Philips 3-in-1 air purifier review

Air purifiers need to stand out in terms of their design, and yet be flexible enough to blend into any home or office decor. Take some of the rival air purifiers for instance, which look like a part of the USS Enterprise, and stand out in any corner of the house. 

Philips’ air purifier, on the other hand, looks like a giant keyhole from Hogwarts castle. At times you feel like not using the bundled remote, and simply say Alohomora to see it works. That said, by no means does the air purifier look bad, and in fact, the rather understated design helps it blend with any decor.

The stem or the base of the air purifier has tiny mesh-like holes that suck in the bad air to pass it through the filter inside. Installing the filter for the first time is quite easy. One simply needs to pull out the back cover, and place the filter inside. The back cover is so light that even a kid can accidentally pull it out. With no visible latch system, one wonders if over time the cover will get loose and fall off by itself. 

The large circular part up top has the vents to throw out purified air, and is surrounded by an LED ring, which lights up to show the modes and air quality. It glows blue when in cooling mode, and red in heating mode. It also changes hues to depict the quality of the air in the room.

The top of this dome is slightly flattened and houses capacitive buttons for controlling the purifier. Alternatively, you can also use the bundled remote for these functions. When not in use, the remote magnetically attaches to a small recess at the back of the machine. 

One thing missing here, which even more affordable purifiers like the Xiaomi Mi Air Purifier series offers, is app support. In this age of internet-connected appliances, not having a companion app or voice assistant support is a bummer, especially when the Philips 3-in-1 costs north of ₹30,000. 

As a purifier, Philips’ machine does its job with aplomb. To test its capabilities, we switched on the purifier right after the house help had dusted the room, and you could see it literally sucking the dust out of the air. The air quality also improved quite quickly. 

We also tested it in the kitchen after our cook had made a particularly spicy curry, and again the purifier did its job in removing the odours from the space. In both scenarios, the machine did its job quite quickly and efficiently.

For purifying the air, the machine uses a three-layer filter. The outer layer captures large particles like dust, the HEPA filter captures smaller particles and allergens as small as 0.003 µm, and lastly, the activated carbon filter helps remove harmful gases and unpleasant odours.

The Philips 3-in-1 is also a handy cooler or heater, depending on where you live and the season. Mumbai isn’t a place you’d try out the heater, unless you want to turn your room into an after-workout sauna. With the summers here, we did get the chance to try out the cooler, and it worked as advertised.

Now mind you, this isn’t an air conditioner, so it won’t instantly turn your room into Kashmir. It just throws out cool air, which helps offer a bit of respite from the searing heat. 

There are three fan speeds to choose from – 7.5W, 15W, 25W – and only the first two are really useful. At the highest setting, the fan tends to get a bit too loud, making it almost impossible to sleep with the machine roaring at the bedside.

Philips’ 3-in-1 air purifier is quite capable at its core job, which is to purify the air in your surroundings. The added capabilities of a heater and cooler are a bonus, and are only useful for specific regions. 

The lack of connected features or app support feels like a let down for a home appliance in 2022, but with the price tag not too high, it may not be a huge deal breaker for many.