Air purifiers are slowly (and unfortunately) becoming a necessary part of our homes. As many as 36 cities in India were among the top-50 polluted cities worldwide. Be it vehicular/ industrial emissions or stubble burning, lakhs of Indians breathe polluted air on a daily basis. Companies have therefore started launching premium, as well as budget purifiers in India. Philips, which is among the most commonly known electronic brands in India, is among the list of companies offering several options for air purifiers for consumers in India. The company recently launched the Philips air purifier 3-in-1 for Rs 32,995. With the features on board, the new air purifier from Philips goes head-to-head against the Dyson Purifier Hot + Cool and the likes but at a lower price.
The company sent us its new air purifier to test its performance and capabilities. After over two weeks of use, here is our Philips 3-in-1 air purifier review.
Philips 3-in-1 air purifier review
Starting off with the design, the Philips 3-in-1 air purifier is quite compact. It is about 60 cm tall and nearly half the size of the Dyson Purifier Cool, which we reviewed recently. The base is cone-shaped with tiny mesh-like cutouts for drawing the air inside. As expected, the base houses the air purifier’s filter, which one needs to install manually.
The air purifier filter installation process is quite simple. One needs to simply pull the back cover and place the filter inside. Once you have placed the filter correctly, attach the back cover and you are good to go. The base also has a tiny circular display at the front, which shows the temperature and the PM2.5 levels. I did not like the latch mechanism of the back cover though. There is literally no click when you attach the cover to the air purifier. Also, if some kid pushes the air purifier, the back cover will fall off.
Above the base is a large dome that is slightly flattened at the front for throwing out purified air. The air purifier also comes with an LED ring around the air vent to show the air quality or whether the purifier is set to hot or cold. Red is for hot air and blue is for cool air.
With regards to the PM2.5 levels, the LED strip will glow Blue if the PM2.5 levels are below 60, which essentially means that the air quality is good. For PM2.5 levels between 61-120, the LED light will be in shades of Blue and Purple. If the air quality level enters the Poor category ( PM2.5 level 131-250), the light colour will change to Purple and Red. Lastly, the light will glow Red if the PM2.5 levels are above 250.
Over the top of the dome-shaped air vent are various capacitive touch buttons for adjusting the settings of the Philips air purifier. These include the power button, heater, fan, oscillation, and timer. Alternatively, you can also use the tiny round remote, which is provided with the air purifier. A neat design trick here by Philips is that the remote attaches magnetically on the back of the air vent. Therefore, the chances of you losing your Philips air purifier remote are quite less.
Coming to the features and performance, the 3-in-1 air purifier, which falls under the company’s 2000 series, has a 3-layer filter. The outer layer captures large particles like dust and hair, whereas the HEPA filter captures particles as small as 0.003 µm. The latter is useful to capture bacteria, pollen, various types of viruses, allergens, etc. Lastly, the inner-most layer of the air purifier filter is an activated carbon filter that is claimed to remove harmful gases and unpleasant odours.
The purifier instantly detected the smoke in the kitchen while cooking food. Similarly, it showed an increase in the PM2.5 levels when I sprayed deodorant in my room. In case you are wondering, there is no official word on whether the air purifier captures the COVID-19 virus.
The Philips air purifier filter has a longer life of up to 24 months, compared to Dyson’s Purifier Cool filter, which can last up to a year. While the filter comes with its set of Pros, cleaning it once every two weeks is a bummer. The Dyson Purifier Cool (Review) does not come with any such requirements for the filter to work at its best capacity. Philips tells us that the filter can be cleaned depending on the pollution levels in the region and not necessarily every two weeks.
The air purifier filter, which has a blue shade when brand new, is covered with dust after two weeks of use.
Another bummer I noticed during my Philips 3-in-1 air purifier review is that there is no app support. While most things can be controlled via the remote or the on-device capacitive touch buttons, an app would have been useful to check the overall filter quality, switching on/off the purifier remotely, etc. The app could also be useful to showcase the pollution levels chart. All these things can be done on the Dyson Pure Hot + Cool. Dyson Pure Cool air purifier (Review) as well, which is priced under Rs 30,000.
Having control of the purifier via an app also makes it easier to switch between the Fan mode and Heater mode, which can otherwise be controlled via the remote or the buttons on the air purifier. While we are at it, you get three fan settings (7.5W, 15W, 25W), and three Heater settings (1250W, 1500W, 2200W). I did not use the heater mode as the weather in Mumbai is relatively hot throughout the year. As for the fan mode, I kept switching between the 7.5W and 15W because the fan noise at 25W is quite loud. In comparison, the Dyson Purifier Cool is a lot quieter. You can also switch between three oscillation modes - 60 degrees, 120 degrees, and 350 degrees to cover the entire room.
Verdict
So, should you consider buying the Philips 3-in-1 air purifier? The Philips air purifier does come with a bunch of features that help you breathe cleaner air. The 3-layer HEPA filter, coupled with various modes for fan and heating serves the purpose of three different devices in one. However, in the era of smart/ connected homes, the lack of app support feels like a con. Those who wish to have such ease of access and control, and only want the purifier along with a cooling function should consider something like the Dyson Purifier Cool, which is available for Rs 24,999. There is the heater variant as well but it is priced at Rs 50,310.
The Philips air purifier 3-in-1 fills the gap by offering a heater as well with its price tag of Rs 32,995. It is also quite compact in size, although not as aesthetic in terms of looks. Therefore, the Philips 3-in-1 air purifier can be purchased if you are looking for a compact air purifier that gets the job done for all kinds of weather.
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