Straight out 18 months into this pandemic the demand for air purifiers is its highest demand, with all kinds of illnesses we want to avoid it has been a growing trend to have that added layer of protection from your home against common allergies, and even cough causing pollutants.
A new brand into this category is realme, but not their first lifestyle product as they have toothbrushes, weighing scales, CCTV smart cam under their AIoT category. But we’re glad that they are now expanding their product line to a bigger range.
The realme TechLife Air Purifier is their offering to Filipinos as part of your home companion, design-wise it’s quite familiar to cassette-type air filters such as the premium Blueair, while still maintaining a clean white design with minimalist style grills.
The front cover can be pushed to eject the clamp similar to a cassette tape or cabinet hinge, quite handy for reveal the filter area but a tad too easy as opening the product already accidentally loosen the front cover especially if you lift this device the wrong way.
By the way this Air Purifier weight is 4.6kg and we suggest to place it at the floor as most contaminated pollutants sinks cause of the dust, so it can better analyze the area based on the sensor.
Removing the front cover reveals two types of filters, one for bigger pollutants and usual dusts/hair or bigger particles such as sand. This mesh is the one you see similar to aircon filters, just enough to filter big dusts. That’s why on the inside the the real filter also known as the HEPA filter or High Efficient Particulate Air filter which can clean up to PM 2.5 of pollutants.
YOU MIGHT ASK
What the heck is a PM 2.5?
(SPICY Pecho?)
These are the pollutants when accumulated can create distortion or visibility reduction such as smog, dust, fine particles (chalk, sand, pollens, etc), or even kitchen air smoke due to cooking. All these when accumulated in large quantities can affect already irritate our eyes, nose, and breathing, resulting in common colds, cough, and even allergies especially if you’re sensitive to common pollutants.
The realme TechLife Air Purifier has a CADR of 330m3 which translates to around 35-38sqm of space to be filtered in just 14 minutes. Now compare this to most air purifiers at this price range it’s around just 28sqm in reference to other air purifiers at its price range, so realme has some offering when it comes to space capcity.
realme claims that this has the same quality sensor used by a famous Japanese brand – Sharp. In our quick test, the senor above the duct definitely detects even simple pollutants like oil from humidifiers fast.
What is CADR?
CLEAn air delivery rate
How does it stack up to our experience?
We will check out the realme TechLife Air Purifier in 3 aspects
- Usability
- Performance
- Long Term usage
Usability
On the top, the controls are all capacitive from power, timer, fan speed, auto, sleep mode, and replacement filter. The keys are responsive and fast, sensitive to the touch. One factor we are seeing here that might be a concern is the ease of the buttons to be tinkered with, unfortunately reading the manual doesn’t show any child lock mechanism which is a concern some parents look in devices like this for their kids.
The indicator showing the status of the air is straightforward, green for ok, orange for moderate, and red for concern in the air. In Auto Mode, the fan will activate from low to high depending on the sensor’s feedback of the air quality.
Performance
The realme TechLife Air Purifier really does the job in detecting nearby air status, even a single spray of humidifier smoke can be detected and overdrives to red status and activate the highest fan speeds to clean the air. Even small items like kitty litter dust or kitchen smoke are detected fast when in small proximity.
One concern on this device though is the range of the sensor, on a near 40sqm space the airflow isn’t guaranteed to be detected by the small sensor unless the air itself comes in close proximity to the device. Still, given the strong airflow of the device, eventually, it can circulate air even on a large space to clean the space.
Fan Noise
Even at night mode the realme Air Purifier is slightly noisier than expected. Rated at 48db at sleep mode, we think this is still high sensitive sleepers. We believe this is due to the duct style fan realme implemented, prioritizing capacity over noise. While its nice that it can clean up to 38sqm of space, light sleepers might not be able to make this an option for bedroom use.
Log Term Usage
Filter
Now admit that Air Filters are necessary to be replaced for any air purifiers, the same goes for water filters and dispensers please. Fortunately, realme uses a basic HEPA filter similar to vehicles, so it shouldn’t be hard to replace or expensive as well.
Don’t get us wrong, it doesn’t mean it’s basic it doesn’t work well already. This is the same HEPA filter technology used by vehicles, so it’s something tested even in other industries and tried to standard.
We just hope that realme can provide their filter before the advertised 2800H expiration of their filters, which translates to 116 days or nearly 4 months of usage. Right now we aren’t sure if the filter is a standard one or catered to realme only, but we expect realme to provide the filter at a reasonable price for sure. Unlike competitor filters that theirs are proprietary or customized in size that can cost from minimum 1,500 to 3,000 for a similar filter.
At an estimated price of around 800 pesos for the filter in the long run, filter wise of replacing 3x a year religiously you get the long term savings on this aspect compared to other branded air purifiers.
Electricity Use
The realme TechLife Air Purifier is rated at 68W at its highest performance, now we already saved you the trouble as a regular household with a 5k bill will add 468 pesos monthly on their bill. Now that is if its full blast of high all the time, which is technically not reasonable. Factoring the average usage calculated at 50W the realme Air Purifier averages 330 pesos a month 24/7 always on, a small price to pay monthly for the health protection it can provide against pollutants.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, having a simple cough or sneezing can heighten the senses of everyone around you. Having an Air Purifier can lessen these occurrences due to the clean air delivery it can provide. Given the right scenarios where the air purifier is placed and the need, it can definitely improve the quality of air in your surroundings for a more complacent mind in your humble abode.
Against formidable standalone air purifiers in the market now like Sharp and even Samsung, realme is priced at SRP Php5990 compared to Php7,600+ for the previously mentioned brands. Though for sharp, they are famous for the inclusion of their Plasmacluster technology which is an added layer of air cleaning through plasma induction, though this is another cartridge you will think to replace in the long run…
Overall if you live in a space that is around 1 BR condo or a 1-floor living area the realme Air Purifier can be your health companion with no worries. As an introductory offer realme offers this new product at Php1,000 OFF in E-Commerce sales available in Lazada and Shopee
What we like
- Fast Acting Sensor
- Easy controls
- Easy to access filter and replaceable friendly
- Large Capacity for its price point
What needs to be improved
- No child lock
- Fan Noise might be a concern for light sleepers
