The Smartmi P1 air purifier is one of the few air purifiers that includes HomeKit integration, adding it to the Home app and being controlled via Siri voice commands. The Smartmi P1, released earlier this year, is a relatively new product, but Smartmi has other air purifiers and home products, and is a subsidiary of Chinese company Xiaomi.
Smartmi P1 has an attractive circular design that blends well with home decor. The bottom half of the purifier has a fan that circulates the clean air while the dirty air is pulled through the HEPA filter with holes. The top has a convenient handle for carrying the Smartmi P1, which makes it easy to move from room to room.
Design-wise, I loved the look of the P1 and it was unobtrusive in any room it was in. This is an air purifier designed for small rooms, so it is not as big as other air purifier options on the market. It is 14 inches long and has a diameter of about 8.7 inches. The Smartmi P1 I tested is made of a silver aluminum with white plastic accents, but there is also a dark version with gray aluminum and black plastic accents.
Setting up the Smartmi P1 was an absolute nightmare, and I almost scrapped the review because of it. The app is not intuitive to use and it took me two days of resetting and re-downloading to get the app to function somewhat. It wouldn’t detect my wifi network during the setup process so I had to manually enter my SSID and password when it was hard to find the location and it also struggled with my 2.4/5GHz merged network. Most smart home products have no problem detecting nearby WiFi networks, and I doubt most people are going to have problems with this app.
I started by connecting to ‘HomeKit’ first, but if you do that, everything breaks. The Smartmi P1 needs to be set up in the Smartmi Link app before it can connect to ‘HomeKit’ and after some help from the company I finally got everything set up in the right order.
Once setup is complete, the app is mediocre at best. The app responds well enough to controls that let me change the power level of the air purifier, but that’s about it. I think you can eventually use this air purifier without apps and without ‘HomeKit’, but then you’re missing out on some major appeal.
Besides controlling the air purifier’s volume from the app, I can set a timer to turn it off or on, turn the LCD screen on or off, turn the sound on or off, and see the filter life remaining. I think I might be able to see a historical air quality chart based on app store screenshots, but it doesn’t work. There’s also a feature to list the air quality outside, but I refused to give the app my location information.
I had a firmware update for my P1 that initially wouldn’t install no matter what I did, but after a week, it seems to be able to install fine. I didn’t notice a difference in performance after installing it.
In short, the app is terrible, which is a shame because the air purifier itself seems decent enough. When I activate it manually to clean cooking smells and clean the air quality after burning a candle, it works in a small space.
It didn’t work in my kitchen and living room, which is a big size, but in a small bedroom, it was able to keep the air clean better. Although I’m not sure how well it works at manually determining air quality. I have significant pollen and dust allergies so I have two Dyson air purifiers that I use.
At no point during my testing of the Smartmi P1 did it sense enough allergens in the air to speed itself up. It always seems to have a PM2.5 reading of 10 or below. At one point, my Dyson air purifier came on and reported a PM2.5 level of 50 and a PM10 level of 54, but even though the Dyson was right next to the SmartMe, the SmartMe couldn’t detect the same particles in the air. It didn’t detect any change in air quality with smoke from a candle and it only worked to clear the air of candle smell/smoke when I turned it on manually.
Be aware if you are buying Smartmi P1 only Detects PM2.5 and PM10 particles. It does not deal with volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) or NO2 like some high-end air purifiers. You can get an allergen filter (which is the default) or a charcoal (pet) filter which is good for odors. All replacement filters cost $40 and need to be swapped out around the one-year mark.
I was able to test the individual charcoal filter and I preferred it to the standard filter because it is better at filtering cooking odors, and it should also be ideal for those who have pets and want a filter that will help with any odors. to pets
In the case of ‘HomeKit’, Siri– can be used to turn on the air purifier, turn off the air purifier, tell you the remaining filter life, adjust the speed and tell you the PM 2.5 level in the room. It’s more than most air purifiers can do, so it’s useful to have, but since most air purifiers are meant to work automatically or with manual controls, I’m not sure if people will get much value from the HomeKit integration.
The Home app can be used to turn the Smartmi P1 on or off and it can adjust the level, it also allows using the air purifier in different scenes and automation.
There are some other useful features to note. The Smartmi P1 is silent in auto mode, and even at a medium speed, it’s not overly loud. It has several usage modes that you can choose from and is easy to move from room to room with the included handle. Usage modes can be switched via Siri, the Home app, the SmartMe app, or physical controls on the device.
bottom line
The Smartmi P1 looks like a decent air purifier and has the potential to be useful for those who need HomeKit connectivity, but it’s hampered by a bad app and a terrible setup experience. Until the Smartmi Link app gets some major updates, I don’t recommend the Smartmi P1.
How to buy
Although not recommended, the Smartmi P1 can be purchased from Amazon for $153.
