Xiaomi Smart Temperature & Humidity Sensor Review

What the F is that you may ask?  Well in short it tells you the room temperature and the humidity.  The smart, well that means it has Bluetooth, yeah Bluetooth.

First Impressions

Okay so I actually started using one way before I write this and it’s not the only Xiaomi temp and humidity thingy I’ve used so that will help put into context that I was, disappointed with it.  Urgh, LCD screen, not some back lit phone like LCD, like something from a £2 calculator.  Yeah, seriously.  Now I get that you want low power but……. Xiaomi make another similar device with an E-Ink screen and that screen is stunning.  This in comparison makes me sad.

Set Up

Okay so Xiaomi clearly have some schizophrenia as this device has the Smart provided by Bluetooth.  Yeah, Bluetooth and not Zigbee like most of their IoT devices so the current Gateway I have doesn’t have the ability to act as a Bluetooth gateway, sooooo I had to buy one of the new Smart lamps which have Wi-Fi and can act as a Bluetooth gateway to then link up the Bluetooth thing to the internet to make it smart.  You use the Xiaomi Mi Home app and it after a couple deleting and re-pairing with my phone after a while then the lamp began to see the thing and now is accessible over the internet.  Yey!  So now I can tell if I turned the AC on while I’m at work.

Screen

The screen is functional, it works but is nothing interesting.

Battery Life

It takes 1 AAA battery and it would seem to last forever.  It’s been running for months now and it still shows full battery, I was worried Bluetooth would eat more than Zigbee but maybe not.

Aesthetics

Its nice.  Well, its fine, its bland and boring.  Xiaomi seems to love white but I’d love it if it was in black and had an E-Ink screen but hey.  One thing that is nice is that it comes with a magnetic attachment with a little sort of hook.  So, you can attach the odd hook thing with the attached sticky pad and then pull the actual device off as you wish.  I’m not sure why you would want to detach it in this fashion other than to replace the battery

Functionality

On its own, it tells you the temperature and the humidity.  With a Bluetooth gateway connected it becomes accessible to online Mi Home app and then you can set up controls, so you could set up if temp hits 25 then a fan or AC turns on if you have other Xiaomi smart things.  So set up a heater, AC, humidifier and a dehumidifier and you could have yourself a seriously climate-controlled room.

Value

If all you want is a thermometer this is a bit costly but if your jumping into the Xiaomi ecosystem then it gives you the data and has a display which the other alternatives from them are one or the other.  I really wish the E-Ink screen one had the smart aspect.  However, that this uses only Bluetooth as a gateway and not Zigbee existing gateway owners may (like me) need to buy something that has that functionality.

Conclusion

Well, I don’t love this, it’s a fudge of a product.  I have a Zigbee based sensor which has no screen and it worked effortlessly and instantly.  I also have the E-Ink sensor (I love it) but it has no smarts so can’t connect to anything (why??????) so we have this one in the middle.  It works, it looks reasonably fine and not very expensive, there isn’t really any bad points but yet it manages to not feel cool or interesting.  A nice thing, seems nicely made, provides useful data but is as cool and interesting itself as a spoon.

That said, once I am back in the UK there is a very good chance I will buy one of these for every room in the house and maybe one for the fridge too.   Its not a sexy product but not everything needs to be.