. In the settings section, you get details on the water level, an off/humidity control, and fan speed, along with the current humidity levels.

Strangely, the Home app doesn’t offer an option to use the humidity level readings from the device in an automation! Luckily this is not the case with third-party apps, like Eve for HomeKit which does allow for such an automation. Indeed, as is usually the case, once you’ve set such an automation up in a third-party app, it’ll then appear in the Home app anyway. The Eve app shows separate controls for the fan and the humidifier along with all the other settings.

What neither Eve for HomeKit nor Apple Home can do is create an automation based on the tank’s water level. For this, you’d need something like the Controller for HomeKit app, which offers this amongst other trigger aspects. If you really delve into this app, you can even turn off the fan whilst still keeping the water running, and have the display on, although why you’d want to do so is anyone’s guess! What you can’t seem to do in any app is control the display brightness, which is a shame, as is having to resort to outside apps to achieve something relatively simple, but it is what it is.

EVAPORATIVE VS. ULTRASONIC HUMIDIFIERS

Possibly the only alternative to the Rainforest Humidifier right now – at least for HomeKit integration – is the MistFlow from Vocolinc. This is an ultrasonic humidifier that “uses a ceramic diaphragm vibrating at an ultrasonic frequency to create water droplets that silently exit the humidifier in the form of cool fog”*.

These kinds of humidifiers tend to be able to get the humidity to the level required much quicker than evaporative models, although the trade-off is that the fine mist generated immediately triggers PM2.5 sensors, whether they’re inside an air purifier, or as part of standalone models. I found this to be the case, with the evaporate approach having virtually no effect on these sensors. Whether this fine mist is in any way hazardous to health, I’m not sure, but if you use air purifiers to keep PM2.5 in check, then these ultrasonic humidifiers are going to falsely (perhaps) trigger automations you might use with them. Generally speaking, humidity levels of no greater than 60% are recommended, with levels between 40~50% seemingly being the ideal range.

*Source – Wikipedia

THE RAINFOREST HUMIDIFIER IN USE

This has been a tricky device to test in a significant way. Where I reside (Taiwan), we get high humidity for much of the year, with only relatively low levels of humidity from December to February, although the summers have been unseasonably dry too, so there may be times when it’s required. So, as I received this unit in mid March, it’s tricky to fully test its humidifying capabilities, although I tested it in the studio, which generally doesn’t suffer as much from humidity as other rooms, as it’s away from outside contact to a large degree. That all said, it seemed to do as was expected of it, although it rarely managed to get above 64% humidity, no matter how powerfully and long it was running for. To me, this isn’t a problem, as already outlined in terms of how much humidity is good for your health, but it’s still worth pointing out.

The design, for me, is absolutely gorgeous, and would easily be allowed to stand proud in any room, on full display. As stated earlier, it has this ‘Habitat’ style about it that for me is pretty timeless, but also futuristic looking, à la The Jetsons!

What is less appealing for many of our readers is probably the price, which at one cent under US$300 is fairly pricy. A while back it wasn’t uncommon to pay even more for an air purifier, but times change, and you can now buy air purifiers for just a shade over US$100, although the quality isn’t always going to be great (Meross and Sensibo, take note…). The alternative is the previously mentioned ultrasonic humidifiers, so if you’re not going to want to confuse your PM2.5 sensors, and require smart home integration (specifically HomeKit), this is the only device on a very empty playing field.

I have no complaints at all and in the time I’ve used it, which has only been around a month, there have been no issues at all, be it connectivity, false readings, or missed automations. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that the humidity sensor seems a lot more accurate than you tend to find with many devices with built-in sensors of this type. Add to this the ‘white noise’ effect of the water hitting the inside of the chamber, and you could have something that’s worth investing in, even with the high initial cost.

The post Smartmi Rainforest Humidifier (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

You can purchase the Smartmi Rainforest Humidifier from Amazon stores in your region using the (affiliate) links below, which cost you nothing extra but help us buy more products for review, to keep you informed on how products perform.

• Amazon US
• Amazon UK
• Amazon DE
• Amazon FR

Other products featured in this video:

• Qingping Air Monitor Lite
  • Amazon US
  • Amazon UK
  • Amazon FR
  • Amazon IT
  • Amazon ES

• Vocolinc MistFlow
  • Amazon DE
  • Amazon FR

The post Smart Rainforest Humidifier appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

PACKAGING

I can’t fault Smartmi’s packaging, it’s always very straightforward but stylish, and also ensures pretty much all the info you need is there, without it looking too cluttered. Obviously, that’s easier to do with a large box, but they do it very well. It protects the insides well too. As standard, you get the HomeKit, Alexa, and Google badges, although it’s a bit lax that they’re still using the ‘works with Apple HomeKit’ badge, not the ‘Works with Apple Home’ one. That said, there’s also no mention of Matter, but that’s not really a surprise, and really makes little difference at this point in time.

So what is different about the P2 in a nutshell? first and foremost, the unit comes with built-in rechargeable batteries. This allows the P2 to be unplugged and moved to any location without the need to also bring the power cable – unless you’re planning to have it running at another location for over two hours at maximum speed. It’ll also stay connected to HomeKit and your WiFi network even on batteries, as long as it’s within range of your network, so even though it can be put to work in places where there’s no outlet, if you want to control it via HomeKit or the Smartmi link app, it still needs to be connected to WiFi, which in this case uses 2.4GHz as standard.

The other major change is the display on the top, which now comes with an animated RGB screen. It’s pretty small, but it looks great in my opinion. The P2 also has a dual sensor able to detect both PM2.5 and PM10. Finally, the P2 comes with a built-in night light located inside the top part of the unit.

There are other smaller changes from the P1 to the P2, but we’ll go into all of these differences later. For now, we’ll look at the hardware.

THE SMARTMI P2

After having had the Smartmi P1 for a while, which I do like, putting it up against the P2 makes you realise the design has been stepped up in a possibly obvious way, but still well done. The chassis of the P1 had a grille that covered around 50%, whereas the P2 goes pretty much from top to bottom, with just a small section at the top that accommodates the company’s logo.

The chassis currently only comes in one finish, compared to the P1 which offered silver and dark grey finishes. I’m sure the P2 in dark grey would look slick too, but the one here is really pleasing to the eye as it is.

The rear of the device only really features a coaxial socket for the power supply, and the laser particle sensor, which, unlike the P1, is hidden under the grille, whilst the P1 had its own small set of slats to sample the surrounding air for particulate matter. Above the power socket is one of two instances of the HomeKit code.

The air outlet surrounding the control panel/display has also been redesigned with the blades set at a slight angle instead of fanning out from the centre in straight lines. We’ll go into the display itself in a bit.

the inside of the P2, where the filter resides is also home to a second instance of the HomeKit code, as well as access to the laser particle sensor, which appears to be removable for cleaning.

The carry strap has also seen a design change, and one that I personally welcome; The handle no longer uses leather but a synthetic durable type of rubber material that’s soft to the touch, but seemingly malleable and durable. The strap features the smartmi logo, but states that it’s designed by Jya, which is the Smartmi brand for their more expensive air purifiers.

The Strap holds onto the P2 with similar rivets to the ones found on the P1, although they’re in gold on the P2. The strap also tapers at the rivet.

The power supply that came with my unit was for Europe (Type C/E), although they’ll definitely also provide a US power supply once the device is officially released. This power brick supplies slightly more ‘juice’ than the power supply for the P1, but as I needed a US power supply, I tested the P2 with the P1 power supply and noticed no issues at all.

the manual is only available in English at the time of writing but covers almost all aspects of the P2, although there’s very little information on the night light that the P2 comes with, which is a bit of an omission.

FILTERS

For those with the Smartmi P1, if you’re looking to update or add to your setup with a P2, the good news is that they both use the same filters. These filters come in both a ‘Pollen’ filter and a ‘Pet’ filter, with each filter having strengths in particular areas of filtration.

These filters and the lid are all one piece, so when you replace the filter, you’re effectively replacing the lid that locks the filter into place too. In this case, I’ve got a Pet filter installed, which is just as well given how much our dog sheds his fur…

CONTROL PANEL/DISPLAY

The top of the P2 has a glass control panel with four lit buttons surrounding a RGB display. These four buttons are on all the time when the unit is on, with only the power button lit when the unit is off. The four buttons are the power button, a delay-off button, a button to control the brightness of the central display, and a mode button.

The central display is quite small, as already stated, but it still looks good, although unfortunately my attempts to photograph it don’t do it much justice. When active, the display is centred around the PM2.5 numbers, with PM2.5 stated at the top. This should change to P10 if PM10 is more prevalent than PM2.5. Next to this is a WiFi symbol, which should stay solidly lit in normal operation.

Below that is a battery icon, which gives you a rough idea of the battery levels. Alongside the battery icon is the mode icon, which will display one of three icons – Auto mode, Custom/Favourite mode, and Sleep mode. The image above shows it’s in Sleep mode.

The top button controls the brightness of the central display, with three levels plus off.

You can set the P2 to turn off after a delay of 1, 2, 4, or 8 hours.

The mode button allows you to cycle through all three modes – Sleep, Auto, and Custom/Favourite, with icons to represent each mode. Sleep mode sets the fan at a very low and quiet level, whilst Auto mode changes the power of the fan depending on the level of pollution in the air. Custom/favourite mode is determined by the speed/room size you set in the Smartmi app or the Home app.

As the P2 has built-in batteries, when you unplug the mains cable, you’ll briefly see a ‘battery’ icon before it returns to the main screen. If you plug the cable back in, you’ll briefly see a ‘power’ icon.

after a few seconds, the main display reverts to a screen saver that simply displays the particulate matter levels along with whether it’s PM2.5 or PM10.

I mentioned the night light at the start of this review, and when it’s activated when the unit is on (only via the app, unfortunately), the display will show icons for the state of the night light – on or off – as seen above.

The central display will also change colour depending on the levels of PM2.5 or PM10 detected. Above you can see the first image has a display with an orange background; this is just at the start of mild pollution, whereas the second image shows heavy pollution with a red background. For healthy air quality of between 0 ~ 20, you’ll see a green display.

THE NIGHT LIGHT

The night light isn’t an afterthought, although if you’re expecting rich colours, you’ll be disappointed. You may also be surprised to find the night light isn’t exposed to HomeKit, and can’t be controlled from the unit directly, which is quite strange.

Still, if you want something that is purely designed as a night light to aid someone when they take a midnight trip to the bathroom in what could otherwise be a pitch-black room, then it’s good enough. It’s probably also useful for a child’s bedroom if they have a problem sleeping in a totally darkened room at night.

IN THE HOME APP

In the Home app, and HomeKit you get the one tile. Tapping on the icon turns the unit on or off, but tapping on the tile opens up the main two controls – a toggle switch, and a slider for the fan speed. Unlike devices like the Vocolinc PureFlow and the Airversa Purelle, which are set to five specific speeds, the fan speed can be set to any percentage from 0~100%.

Going deeper into the P2 settings page, you can see two ‘accessories’ listed. These are the sensors within the P2, and further controls for the P2 itself. These additional controls allow for Manual or Auto settings, although Sleep mode is missing here. Manual mode is essentially the equivalent of Custom/Favourite mode on the P2.

You also Get information on the filter life and filter condition, as well as a ‘mode’ toggle control although I’m not sure how it works.

Going into the AQI sensor (as I’ve labelled it), you get information on the overall air quality (AQI is an acronym for Air Quality Index), in addition to the density for both PM2.5 and PM10. You can set up automations based on the Air Quality, but if you want to set automations based on the density levels of either of the particulate matter sensors, you either need to use a third-party HomeKit app or use Shortcuts within a HomeKit automation in the Home app.

IN THE SMARTMI LINK APP

If you’re not familiar with Smartmi’s own Link app, it’s nicely laid out, but it can only work with its own products, and when it comes to automations, things could be a lot better if I’m honest. You can control the power status of the device from the main screen, but if you go in deeper, you get information and further control. You can select one of the three modes previously mentioned, with a slider for Custom mode that allows you to set the fan speed based on the floor size. You also get a basic visual of the battery life.

Air quality and PM2.5 levels are shown at the top, and if you want you can also access a graph to show air levels over periods of a day, week or month. The data can’t be exported, however.

Sliding up from the bottom of the screen gives you access to several other options and settings, including filter life, screen brightness, timers in the form of schedules, control of the night light, and the same delayed power-off options as are available on the device itself.

On the subject of the display brightness, I don’t know why, but they use odd descriptions for the four levels – Highlight (bright), Secondary (medium), Shimmer (low), and Rest Screen (off). At least they’re in the correct order I guess.

I’ve already stated that I’m not overly impressed with the night/mood light, and a lot of that has to do with lack of control; You can’t turn it on or off from the device, and it’s not exposed to HomeKit at all. The only way to turn it off manually is to turn the device off, and the only way to control it via your iPhone is via the Smartmi app. That wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that you still have to drill down into the menus to get to it.

What makes things slightly worse is that when you get to the night light settings, you’re provided with the option to store up to 4 different colours, which you would assume are for recall later on. Not so! Once you go back into this section, they’ve all gone. Granted, the P2 isn’t available yet, and this and other potentially missing features could be in place once the P2 is officially launched in the new year, so we’ll have to wait and see.

CLEANING ABILITY AND THE SENSORS

Without the luxury of a perspex box in which to place the P2, it’s hard to easily quantify how efficiently the P2 can clean, but solely relying on the display that reveals air quality levels, it seems to do a more than adequate job for its size. Given this is only suitable for small to medium rooms, if this is used in a large open space like a living room, it’s unlikely you’ll get the best out of it.

In terms of detecting changes in air quality, when it’s on, it detects such changes reasonably quickly and better than the Airversa Purelle in my tests. When compared to the P1, it doesn’t quite match the speed at which the P1 is able to detect such changes, but it’s not a race as such, so I can forgive it for that. One of my tests involved setting up an automation whereby both the P1 and P2 are powered but in off/standby mode, with the automation set to turn the purifiers on, and at full speed if the air quality drops below Excellent. In these tests, the P2 was a bit slower on the uptake, with the P1 reacting almost instantly, with the P2 waking up a few seconds after. It does wake though, so this is something some other air purifiers can’t seem to manage.

If you want to see some of the tests, you can check them out in the video below;

THE P2 IN USE

I’ve not been using the P2 for an extensive amount of time, but I do have the advantage of having a couple of P1 units that allow for some comparisons, as well as expectations on how the P2 should function at a minimum. So first off, it stays connected to my network really well, and hasn’t had a ‘no response’ issue at all – even when on batteries and reasonably far from the router it’s connected to. I’ve also found this with the P1, although to be fair, some people reported a lot of dropped connections.

I don’t tend to have to move my air purifiers around, and as such whilst the battery-powered option is useful, it’s not honestly going to be something I’ll use too often. We’ll see though.

The display is small, but as it’s dynamic to some extent, with really nice visuals, I actually like it a lot. Whilst the P1 has arguably a clearer more visible display, it really does look a bit basic and dated to me, so I’m actually quite happy with the P2’s display.

Aesthetically, I really like it a lot, and of all the purifiers I’ve owned and/or tested, this is the one I like most from a design perspective. Likewise, I’m also quite happy they’ve stuck with the same filters as the P1, which really helps keep things simple.

Aside from the issue with the night light and the lack of ways to control it, sleep mode doesn’t automatically turn off the display, which seems like a given really, and because neither sleep mode nor the display can be automated or scheduled in HomeKit or the Smartmi Link app, it’s a case of having to do it manually. This wouldn’t necessarily matter in rooms used in the daytime, but for a bedroom, I’d say it’s pretty important. If they’d installed a basic light sensor, this could have taken care of things without too much fuss.

On balance, it’s an excellent-looking device, with some nice updates to the P1, although with the few issues around bugs and lack of control for certain aspects, it does feel a bit like a minor fail in some ways. I do hope they can fix both the bugs and add some extra functionality to at least their own app, and if so, it could easily be the standard by which other air purifiers are measured. When the P2 is released to the public, if any changes are implemented, I’ll adjust the relevant points as necessary.

Smartmi currently has the P2 on preorder via Kickstarter, with a discount on the price if you pay before it’s officially released. The deal price is US$179.99, with the retail price listed as US$259.99.

The post Smartmi P2 Air Purifier (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

UNBOXING | CONTENTS

As with the P1, the Air Purifier 2 (herein referred to as the AP2) comes in a decent box to protect it from being damaged, and in my case, this seems to have been shipped halfway across the United States, before being sent over to Hong Kong, and finally Taiwan, with no damage at all, thankfully. The box did look a bit grubby, but that’s ok. The box tells you pretty much all you need to know, including compatibility (Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple HomeKit), along with features and specifications.

The AP2 is a bit of a sight to behold, with a metallic blue/grey colour and gold base, with the air vent at the top matching in a slightly darker blue/grey. Whereas the P1 came in two colour options, the AP2 only comes in the one finish, but it looks great, so no complaints there. Aside from the AP2 and an included filter, there’s really just a power cable and the manual in English and Spanish.

In terms of size, it’s 200mm (7.87in) taller than the P1, at 563mm (22.17in) tall, compared to 362.5mm (14.27in) for the P1, with the AP2 being slightly wider/deeper than the P1. With the extra size comes a new filter, and of course more capacity to clean;

AP2 vs. P1

• Pollen CADR – 208CFM (353m³/H) | 150CFM (250m³/H)
• Dust CADR – 196CFM (333m³/H) | 130CFM (220m³/H)
• Smoke CADR – 196CFM (333m³/H) | 130CFM (220m³/H)
• Room Size – 279~484 sq ft (26~45m²) | 180~320 sq ft (17.5~30m²)
• Rated power – 40w | 30w

Another difference is in the materials used for the main body of the device. The P1 uses a metal shell, whilst the AP2 is in plastic. This does make sense, as using the same materials as the P1 would make the AP2 considerably heavier.

THE AIR PURIFIER

Speaking of weight, to replace the filter in the P1, you would have to lift and turn it on its head in order to access the filter for replacement. Not so with the AP2, which has a door on the rear, which is opened via an easy-to-operate latch. This removes the door entirely, enabling you to pull the filter out with relative ease. This is also where the one and only instance of the HomeKit QR code can be found.

For power, the AP2 can be used anywhere, with it accepting 100-240VAC @ 50/60Hz. The provided cable, which in my case uses the North American type A plug, comes with what I typically describe as a ‘cassette player’ power lead – one that you would also find used with an Apple TV. However, the one provided here comes with one half of the plug squared off, so you can only plug it in one way, which I assume is the whole reason for the design.

The back section is rounded off with a laser particle sensor designed to measure particulate matter (PM2.5/10). Next to that is a small hole that houses temperature and humidity sensors. These are not exposed to HomeKit unfortunately, so you only really see them in the Smartmi Link app. Above that is a button that can set the display to one of three levels – Light (full brightness), Shimmer (low brightness), and Off (only the two buttons remain lit). Above the button are four small holes that house the TVOC Sensor.

The top of the AP2 is where all the action is, with the combined control panel & display sitting bang in the centre of the outlet fan, just like their original air purifier, and the P1. With the control panel/display you can both see data for the surrounding air, as well as control the AP2 itself;

• Around the edge of the display is a colour LED ring designed to give you an overall view of general air quality (combined VOC and PM2.5 levels). This changes colour depending on these levels, with;
  • green – excellent air quality
  • yellow – good air quality
  • orange – moderate
  • red – unhealthy
• A ‘pollen’ icon, designed to do much the same as the LED ring, but more focused on PM2.5 and PM10, which includes pollen.
• Below is a readout of the actual PM2.5 levels;
  • 1~20µg/m³ – excellent
  • 21~35µg/m³ – good
  • 36~55µg/m³ – moderate
  • >55µg/m³ – unhealthy
• Directly below that is a strip to specifically show TVOC levels. Under normal circumstances, a little square will show, but as the VOC levels get higher, one, two or three bars will reveal themselves in one long strip.
• Either side of the previously mentioned two sections is buttons.
  • The left button cycles through three different modes;
    • Sleep mode – the lowest fan setting
    • Manual mode – the fan spins at the speed you set it at in HomeKit or the Smartmi Link app
    • Auto mode – the fan spins and changes speed based on the air quality readings
  • The right button is merely for power, however, pressing and holding both buttons will reset the device.
• Below that is an icon to show which mode the AP2 is set to;
  • A ‘Moon’ icon for Sleep mode
  • An ‘A’ icon for Auto mode
  • A ‘Heart’ Icon for Manual mode
• A WiFi icon to indicate that the AP2 is connected to your home WiFi network. The AP2 only connects to the 2.4GHz WiFi band.
• A temperature reading – The temperature is shown in ºF or ºC depending on your settings in the Smartmi app.
• Finally, a UV icon to let you know if the built-in UV light is active or not.

When you first plug the AP2 in, or re/place the filter, upon powering up, the screen will briefly display the filter life in terms of a percentage.

It’s hard to fault the control panel (aside from the ºF vs. ºC issue), as it gives you almost total physical control of the AP2, as well as giving you pretty much all the info you need, to the extent that it would barely be noticeable if it wasn’t a smart device as such, in many ways. The one aspect you can’t control is the speed of the fan in Manual mode. To control the fan in this mode, you need to use a HomeKit app or the Smartmi Link app.

One possibly interesting find is that when you adjust the fan speed in either Smartmi Link or Apple Home/HomeKit, you can adjust in 1% increments. This might seem normal, but in actual fact, some air purifiers can only change speed relating to the specific preset speeds they’re designed with. So in the case of the Vocolinc PureFlow, it has 5 speeds, which means when you adjust the slider it will snap to 0% (off), 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, or 100%. The 20% – 100% steps directly correlate with the 5 speeds available on the device. If you try to get Siri to set the PureFlow to 55%, for example, it’ll round up to 60%. The AP2, on the other hand, can be set to 55% – or any other speed – without any problems.

Unfortunately, Smartmi decided to remove two useful features from the display that are found on the P1, namely an option to cycle through three different preset fan speeds (plus Auto), as well as a feature to set the AP2 to run for 1, 2, 4, or 8 hours before automatically shutting off. These can still be achieved from within the Smartmi app, but not the control panel/display. Whilst that might seem a shame, we are talking about a device designed to be used as part of a smart home ecosystem, so in reality, setting automations to do much the same things is sort of the point, with physical control almost a secondary option, so it’s not as big a deal as it might seem.

In HomeKit and the Home app, you get the one tile to represent the AP2. A long press reveals the standard on/off toggle switch and a slider for the fan speed. Scrolling further down reveals the settings page, revealing two ‘accessories’, which I guess could be described as services.

The two aforementioned ‘accessories’ are for the AP2, and air quality details, so for the AP2, you get a repeat of the basic controls we see initially, namely the toggle switch and slider for fan speed. If you scroll down, this reveals a little more, with separate buttons for manual and auto modes, as well as a horizontal slider for the fan speed, and details on filter condition and filter life.

The Air Quality tile, once pressed, reveals overall air quality, which is a combination of VOC and PM2.5 levels, and a specific reading for PM2.5 density. What you don’t get are specific numbers for VOCs, temperature levels, or humidity levels. Ultimately this isn’t a big deal for me, as I prefer to keep an eye on TVOC levels with an independent device, which is also the case for temperature and humidity levels, especially given that I have devices for these readings dotted about the house anyway.

As is usually the case, the native app for Smartmi offers more, although personally, it’s of little use without better automation options, which I’ll mention later. The main screen for the AP2 shows you an animated device (if it’s on) with a ‘sliding carousel’ control bar that allows you to select Auto, Sleep and Custom modes (Why is it described as Manual on the device, but Custom here?). Custom mode allows you to increase the fan speed, although in this case it’s reflected in terms of the size of the room it needs to cover – the larger the living space, the faster the fan, basically.

You also get to see the temperature and humidity readings from the on-device sensors I mentioned earlier that aren’t exposed to HomeKit.

Pushing up on the temperature/humidity section reveals a lot more; from there you can check the filter life, adjust the screen’s brightness, set timers for the device to turn on or off, and select delayed off presets (1, 2, 4, and 8 hrs). You can also turn the UV lamp on or off, deactivate system sounds (I recommend doing so, as the ‘beep’ is quite loud), and deploy the child lock function. On the home page screen, you can also check which devices within the Smartmi app are linked to HomeKit.

At the top of the home page, there are three icons, the latter two of which, once pressed, reveal rudimentary graphs for TVOCs and PM2.5, respectively. Whilst it’s nice to have these, aside from the colour of the lines, you don’t really get an idea of the numbers for these readings, so you have to just treat them as rough historical data.

There’s a lot to like with the AP2, one of which is the ability to remove the top grille in order to give the inside a bit of a clean. The grille itself is held by a small screw on the rear, and once removed still sits tightly in place until you rotate it anti-clockwise. They probably don’t need the screw, to be honest, and as I was removing the small screw for the first time, I thought to myself, I bet this drops to the floor and will be a bugger to find. No soon had I thought of it, than it happened! So, you’ve been warned.

In a time when certain viruses are at the forefront of many people’s minds, the included UV light is a welcome, timely arrival. As I stated at the start, there’s no way for me to test whether bacteria and viruses possibly trapped in the filter are being chemically dismantled by the UV interaction, but it’s unlikely the company would make such claims without the proof to back them up, and as this technology is already proven to work, I feel I can rest assured that it’s certainly not hurting to have it turned on.

WRAPPING UP

Despite a couple of shortcomings, I have to give some credit to Smartmi for pushing HomeKit to this latest device. It looks really nice – nicer in fact than the model it’s an upgrade from, with a larger display, better intake design (albeit very subtle), and the increased display screen. I like the choice of colour too, and this has already replaced my Vocolinc PureFlow in the bedroom (the PureFlow resides in our living room now). Speaking of the PureFlow, I recently replaced the pair of filters, which came to US$80 plus shipping, so I’m looking forward to having just one filter at around half the price for a while. It’s also a lot more budget-friendly than the now slightly ageing PureFlow, which looks a tad old-fashioned.

What’s lacking is at least some of the features that are accessible within the Smartmi Link app. I appreciate that not everything can be exposed to HomeKit, but I think the display should be able to be turned off via an automation, which isn’t even possible within the company’s own app as an automation, and only by turning the display off via the button on the rear.

There is one major bug that I’m sure is fixable via an update, where the device detects VOCs and shows less than clean air via the Smartmi app and the AP2’s display, however, in my tests, the VOC levels in HomeKit never reflected this, always showing ‘Excellent’ regardless of how bad the VOC levels were. This definitely needs to be fixed, as there’s currently no way to create an automation using this sensor to trigger the fan. You’re probably wondering, why I don’t just have the AP2 on Auto mode. Well, that would make sense, but in my tests, unlike high PM2.5 detection, which would send the fan to a fast speed, when the AP2 detected high VOCs, the fan would increase its speed by only a little amount. This is ultimately why I think it’s best to use external sensors to detect things like this and via automations take the appropriate action.

If Smartmi can fix these issues, this would make Air Purifier 2 the device of choice for larger rooms.

Full disclosure: Smartmi provided HomeKit News with Smartmi Air Purifier 2 for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was made, requested or has not in any way influenced our opinion of this product.

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The new model has a lot going for it, with a larger capacity to clean, a built-in VOC Sensor in addition to the standard PM2.5 sensor, and even a UV light to aid with destroying bacteria, viruses, and germs. It’s not all good news, though, so you can watch the video if you want to know the downsides!

You can buy the Smartmi Air Purifier 2 from Amazon.com using the affiliate links below, at no extra cost to yourself, whilst also helping out the channel;

• Smartmi Air Purifier 2 – https://amzn.to/39OgARd
• Smartmi Air Purifier P1 (dark grey) – https://amzn.to/39PNIYv
• Smartmi Air Purifier P1 (silver) – https://amzn.to/3MGBwbh

The post The Smartmi Air Purifier 2 appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

• Wide Coverage & Improved Performance: Our smart air purifier 2 features Nanoguard Technology and 360° air intake. It is also equipped with a filter that is capable of refreshing air 3 times per hour in rooms as large as 484 ft² / 45 m². It effectively removes airborne particles 0.08 micrometres in size with a CADR of 380 m3/h, and also purifies rooms with Volatile Organic Compounds(VOC) and large pollutants. You can now say goodbye to impure air at home.
• Multiple Levels of Purification: One of the first-ever allergies air purifiers with TÜV Rheinland “Allergy Care” Certification. The H13 True HEPA Filter works alongside the Pre-Filter and the High-Efficiency Activated Carbon Filter to capture 99.98% of airborne particles, such as dust, pollen, pet dander, smoke, odour, etc., ensuring that everyone, especially people with asthma and allergies, breathes safe, healthy and pure air. (CADR: Dust 224 CFM, Pollen 206 CFM, Smoke 224 CFM).
• Additional Layer of Protection: The built-in, short-wave UV-C light kills germs, bacteria, and viruses that are airborne and trapped in the filter for deep and thorough cleaning. The UV light disinfection provides an added layer of protection and can be turned off anytime via the app. It’s your great choice of our air purifier for home.
• Quiet and Efficient: This smart air purifier consumes 40W of energy and is whisper-quiet, with noise levels ranging from 30dB to 64dB. You can choose from 3 modes: Auto, Favorite, and Sleep. The nighttime option in Sleep mode is the lowest setting that operates in virtual silence, and with panel lights that can be completely dimmed at any time, it ensures you can sleep in a noiseless, comfortable environment all night long. Fan speed in the Favorite mode can be adjusted manually.
• Easy App Smart Control: With the free Smartmi Link app, you can control your Smartmi Air Purifier 2 from anywhere. Adjust settings while you’re in another room, at work, or out walking the dog. It is also compatible with Alexa, Google Assistant, and Homekit. Please refer to the product guide and video on the page for instructions on connecting to the app. Additionally, you can always contact us via Amazon if you need any assistance.

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Smartmi may be a newcomer to HomeKit, but the company are already well known in the Xiaomi world of fans, humidifiers, and air purifiers, so they’re not exactly green behind the ears when it comes to the smart home. With that in mind, we’ll take a look at the P1 and see whether it’s something you should get, assuming you live in an area with even moderately poor air quality.

PACKAGING/UNBOXING

The Smartmi P1 comes in two colourways – silver and dark grey, although aside from the finish, there’s no difference between the products. The package reflects the specific finish you chose, and in the case of the image above, it’s the dark grey one, although I was also sent the silver model. Unlike most of the reviews, I won’t be dwelling on the packaging, as it did come rather bashed about, although I can say, the box survived the journey from China – North America – Taiwan without too much trouble, with the products themselves receiving no damage at all, so full marks for protection!

The package doesn’t contain a lot, just a manual in English, the power supply, which in my case is the North American, Type A, non-polarised plug, and the P1 itself. The front of the P1 sports the company logo, with the rear having the power connector, and vents for the particle laser sensor. You’ll find one instance of the HomeKit code on the base of the rear of the P1. The second instance is actually inside the shell of the P1, which you can only access when removing the filter.

The top of the device has, unsurprisingly, the outlet fan where clean, filtered air is pushed out to the room. In the centre of the fan grill is the display panel for the P1, which also allows for control, due to the touch controls available.

The base of the P1 is almost entirely made up of the actual filter itself, which sits inside the body of the device. The base reveals a turn handle that’s part of the filter, and so with a new filter comes a new handle essentially. There are two types of filter, which I’ll go into later.

Specifications (according to the manual):

• Dimensions – 220mm (W, D) x 360.5mm (H) / 8.66in (W, D) x 14.19in (H)
• Net weight – 3kg / 6.6lb
• Recommended surface area – 17.5 – 30 sq m. / 188 – 323 sq ft
• Connectitivity – WiFi 2.4GHz 802.11 b/g/n
• Rated voltage – 24V
• Rated power – 30W
• power supply unit input – 100-240V~50/60Hz 1.0A

THE CONTROL PANEL/DISPLAY

When the device is powered, but not in use, the only button displayed is the power button. Once pressed (tapped really, as it’s touch-sensitive), other details will light up, including a timer button, mode button, as well as an icon dedicated solely to how much pollen it detects (categorised as PM10).

In the centre is a WiFi icon. which when connected to your network, should be solidly lit. If it starts to flash, it means there’s an issue with the connection. next to that is text stating PM2.5, which is represented by the numbers below. In the case of the image above, you can see the PM2.5 levels are very low at 003. These numbers only represent PM2.5, not the overall Air Quality Index (AQI), which consists of measurements that are beyond the scope of this device.

The display usually shows the PM2.5 levels, but when changing other settings, the display will temporarily change to display information relevant to any changes made. So for example in the case of the image above, the countdown timer is set to four hours. Even though the display will revert to the PM2.5 levels, the ring around the Timer icon shows that it is set to count down, with the first quarter of the ring indicating a 1hr countdown, the first two-quarters lit will indicate a 2hr countdown. three out of the four quarters lit shows a 4hr countdown, and all four quarters of the ring lit up indicates the full 8hr countdown.

The P1 has four modes for cleaning the air – Sleep, Normal, Custom, and Auto (as displayed with the ‘A’ in the image above).

• Sleep mode is essentially the lowest mode, and therefore the quietest
• Normal mode is a sort of midway point, where it’s more powerful than sleep mode, but not too loud either
• Custom mode is one step above Normal mode, although, within the Smartmi app, you can adjust the speed of the fan to be more or less powerful
• Auto mode bases the power of the fan based on the sensor readings – be that pollen (pm10) or  pm2.5

to switch between these modes via the controls, you press the left-hand button. As with the timer button, the four quarters that make up the outer ring for the button will light up consecutively as you progress through each mode.

The green icon at the top is to indicate pollen levels in the air, so if you suffer from this particular allergy, this may be a good indicator for you, although you would need the correct filter. The icon is Green under ideal (Very Good) conditions, with the icon changing to Yellow, Orange, or Red, if the pollen count is Good, Moderate, or Unhealthy, respectively. That said, the manual states that this icon should change colour based on levels of PM2.5 – PM10, although in the limited tests with smoke, which should come under PM2.5, the icon did not change at all, whilst the PM2.5 numbers on the main part of the display, increased as expected, so it’s a bit confusing. The additional ‘unknown’ is whether this icon is still used, or even replaced when you switch to the other filter (both P1’s I received had the ‘pollen’ filter installed).

OTHER ASPECTS OF THE P1

the P1 comes with a carry strap, which is made of leather (Genuine Leather, according to the website), with the Smartmi logo embossed into the centre of the strap. It’s held in place with two large aluminium studs on either side of the P1, which are equally impressively milled. The bottom line here is that the whole product looks really well designed, with the strap representing the epitome of this. Whilst out of necessity, there are parts that are what you might describe as functional in appearance, there’s enough good ‘design’ to make it stand out.

Going back to the carry strap, the dark grey P1 comes with the orange strap you see above, whilst the silver P1 comes with a beige strap. The P1 is easy enough to carry around for short distances (i.e. within the home), although I wouldn’t fancy carrying too far down the road for example, with the P1 coming in at just under 3kg/6.6lb.

HOME AND SMARTMI APPS

The Smartmi app is fairly basic and isn’t really designed as any form of third-party HomeKit app, although it does have its uses. It’s also very clearly laid out, and simple to use. You do have to create an account, so if this is something you’d prefer not to do, you can just add the P1 directly to the Home app and be done. The first page shows the device or devices connected to your Smartmi account. As you can see above, the page shows my silver P1. When it’s off, the power button and pollen icon are greyed out. Turning the P1 on results in the icons coming to life – sort of.

Once you tap on the image of your P1, you’re taken to the control screen. The top will state what the overall air quality is like in words (e.g. Excellent), along with the pollen icon in the relevant colour and the PM2.5 level next to that. Below the image of the P1, you have a scrolling bar that gives you access to all of the relevant modes, as well as another instance of a power button.

This is one area where there’s a slight discrepancy between what the manual and the app describe; Auto, Custom, and Sleep mode are all listed as you’d expect, although Normal mode in the manual is described as Medium speed in the app. It’s a small detail, but it should be noted.

Custom mode in the app brings up a cutaway image of the P1, along with a slider that allows you to adjust the speed of the fan yourself. It also shows measurements for the different positions on the slider to show what the suitable space (in terms of coverage in metres square) the particular speed you choose is right for. So the fastest speed you can set it to will cover an area between 18-30m sq.

Finally, the app allows you to set various timers in addition to the preset countdown timers previously mentioned. In the Timers section, you can set a time period, or you can create on and off times for your timer based on 24 hours in a day. You can also set any of these timers to repeat every day, Monday to Friday, at the weekend, on custom days, or even set the timer to only run once.

The preset timers available from the control panel on the device are also available here. You can also turn the screen off, and you can also turn the beeper off, which sounds every time you press a button. This beep is rather loud, so you may well want to turn this activate (or in fact deactivate) this option.

The Home app is in some ways a bit more involved. You only get a single tile, that when pressed, turns the P1 on or off. A long press takes you into two separate controls – an on/off toggle switch, and a fan speed slider. Beyond that, you get access to the familiar settings page, which amongst other things, lists two accessories…

This is where, I feel, things aren’t quite as good as they could be, although this may be down to the way in which the Home app deems how and where things appear. The two ‘accessories’ listed on the main settings screen are in fact just the P1, and the sensor, but as all sensors are now grouped at the top of the screen in the Home app, these two tiles can’t be separated in a way you used to be able to do. It is what it is, but to get to the Air Quality and PM2.5 density readings is a little more long-winded than I’d like, to be honest. Likewise, getting to the Manual and Auto controls is just as convoluted. They really should have these modes accessible on the main settings screen. To be fair, this is also the case with the Vocolinc PureFlow, so it would seem if the P1 didn’t expose the Air Quality sensor to HomeKit, you’d just have the one tile, with the remaining relevant options available on the first settings screen.

There is one other issue, in that while you can access the Sleep, Normal/Medium, and Custom modes easily in the Smartmi app or directly on the device itself, it’s not quite as straightforward in the Home app. For example, there’s no way to simply choose Sleep mode. You can adjust have the P1 in manual mode, and move the fan speed slider to a low position, but it can all be a bit of guesswork as to whether you’ve hit the right ‘spot’. Normal/Medium mode, are just variations on manual mode, so once again it’s down to you to adjust the slider rather than be able to quickly access the right speed/mode.

What has become apparent in comparing the P1 to the PureFlow, is that there’s no child lock to stop the P1 from accidentally being turned on. Aside from that, the PureFlow also has temperature and humidity sensors built-in, although I’ve got more than enough sensors covering these readings, so it doesn’t matter.

THE P1 IN USE / WRAPPING UP

I’ve had the P1 in the house for a while now, although I’ll admit it hasn’t been tested out as thoroughly as I’d like. Even though I’ve done a few basic tests to check that the sensor picks up smoke, for example, and shows this via the display, as well as ramp up the fan speed accordingly, I’ve not worked out how to do an effective pollen test. In a real-world situation with the PM2.5 sensor, normally I’d be able to see the results change quite often, due to the pollution issues related to Asia in general and Taiwan in particular. However, one side effect of the pandemic, which has also revisited Taiwan with a vengeance recently, has produced a side effect of much cleaner air in general, and so, what became a regular occurrence with regards to spikes in PM2.5, has been a mere blip of late. Still, having one of these purifiers in close proximity to our open plan kitchen area has made it pick up on some particulates that emanate from frying food. All in all, it seems to work exactly as expected.

Aesthetically, I love it, and if it were larger, one of these would easily take pride of place in the largest room in the house. As it stands, size matters, generally speaking, when it comes to Air Purifiers. and as this device is smaller in many aspects than the Vocolinc PureFlow, one of these is not really enough to cope. With that in mind, these are really more suited to bedrooms or other smaller rooms in the home, which is no bad thing, due to their size, and relative portability.

With the first Smartmi product for HomeKit, the company not only managed an extremely successful IndieGogo campaign but have been able to keep things polished with not only a tasteful looking product but a more than decent app (should you choose to use it). Together, these things create a decent impression to me at least, and, I find, lead to confidence that the company aren’t a fly-by-night operation, that will drop support for a product you spent hard-earned money on.

There’s really not a lot to complain about here if I’m honest, and all I can hope is that they can add HomeKit compatibility to their other products down the line, with special focus on their standing fans, which already unofficially work with HomeKit via HomeBridge.

For the price, this is a no-brainer, but if you think you don’t need an air purifier, let alone a smart one, either you’re very lucky or aren’t aware of the pervasive nature of PM2.5 pollution. Should it be the latter, please do yourself a favour and read this Wikipedia article…

Full disclosure: Smartmi (via Max Borges Agency) provided HomeKit News with the Smartmi Air Purifier P1 for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was made, requested or has not in any way influenced our opinion of this product.

The post Smartmi Air Purifier P1 (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

The P1 ensures high purification levels as it features a dual-sensor, which contains laser and infrared sensors, plus three kinds of filters for maximum efficiency.

The dual-sensor can accurately detect the airborne particles in the atmosphere, and the preliminary layer absorbs bigger pollutants like pet dander. At the same time, the HEPA layer absorbs pollen and similar particles, and the third layer captures some tiny pollutants and provides a backup for the HEPA layer.

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