Air purifiers are one of the toughest things to review. It is tough to see if they are making the air in our rooms any better. And that is why it is very important that brands are able to instil trust in their customers. With most of these devices, all we can do is trust that they are doing their job.
The BlueAir Sense+ is a Wi-Fi enabled air purifier. The company claims this is an intelligent home defence system. That would be a bit like calling a gun a cannon. It is a air purifier, and a stylish one at that. Yes, it connects to the Wi-Fi and you can use the smartphone to control it. These days that is just smart, certainly not intelligent.
What is good?
I like the design of the Sense+. It is minimalist, but functional. The best part of the design is the panel on top which switches on if you wave a hand over it, without even touching. The blue LED lights gel with the design, and these are the only inputs on the device.
The air is sucked in from the right grill and clean air is pushed out of the other side. And even at its best speed, the Sense+ is so silent. Having seen a few air purifiers, I would call this one of the quietest I have seen.
In the first day on tests at my East Delhi apartment, the filters turned grey. So even as I am not sure if this, or any other, air purifier is really making the air better for us, you can be rest assured that it is sucking in a lot of particles. I used the device in my 12×12 feet bedroom and the results show that I need something to get these particles out of room.
The app connects easily enough to the device using your Wi-Fi and lets you control the Sense+wherever you are. It also lets you activate a Night mode and Child Lock. There is even an Auto mode, where the device in tandem with the BlueAir Aware works to clean the air based on the pollution data of the house. However, it is useless for those without the Aware.
The model offers easy filter cleaning and replacement. It is a more practical option I have seen.
What is not that good?
To start with, the Sense+is big. It’s about the size of luggage that has to be checked in and will stick out like an elephant in the sort of rooms we have in the cities. The other big issue is the BlueAir Friend app.
As I mentioned, the Sense+ itself is minimalist and hence does not have any displays. So you are dependent on the app for a lot of stuff. But sadly, the app does not offer a lot, at least not if you just have the Sense+. I could not see what the PM10 or PM2.5 level in the room was, or what it would be if the device ran for an hour or so. This is disappointing and you are pretty much flying blind with the Sense+.
Verdict
The BlueAir Sense+ is a very stylish air purifier for modern Indian homes. But it is not intelligent and its intelligence comes by being part of a system for which you will need to invest more. At this price, I would expect the BlueAir to offer more to the buyers in terms of data. It makes no sense of selling the air quality monitor as a separate unit in the country like India. Without it your nose seems to be the only data collecting device when the Sense+ is running and that is not good enough. n Estimated street price: R39,990.
Source: financialexpress.com