Xiaomi Mi Electric Scooter Official UK version

Product Information

The high brightness of the new 2W headlight effectively improves the safety of riding at night. The light irradiation angle has a new design that keeps the light below the line of sight to avoid headlight dazzle. When the headlight is turned on, the tail light will automatically turn on. When the brake lever is pressed, the tail light will blink to alert pedestrians and vehicles behind you. The tail light also has a rear reflector function to ensure safe riding. The Xiaomi Mi Electric Scooters are some of the best electric scooters we’ve reviewed and it’s of no surprise that we continually see them on the best selling lists. The Xiaomi 1S is a foldable electric scooter designed by Chinese tech giant Xiaomi (pronounced "show-er-me"). It is manufactured by Ninebot, who also manufacture their own e-scooter (the Segway branded ES2). Like the M365, it has a simple folding design, 30 km (18 mile) range, 25 km/h (16 mph) top-speed, low weight and pneumatic tyres. It also boasts cruise control, front and rear lights, E-ABS brakes and a dedicated phone app (the Mi Home app seen below). The frame is also basically the same as the M365. The Xiaomi Mi 1S sits right in the middle of the current range, costing less than the slightly larger and more powerful Pro 2 but only costing only slightly more than the basic and much slower Xiaomi Essential model.

Xiaomi have updated their super popular M365 electric scooter after several years of global dominance. However, instead of calling it something like M365 Mark II or M366 or N365, they have called it the Xiaomi 1S scooter. I assume the "S" stands for "scooter" but otherwise this new nomenclature makes little sense. It would make sense if it was a brand new model, but the 1S scooter is nothing of the sort. It is essentially an M365 with a M365 Pro screen and an improved battery. It is thus somewhere between the M365 and M365 Pro. But let's take a good look at the Xiaomi 1S scooter. You can also see a direct comparison of the M365 and 1S. There are currently 3 models in the Xiaomi Mi Electric Scooter range. Starting with the best value entry-level model, Essential, sitting alongside the mid-range, mid-priced 1S model and then onto the powerful top-of-the-range Pro 2 scooter. Hailing from the 2020 lineup of Xiaomi, this entry-level scooter that’s cheap and accessible goes head-to-head with Xiaomi’s earlier releases as the two offerings go tooth and nail to compete on price and performance.We would always recommend wearing a helmet when riding an electric scooter. Most scooter injuries seem to happen when a pothole (or similar) is encountered and the smallish wheels are indeed susceptible to such obstacles. Please read my post Are Electric Scooters Safe? for more information and statistics on the safety of electric scooters. As we often point out, as of May 2022, it is not legal to ride privately owned electric scooters on public roads in Britain, although few police forces take any action against riders. To turn on the display, press the power button once. You’ll see your speedometer, riding mode and battery percentage indicated by five bars across the bottom. Press the power button again to toggle the 2W LED headlight on or off and double-press the power button to toggle between the three riding modes.

The 250W motor on the 1S is almost completely silent; so silent in fact that I had to use the bell on more than a few occasions because pedestrians couldn’t hear me approach even when I was less than two feet behind them. The pneumatic tyres provide great grip on every road surface, but you will notice slight jarring if the terrain gets rough. When the Chinese electronics company announced the Xiaomi 1S earlier this year, many were curious as to what changes the new version would bring. Thankfully, the new e-scooter retains most of the features of the popular M365, with just a few much-needed tweaks to bring it up to speed with today’s competition. The Xiaomi 1S electric scooter is far from being the perfect scooter, but the best thing about it is that you get what you pay for, along with a little more.

The Xiaomi 1S scooter is sleek, elegant, and portable with a safe minimalist design. The strong and lightweight aircraft-grade aluminium body only takes 3 seconds to fold and go weighing 12.5 kg. The scooter's battery is located in the base and the frame itself is built from aluminium. It feels strong and the folding mechanism means it can be folded or unfolded in a few seconds (Xiaomi claims three seconds). This sturdiness and low cost (as you are not paying for carbon fibre) does mean it is reasonably heavy at 12.5 kg; but this is as light as mid-range scooters come and heaviness is fairly subjective: I am by no means strong and can carry this scooter up and down stairs without too much effort. One difference from its predecessor, apart from yellow reflectors on the EU/UK model, is that the external wires are neater in the 1S. They still have not figured out how to feed the wire to the handlebar internally (through the folding joint) but they have at least tried. Pedestrian mode is indicated by a walking man icon and it tops out at 3mph; ideal for when you’re walking with your e-scooter because the throttle doesn’t activate in this mode. Drive mode is denoted by a blue “d” icon and has a top speed of 12.5mph. The fastest is Sport mode, denoted by a blue “s” icon, with a maximum speed of 15.5mph.

The Xiaomi Pro 2 scooter has a powerful 600W electric motor for top-end performance, a maximum speed of 25 km/h and three speed modes to easily adjust your speed to your environment, power when required, safety when need. The 1S and Essential scooters have an almost as powerful 500W motor and each can take you a long-way, 30 to 45 km depending on the model selected. There’s also a conventional rear brake, much like you’d find on a bicycle, which pairs up with a clever regenerative braking technology in the front wheel to bring things to a fast and predictable stop.Unlike the Pure air 2, the Mi 1S isn’t completely waterproof and it’s not advised to use it in the rain, but the large pneumatic tyres ensure it can handle a much greater array of lumpy road surfaces. The smaller, solid wheels found on some rivals lead to a twitchy and slightly worrisome ride at speed, but these 8.5-inch numbers do a great job of improving stability. After carefully removing the e-scooter from the box, pull up the steerer tube until it’s upright, then secure it in place by pulling up the latch at the bottom of the steerer tube; finally, secure this latch with the release that you simply drag across. It’s all fairly intuitive even though it may sound complex. Next, you need to attach the handlebar to the stem using the four screws and Allen key provided. The puncture resistance and robustness have been comprehensively improved and the performance of the explosion-proof tires has also been greatly optimized. The durability of the 8.5" tires has been increased by up to 3 times. Not only does it make for a smooth ride on flat roads, it is also very comfortable to ride on non-paved roads like gravel, dirt roads, and grass. The 1S battery has the same capacity and power as the M365 battery, and the scooter retains the same top-speed of 25 km/h (15.5 mph) and range of 30 km (18 miles). The range is pretty accurate (at least to begin with) but the speed tends to hover around 14 mph. Xiaomi also claim the battery on the 1S has been improved so that it takes less time to charge (5 hours) and has a longer overall lifespan (partly by limiting its charge so that it reads 100% charged when it is, in fact, only at 93% of its real capacity. The Xiaomi 1S E-Scooter comes with a 250W motor powered by a 7650mAh/275Wh Li-ion battery, which powers through almost all general road surfaces that you’d expect an electric scooter to zoom through.

An accompanying Xiaomi Home app takes care of the scooter, looking after firmware updates and controlling some of the functionality. It’s not as comprehensive as rivals such as Segway Ninebot and Bird, but it handles the basics well. However, it’s also not very clear what app is required. A QR code for something similar would help matters, Xiaomi. The biggest upgrade on the Xiaomi 1S is its LED display and three riding modes. The M365 has only two riding modes and four battery indicator dots, making it the only e-scooter I’ve reviewed without a display. The 1S also seems to have ironed out any kinks with the patchy Bluetooth connectivity I experienced when I rode the M365. It has a maximum climbing range of 14% and only weighs around 27.6 lbs, which is still quite heavy for an entry-level scooter. The good thing about it is that it has a maximum load capacity of 220 lb. On top of that, it only takes four hours to charge.But as far as aesthetics go, the Xiaomi 1S electric scooter is not a far cry from its predecessors despite being a 2020 release. I guess Xiaomi believes that you don’t fix what isn’t broken, but you improve on the things people are complaining about from the previous iterations. The same can be said for its weight and riding speed, only having minor upgrades and additions to consider it as the current and updated model. With all these in mind, it’s up to you to decide which scooter you should get. But for now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of Xiaomi 1S. Read on. You can delve further into the e-scooter’s settings using the three dots at the top-right of the main app screen. This section lets you activate cruise control, choose whether you want to keep your taillight on all the time, update your firmware and even change the scooter’s units of measurement (both on the LED display and within the app) from the default kmph to mph. It is worth noting that once the battery level drops below 5% the scooter performance drops significantly (if you are in a rush ensure you have it reasonably well-charged or you may find yourself going at an embarrassingly slow speed). Before diving into the review, we must stress that it’s illegal to ride a personal e-scooter on both roads and pavements in the UK. You’re only permitted to ride them on private land with the landowner’s permission. The government has recently legalised the use of rental e-scooters in some UK cities, with a view to reducing traffic congestion on shorter journeys. While there is an ongoing bid to legalise private e-scooters, they remain illegal for now.