Tower fans are popular among households wanting to save on electricity during hot weather, and Xiaomi has released the Smart Tower Fan in the Malaysian market.
While tower fans are nothing new, nor are they the most exciting home appliances to own, Xiaomi has implemented a few neat features to make it stand out and find its footing among home IoT appliances.
Let’s find out what are the features, how it feels to use, and whether it is worth getting on.
Design
The Xiaomi Smart Tower Fan has a cylindrical shape on top of a round base. It has an all plastic shell with a white matte finish. Control buttons populate the top of the cylinder.
The fan vent has a large surface area covered by a grille for safety. Inside it features an impeller style fan blade, similar to what you find in air conditioners or ventilation systems. The fan blades can easily be detached for cleaning as well.
One of my favourite aspects of the design is its size. It is quite compact, having a footprint slightly larger than an A4 paper. The base does not take up much space either to avoid tripping over it.
A 1.6m power cord is attached to the base, and is sufficiently long for most users.
Features
The Xiaomi Smart Tower Fan features a DC motor capable of running at different frequencies. Gone are the days of speed 1 being to slow and 2 being to breezy, the Smart Tower Fan allows for up to 100 levels of speed settings.
The motor is quiet as well. It feels inaudible most of the time, and is not annoyingly loud at higher air speeds. However I was no longer able to talk through the fan for a robotic sound effect.
Strong Airflow
Unlike traditional stand fans that concentrates airflow towards one small area, i.e.: the face, the Xiaomi Smart Tower Fan covers a taller and wider area due to the tall air vents. The airflow feels like a natural breeze instead of a vortex, managing to cool my entire body at once.
Adjustable Swing Angles
The Smart Tower Fan has adjustable angles of 30°, 60°, 90°, 120°, and 150°. It can be adjusted via the Mi Home app, which is great to suit different rooms and living areas.
Voice & Mi Home Support
It also has support for Hey Google and Alexa voice commands, on top of integration with the Mi Home ecosystem. It does take a while to set up, but once I got it up and running, I could easily use voice commands to adjust the wind speed, turn it on and off, and the oscillation of the fan base. Even when I am out and about, I could also make adjustments on my phone, such as turning it on to pre-cool the room while I am on the way back and so on.
Our Verdict
The Xiaomi Smart Tower Fan is a great entry point to Xiaomi’s IoT ecosystem, which now has a variety of appliances such as air purifiers, TV sticks, pet feeders and more.
While tower fans with impeller designs are nothing new, Xiaomi takes it up a notch with multiple neat features that further improves on the already tried and tested formula.
