Levoit Windi Mini Pro Review: A Fan That Travels

With the Windi Mini Pro, Levoit is not trying to replace the large floor fan that gets wedged into a corner of the room as soon as summer turns fierce. This model plays the miniature tower card instead, designed to follow its user from bedroom to office and then, potentially, out onto the terrace.

The format is genuinely compact. The Windi Mini Pro stands around 34 cm tall on a base measuring 12.5 cm along each side. It packs in a 32.56 Wh battery, horizontal oscillation, five speeds, a timer running up to 12 hours, a remote control and a night light in its base. That positions it as a small supplementary fan, more decorative and more mobile than a conventional tower model. The question is whether it blows hard enough to make you forget its very modest dimensions.

The first point in the Windi Mini Pro's favour is its format. At 1.4 kg on the scales it moves easily from room to room, and the handle on top allows it to be carried one-handed, whether it is being set down on a bedside table, a desk or a garden table.

The model is supplied with a charging dock, a remote control and a USB-C cable. The mains adapter, however, is not included. A 9 V or 12 V charger is the one to reach for, since Levoit specifies that with a 5 V charger the fan can only reach the third speed.

The tower design also limits the floor space taken up. The fan occupies very little room and can stay permanently on a piece of furniture without drawing much attention. The finish is reasonably careful, with discreet grey and gold trim, although the glossy top surface will tend to hold fingerprints.

The Windi Mini Pro can run on battery power or while charging. It can be used on its dock at home and then moved around occasionally without having to hunt for a socket. The charging dock also simplifies handling, since returning the fan to it is all that is needed to start recovering runtime.

Operation is straightforward. Controls on the top surface give access to power, speed selection, oscillation, the timer and the night light. Indicator lights show the fan level, the selected duration and the state of the battery. The remote repeats the main functions and adds more direct buttons to raise or lower the speed, engage Turbo mode or silence the beep that accompanies each adjustment.

The fan offers five power levels, one of which is a Turbo mode identical to level five, along with horizontal oscillation adjustable to 30, 60 or 90 degrees. That last point is useful for tailoring the swept area, particularly on a desk or a bedside table. The Windi Mini Pro also retains the last setting used, with the exception of the timer. There is no vertical adjustment at all, however, so the airflow stays at the height dictated by the unit itself, with no way to angle it up or down.

The built-in night light is a pleasant secondary function. It does not turn the fan into a proper lamp, but it does provide soft ambient light that is useful in a bedroom or as decoration on a terrace once evening arrives. Three levels are available.

Maintenance is a mixed picture. The outer surfaces are easy to clean, but the blades sit enclosed behind the grille. The manual points owners towards a vacuum cleaner, a feather duster or compressed air to clean the inside of the fan, which is less practical than direct access to the blades.

The measurements confirm how the Windi Mini Pro is positioned: this is above all a close-range fan. At a distance of 1 m, recorded airflow was 1.4 m/s in normal running and up to 1.9 m/s at full power. The breeze is therefore noticeable and enough to bring a sense of freshness when the fan is placed close to the user.

At 2 m the airflow is still present but falls away quite markedly, measured at 0.8 m/s at normal speed and 1 m/s at full power. That is still enough to feel air moving in a small room or beside a bed, but the Windi Mini Pro does not have the build to stir a living room broadly.

The measured useful range reaches 3.80 m for airflow still perceptible at 0.3 m/s. That is respectable for a fan of this size, though it is worth bearing in mind that the figure mainly concerns the flow along the axis. The Windi Mini Pro blows in a fairly tightly framed way; it does not diffuse air as widely as a larger fan, and the absence of vertical adjustment limits the possible corrections. Horizontal oscillation does compensate for that directionality to some extent, and the choice between 30, 60 and 90 degrees avoids sweeping the whole room unnecessarily when all you want is a little air movement around yourself.

Energy use is among the Windi Mini Pro's strong points. After a full battery charge, consumption was measured at 2 Wh over one hour at low speed. At full power, consumption over the same period reaches 11 Wh. Applied to a standard simulation of eight hours of use per day over four months, that represents roughly 1.92 kWh at low speed and 10.56 kWh at full power. Even used regularly all summer, then, the fan will draw very little energy.

The integrated battery adds day-to-day flexibility. Levoit quotes up to 20 hours of runtime depending on the speed used, though that figure logically corresponds to the gentlest settings; the more the power is raised, the more runtime drops. Turbo mode is therefore best reserved for moments when a quick burst of air is wanted, unless the fan is being kept near its dock or a socket.

A full recharge can take up to eight hours according to the manufacturer, with the duration liable to vary if the fan is running while charging. That is on the long side for a device of this format.

The Windi Mini Pro is reasonable on noise without reaching the near-imperceptible silence its small format might have suggested. At medium speed, 42 dB was measured. The airflow is therefore audible in a quiet room, but contained enough to accompany a working day or a spell of reading without becoming intrusive.

At full power the fan climbs to 50 dB. Turbo mode is then clearly heard, as is often the case on small devices that have to spin hard to compensate for their size. The noise remains bearable during the day, but it will not be the most agreeable setting for sleeping or for enjoying a quiet terrace.

Two other battery-powered portable formats are worth considering. The first is the SwitchBot Battery Circulator Fan, a highly versatile model with both vertical and horizontal oscillation, and a connected one at that. The second is simpler, and could be said to do nothing but blow were it not for its ingenious misting function: the Shark FlexBreeze HydroGo.