Some days may be better than others, but the general trend points purely in one direction—most Indian cities are in an year-long struggle with poor air quality, and this gets amplified in winters due to various atmospheric factors. The constant therefore is, indoor air purification inside our homes, is a must have. Air purifiers over the years have become better, and more affordable. An example of that is Indian tech company Qubo, as it extends the indoor air filtration portfolio.
The Q600 and the Q1000 are the two most powerful purifiers in the line-up now, in terms of the room sizes these are designed to work in. The Q1000 (priced around ₹19,990) would be ideal for a living room and dining room sort of a hall indoors, while the Q600 (this costs around ₹14,990) can be more than adequate for a separate living room or dining room, or perhaps a medium sized bedroom as well. I never pay much attention to the CADR or clean air delivery rate claims, because it is the real world performance that matters, and a lot of that is dependent on the combination of the design dictating air intake, filter quality and the effectiveness of the fan.
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The Qubo Q1000 and Q600 purifiers have a similar design, albeit in differing dimensions. It’s a vertical design, with 360-degree air intake and the ceiling facing fan delivering the filtered air via a large vent at the top. Both purifiers use HEPA H13 (these are the highest grade in consumer air purifiers; are also found in those made for medical facilities) circular filters, with four layers—that is a pre-filter for the bigger dust and pollutants, a HEPA filter layer for the smaller particulate, an activated carbon layer and an anti-bacterial filter layer (this is essentially a silver nano particle coating) for airborne bacteria and virus. Qubo is ticking all the boxes on the checklist.
As luck would have it, I had the chance to test the Qubo Q1000 and Q600 purifiers on some of the most polluted days in the month of December 2024, with AQI sitting well past the 400 mark on successive days. The Qubo Q1000 placed in an active living and dining room combination, kept the indoor air within the 50-70 AQI levels (this is at fan speed manually set to 2; out of four levels). Once the activity, including outdoor air streaming in through doors etc. slowed down, the levels stabilized around a reported AQI of 40.
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For a large enough indoor space, at least by apartment standards for most users, this delivers on the performance. Qubo is using BLDC fans, which claim to deliver air more efficiently while also being relatively more silent compared with purifiers that have different fan applications. I wouldn’t be so sure though—a latest generation Xiaomi Smart Air Purifier 4 is able to keep things considerably silent too.
To the point of manually setting the fan speed to two, the reason is simple—noisy fan at higher speeds. There seems to be a big difference between speed two and three, and not as much between one and two, or three and four. Could this be fixed by a firmware update? As someone with sensitive ears, it was quite apparent that the Q1000 also delivers this low pitched humming noise, which you will notice when there’s relative ambient silence.
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At this point, I must note that the sensors Qubo has used, are well within any error range, something we’ve verified with an external air quality monitor placed some distance away in the same room.
It was a similarly efficient experience with the Q600 as well, placed in a medium sized bedroom. This was able to reduce the indoor air quality from a very unhealthy 151 AQI to 52 AQI within 15 minutes, again fan speed set manually at level two (there is similar variance between fan speed and therefore noise, as you move up the levels). Another 10 minutes, and the room’s air quality was a healthy 31. The fact it is able to maintain this through the night, proves the effectiveness of the filters as well as the fan in dispersing clean air.
The Qubo companion app for Android phones and the iPhone, is simple enough to set up and control the purifiers with. This is also the port of call if you want to get the Qubo Q1000 and Q600 connected with your Alexa smart home ecosystem, for voice control.
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Qubo has implemented a QSensAI feature which they say senses the PM2.5 level pollutants in the air in the room and can automatically turn the device on or off based on those readings. In the peak pollution season where I’ve tested the Q1000 and the Q600, this really doesn’t have a role to play. However, I do look forward to testing this AI implementation once spring arrives and the various factors that dictate the Delhi NCR air quality, favorably reduce the pollution levels outdoors too.
At this time, owing to the fact that the Qubo Q1000 and Q600 purifiers are so new, the replacement filters aren’t yet on sale—and therefore, I cannot advice on the pricing for the same (a recurring cost, at least once a year). For perspective, the Q500’s replacement filter is priced at ₹2,490 and the Q600 should be thereabouts too. Expect a slight premium for the Q1000’s filter though, because it’s comparatively larger in size.
