Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer: cook fries the smart way

The Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer review in a sentence: a smart and stylish air fryer with a budget price tag and the option for controlling it via an app.

Cooking fries using one of the best air fryer models on the market is a doddle and way easier than it used to be if you were doing it with a deep fat fryer. It is, of course, a much healthier route to take too. The Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer joins the growing collection of appliances dedicated to producing a better, healthier chip, which is hardly surprising given Xiaomi’s knowledge and expertise of the, er, smartphone market.

Yup, Xiaomi is well known for its handsets but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t call on some of that tech knowledge and use it to build a better air fryer, right? However, the Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer sits at the lower end of the pricing scale. That’s not to say it’s cheap and nasty because the lustrous white exterior points to potentially great things hiding inside. It is, however, a budget air fryer and it therefore looks rather better than it performs.

This is no state-of-the-art smartphone that’s for sure. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for an air fryer that doesn't bust your budget and fries chips just about how you like ‘em the Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer should definitely be investigated. Even more so if you can’t get enough of Wi-Fi-enabled, app controlled appliances in your home. Let’s take a look at how it ticks.

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Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer: price and availability

Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer is available from Amazon and retails for £79.99 though can frequently be found discounted.

Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer: what is it?

The glistening white plastic Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer is just one of many on the market from a brand that’s more commonly known for its range of smartphones. While the air fryer comes with Wi-Fi connectivity and can be operated using an app on your own smartphone that’s about as sophisticated as it gets. In fact, if you’re looking for an affordable and easy to use air fryer this could be the model for you.

There’s a single 3.5-litre drawer at the front for popping your food into, which is adequate for a couple of people or someone on their own with a healthy appetite. We’re quite keen on the size of this air fryer too, with dimensions of 304 x 252 x 335mm meaning it’s relatively unobtrusive on a kitchen worktop. The shape of the design makes it easy to store in a cupboard too. The appliance is also easy to clean having a construction that can be wiped over with ease.

In terms of overall design the Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer has everything in the right places too, with a practical handle on the front of the unit making is simple to remove hot food. This is also useful for giving your chips the occasional toss to ensure consistent air frying takes place.

There’s a solitary settings dial on the front of the unit, which lets you select cooking programmes or take a manual direction if preferred. Alternatively, you can do this via the Xiaomi Home App or make use of Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant options if that's your thing, but seeing as you’re standing at the machine to load ingredients this seldom got used during our time with it. However, there are some handy recipes on the app, if you’re looking for ideas that don't involve crispy french fries.

Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer: is it any good?

As is often the case, because this air fryer is on the cheaper side there are compromises to be found. The quality of the design is fine and it looks nice enough, plus that capacity might be adequate for most. There are practical touches that make it as good as other models in this sub-£100 price bracket, with dishwasher-friendly components that include the drawer and crisper tray. These are the items that get greasy and grubby, so that’s a bonus. 

The specification is less beefy than rivals though, with a temperature selection that tops out at 200 degrees. This is less than other models you can buy and might become a hindrance if you need to cook using higher temperatures. While the capacity is enough for smaller households its ability to cook larger volumes of food is limited, so anyone with a dinner table full of impatient kids to feed might need to look elsewhere. Even more so if they throw back chips that aren't quite as crispy as they were anticipating.

Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer: performance

Until you’ve got used to cooking with an air fryer it can often be tempting to use the pre-programmed controls. It’s the same with the Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer as they make using it a doddle. That said, we found the results were a little less impressive than rivals we’ve tried, which is where you can improve things by going down the manual control route.

Chips, as the prime example, can be given that extra crunch factor by adjusting timings to suit. As always though, practice and plenty of visual checks on progress is the best way to go with an air fryer in order to secure the results that match your palate. We found that things like chicken wings and sausages were the same, although the Xiaomi will work perfectly fine using those default programmes if you’re not too fussy with what ends up on your plate.

Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer: verdict

The Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer is a no-frills machine that, considering how cheap it is, delivers respectable performance via a practical and clean-looking design. If you’re addicted to apps and love to operate anything and everything in your home using software and your phone it makes perfect sense. However, given the fact that you’re invariably going to be standing right next to it in order to fill the compartment with chips or whatever, the manual control is usually the best way to kickstart cooking.

It’s always a good idea to keep checking an air fryer anyway, to ensure your food is cooked properly. Seeing as you can’t see anything until you pull out the drawer then we found the app tends to get sidelined. In terms of performance, the Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer gets the job done, but its lack of muscle in terms of higher-end temperatures really does take the edge off crisping foodstuffs. Chips are the prime example, but frozen spring rolls and those wings we had are two others.

It’s decent, but the Xiaomi Mi Smart Air Fryer has plenty of rivals in the best air fryer department that kick it firmly into touch. Maybe the next edition will pack a little more punch, eh?