Experience Xiaomi Home: Mijia Refrigerator Side-by-Side 635L & Mijia Top Load Washer 13Kg
Not only adding more household appliances, Xiaomi is expanding the Smart Home ecosystem with a pair of Mijia Side-by-Side 635L refrigerators and Mijia Top Load Washer 13Kg washing machines, providing a convenient connection experience and many features aimed at the family's practical needs. When mentioning Xiaomi, most of us will immediately think of smartphones, robot vacuum cleaners, security cameras or air purifiers. However, during the recent Xiaomi Home space experience, the focus was on the two largest household appliances in the house: the Mijia Side-by-Side 635L refrigerator and the Mijia Top Load Washer 13Kg top-loading washing machine.
Interestingly, Xiaomi does not introduce these two products as independent devices. They are placed in a complete living space, where TVs, air conditioners, air purifiers, robot vacuum cleaners, smart lights, refrigerators and washing machines can all be connected and managed on the same Xiaomi Home application. After experience, in addition to the ability to connect and manage on many devices, these two devices themselves have been invested quite carefully in design as well as features to serve the daily needs of modern families.
Uniform design, true Xiaomi style
The first impression when entering the Xiaomi Home space is the unity in design language. Most devices have a minimalist style, with few details, soft rounded corners and neutral tones.
The vertical washing machine uses almost all of Xiaomi's signature white color, while the Mijia Side-by-Side refrigerator chooses a modern gray tone to create a highlight in the kitchen area. When placed next to air conditioners, TVs or other AIoT devices of the company, the overall feeling is quite uniform instead of each device having a different style. In my opinion, this is also one of the reasons Xiaomi started expanding into the large home appliance group. After many years of building an ecosystem with products such as smart lights, cameras, robot vacuum cleaners or sensors, users have become accustomed to controlling devices via Wi-Fi and the Xiaomi Home application. Adding a refrigerator, washing machine or air conditioner helps complete the Smart Home picture instead of just stopping at small IoT devices.
Mijia Refrigerator Side-by-Side 635L: Large storage space and many utilities
With dimensions of about 910 × 715 × 1,770 mm, this is a cabinet model aimed at families with large food storage needs. The capacity is divided into 394 liters for the refrigerator and 241 liters for the freezer, enough to store food for a week or longer.
What I like is that Xiaomi arranges the internal space quite reasonably. Each side has four main shelves, two drawers below and three shelves on the door. Thanks to that, food classification is quite intuitive, from vegetables, drinks to frozen foods, all have their own place.
Regarding cooling ability, Xiaomi is equipped with a three-layer Surround Cooling multi-layer airflow system. The air vents are arranged on many different levels so that cold air circulates evenly throughout the entire cabinet, limiting the situation where some places are too cold and some places are not hot enough.
The control panel is located right in the cooler with a quite simple interface. Users can adjust the refrigerator temperature from 2 to 8°C, the freezer temperature from -16 to -24°C. When you need to quickly cool newly purchased food, just activate Super Cool or Super Freeze mode instead of manually adjusting each temperature level.
Another notable feature is the Ag+ Fresh Deodorization system that uses silver ions to support deodorization and antibacterial for both the cooler and freezer. For families who regularly preserve many different types of food, this is a quite practical feature because it limits odors between foods.
Mijia Top Load Washer 13Kg: Aimed at large families
If the Mijia refrigerator solves the need for food storage, the Mijia Top Load Washer 13Kg washing machine aims to reduce the number of washings per week.
The maximum washing volume of 13kg allows processing a large amount of clothes at once, equivalent to about 16 pairs of jeans or 56 t-shirts as announced by Xiaomi. For large families or those who often wash bedding on weekends, this is a quite suitable capacity.
The design of the device still retains Xiaomi's familiar style with white tones, soft rounded corners and a control panel placed at the top so operation is quite intuitive.
One detail I appreciate is that the lid closes slowly instead of closing quickly like many traditional top-loading washing machine models. This both increases the feeling of luxury and is safer if there are small children in the house. The machine uses a brushless BLDC motor, so when operating, especially in spinning mode, the noise level is controlled at a maximum level of about 72 dB. Actual experience shows that the machine operates quite smoothly and the vibration is not too large.
The more interesting point lies in the smart connection. After connecting to Xiaomi Home, users can access many more washing programs that are not displayed on the machine's control panel, from washing woolen clothes, blankets, sofa covers to specialized sterilization or washing modes for each type of fabric.
The device also has the ability to remember usage habits. After about 30 days, the AI system will begin to recommend suitable washing programs based on the modes the user frequently selects, making each wash simpler.
In addition, users can also customize up to 8 water levels, change washing time, number of rinses or schedule operations right on the phone. A small but quite useful feature is that when the washing cycle ends, the washing pulsator will slowly decelerate to help clothes loosen and limit tangles. If clothes are left in the washing drum for too long, the application will also send a notification to take the clothes out to avoid smelly clothes.
Xiaomi Home is the glue that connects all devices
After experiencing the entire space, I realized that Xiaomi Home acts as a control center instead of just an application specific to each product.
From washing machines, refrigerators, air conditioners, air purifiers, robot vacuum cleaners, cameras, smart lights to kitchen appliances such as oil-free fryers or blenders can all appear on the same interface. If you use a Xiaomi TV running Google TV, the Xiaomi Home application is also pre-installed to monitor the status of devices right on the big screen. Besides, users can combine door sensors, presence sensors and smart lights to create automatic scenarios such as lights turning on automatically when someone enters the room, air conditioning operating before going home or robot vacuum cleaner starting to work when people leave the house.
What I like is that Xiaomi does not force users to invest in the entire ecosystem from the beginning. You can start with a few familiar appliances, then gradually add a refrigerator, washing machine or air conditioner as needed. All are still managed on the same single application.
In particular, if you are using a Xiaomi smartphone or tablet, the device identification and connection process takes place faster thanks to the features built into the company's ecosystem.
Conclusion
After the experience, I have the feeling that Xiaomi is gradually perfecting the Smart Home picture in a more practical direction. Instead of just focusing on small AIoT devices, the company started bringing household items used every day such as refrigerators, washing machines or air conditioners into the same ecosystem. The Mijia Side-by-Side 635L refrigerator and the Mijia Top Load Washer 13Kg washing machine both meet basic usage needs with large capacity, modern design and many useful features. Meanwhile, Xiaomi Home plays the role of connecting all devices together, making management simpler and bringing a comfortable living experience in accordance with the direction that Xiaomi is building.
Currently, the Mijia Side-by-Side 635L refrigerator has a listed price of 16,490,000 VND, while the Mijia Top Load Washer 13Kg top-load washing machine is priced at 8,990,000 VND. In my opinion, this price is quite competitive if placed next to many products in the same segment that are not equipped with Wi-Fi connection or the ability to manage through the application. During promotional programs, users can absolutely buy at more attractive prices.