Water purifiers are one of those appliances most people install once and then think about only when something breaks. Over the past few years, I have seen a lot of them, and the pattern is usually the same: a plastic box under or beside the sink, a tap, and no real way of knowing what is actually happening inside until the filter light comes on or the water starts tasting off. And, of course, the aftermath is also difficult and sometimes hard on the pocket. But over the years, the dynamics have changed. You get a lot of tech, from apps to more unique designs and even better, affordable service is already available, but only if you choose one. This search brought me to the recently launched Native M2 Pro by Urban Company.
The Native M2 Pro is priced at Rs 19,499 and wants to change the conversation entirely, with its purification method and after-sales structure as its main selling points. So, how has it been? Here is my take.
The Native M2 Pro has a fairly clean, understated design: a matte black body, a touch panel up front, a retractable tray, and a small light near the base that switches on automatically at night, which is a nice detail if you’re filling a bottle without turning on the kitchen lights. It does not scream smart appliance the way some competitors do with extra LEDs and displays; it’s closer to a piece of kitchen furniture that happens to dispense water.
At roughly 24.5 × 13.2 × 9.9 inches, the Native M2 Pro is not the smallest unit around, but it doesn’t feel bulky either, and the 8-litre tank is enough for a household of four to five without needing to refill constantly. However, the installation can be a little tricky, specifically if you have a small kitchen like me. This one does need a reasonable amount of counter or wall space, so I would suggest you measure your kitchen layout before ordering rather than assuming it’ll slot into a tight corner.
Installation includes the purifier itself, a mounting and installation kit, and an external sediment filter, and Native offers free delivery and installation as part of the deal. I didn’t have to arrange anything separately for this unit, which was a welcome change from setups where you’re told mid-installation that you need an additional valve, tap, or part before the technician can finish the job, a common (and often irritating) surprise with other brands.
Before receiving it, I read a lot about the Urban Company Native M2 Pro and, to be honest, its purification method. And to test my knowledge, I had a detailed conversation about how it works with the Urban Company’s engineer who came to install it, and I think you should read it too.
A lot of RO purifiers in this price range use an MTDS control or bypass valve, essentially blending a bit of untreated water back into the purified stream to hit a target TDS reading. It is cheaper to engineer, and it keeps the water from tasting ‘too pure’ or flat, but it also means a portion of what comes out of the tap hasn’t gone through the RO membrane at all.
What I found out is that the M2 Pro skips this step. All the water goes through RO purification first, and minerals, along with copper, are added back afterwards for taste and balance, rather than being blended in from an untreated source. On top of that, there is a UV stage and an alkaline stage, which brings the total to a 10-stage process, and the unit is rated for input TDS up to 2,500 ppm, which should comfortably cover most municipal supplies and a good number of borewell sources too.
Whether this purification approach matters to you in day-to-day use is honestly debatable. Most people can’t taste the difference between water that’s been through a bypass valve and fully RO-treated water with minerals added back afterwards. But for buyers who actually read the specification sheet and care about how the number they see on a TDS meter was arrived at, it’s a real and meaningful distinction, not just marketing language.
I usually don’t mention this section in a review, but this one is practical. It’s one of the day-to-day parts of the experience and probably the feature you will notice the most once the novelty of a new appliance wears off. Rather than holding down a button and watching the glass fill while trying not to overflow it, there are touch presets for Glass, Bottle, and Free Flow: tap the mode, place your container, and it stops on its own once the preset amount has been dispensed.
It’s a small thing on paper, but it does cut down on the standing-around-waiting part of getting a glass of water, especially with the presets being adjustable if the defaults don’t match your usual glass or bottle size, which is useful if your household uses everything from small tumblers to one-litre bottles. There is also a battery backup for dispensing during power cuts, so you are covered in such cases as well. But do note that the battery only backs up the dispenser and not the pump.
Honestly, this one is new for me. I have switched from a classic Aquaguard to the Native M2 Pro, and suddenly I have a lot of options to look at. You can simply track the water quality, filter health, and usage data, along with the Smart Rinse auto-clean function that’s meant to run on its own without you having to remember to trigger it.
However, I will admit that I have not opened the app often after the initial setup. It’s not something that you will be checking daily, and the novelty of ‘smart’ monitoring does wear off after the first week or two. But it is actually useful to have around for the moments that matter: knowing when to change the filter, what the water quality is, and when you should call your technician.
This is where Native tries hardest to differentiate the M2 Pro from other purifiers on the market, and arguably where the brand’s Urban Company parentage shows most clearly, given the company’s background in RO servicing. The M2 Pro comes with a two-year filter life that requires no servicing, and a two-year unconditional warranty covering filters, membranes, electrical components, and service visits.
After that initial two-year period, a full filter refresh costs Rs 5,000 to renew the cycle, which is worth budgeting for upfront rather than being surprised by it later. Optional add-ons, including a booster pump for low water-pressure situations, a PRV (Rs 250), and a PE kit (Rs 500), are available if your home’s plumbing needs them, and delivery and installation are, of course, free.
The package actually makes sense. If you do the maths, you would actually save a few thousand rupees in just four years.
None of the individual technologies in the M2 Pro is new: RO, UV, mineral addition, and app-connected monitoring have all existed in other purifiers before this one, sometimes for years. What Native has done is package them in a way that’s a bit more transparent about the purification process itself, and a bit less annoying to live with day to day, particularly through the auto-stop dispensing feature and the no-servicing warranty structure.
It’s not a purifier that will wow you with novelty, and at Rs 19,499, it sits solidly in the upper-mid segment rather than being a budget pick, so it’s not the right fit if you’re shopping purely on price. But if your priorities are knowing exactly what your purification process involves, not wanting to think about servicing for two years, and having a slightly more convenient dispensing experience day to day, it does deliver on those fronts reasonably well.