Xiaomi unveils smart water purifier in India

Xiaomi ''smart water purifier'' unveiled last week, did not quite create a splash thanks to the launch of the new Xiomi 4K TV, which coincided with the launch. Rather the reaction was whether it was required at all.

The purifier is meant to turn tap water into drinking water and is billed as smart due to its being part of Xiaomi's Mi Home network, meaning customers could check its settings and recent activity and get alerts when replacement filters were needed.

In a Facebook post, Xiomi vice-president Hugo Barra said, "This is a product we'd LOVE to bring to India soon - Mi Water Purifier. Just announced today, it makes tap water drinkable with Reverse Osmosis (RO), is super compact, shows real-time water quality, and reminds you on your smartphone when it's time to replace the filter."

The Mi water purifier, carries a price tag of 1,299 Yuan (approximately Rs 13,000), had been developed with Yunmi Technology. The purifier works on reverse osmosis, the same process used for bottled pure water filtration, desalinination and medical water.

The purifier comes with four filters, a cotton filter, two activated coconut carbon filters and a RO membrane. While the first filter cleaned sediment rust, and other such impurities from water, the carbon filters reduced discolouration and odour and improved the taste, while the RO membrane filtered heavy metals, bacteria and other organic matter.

There is a glut of water purifiers made locally according to commentators, and it would be hard for consumers to switch over from the current sales and service networks that these brands offered.

But the Xiaomi purifier comes with some pretty cool features like the ability to monitor the status of the water quality from one's smartphones. Also more importantly, the filter alerts the user for filter change, on their smartphone too.

Further there was Xiaomi's claim that the unit would filter water 8 times faster than the standard water purifier.

But unlike the company's smartphones, water filters need regular maintenance and commentators say, Xiaomi would need to find partners once again to got the job done as parts would need to be replaced every few months.