After not having my hands on the Gen 1 Qingping Air Quality Monitor for around one year, I finally got access to it again. While I was very impressed at how well it still holds up in some regards, the Air Quality Monitor Gen 2 is a vast improvement in many ways that I didn’t realise at first.
In my full review of the Gen 2 device, I questioned if a second version of the device was even needed, considering how good the first generation was. While I still think the first-generation device is a fantastic air quality monitor, after being able to compare the two directly, I’ve quickly realised just how much of a step forward the newer device is. On top of the additions I mentioned in the first post in this thread, there are a range of overlooked and entirely not-mentioned improvements to the newer device.
The first big difference that isn’t instantly apparent is the size. Just look at how much larger the screen is on the newer device! It’s not something you realise until you see the monitors next to each other, but once you do, you quickly notice that the $20 price increase is probably justified (at least, when you also consider all the other improvements).
While the first Qingping Air Quality Monitor still feels surprisingly responsive when scrolling and navigating the menus, I also found that the second generation device is much faster at loading resource-intensive screens, such as the pollutant graphs. Again, this is not something you’ll likely notice until you can compare the devices side-by-side.
Another change I hadn’t noticed initially is the new device’s extra settings, such as Over Limit Alert, support for the Qingping IoT app, and custom offsets. While I don’t think any of these are essential, the fact that they made so many changes to this newer monitor’s design and software shows that the company is dedicated to improving its products.
At first, I questioned the price increase from $129 to $149, but I also thought the improvements in the second-generation device justified it. However, when seeing all of these other improvements that I didn’t notice at first, I’m actually impressed the price only increased by $20.