Atmotube Pro Review
Atmotube is a portable air quality tracker. Atmotube Pro is Atmotube’s fourth product after Atmotube, Atmotube 2.0, and Atmotube Plus.
Pre-orders start 12th February 2019 for US$131 (S$177), and it ships sometime in April 2019. After that, it will retail for US$189 (S$255).
*UPDATE 11th October 2020* Atmotube Pro is now available on Amazon.sg for S$215.
Atmotube products are designed and engineered by the company NotAnotherOne.
NotAnotherOne is a San Francisco-based design studio founded by Vera Kozyr (CEO) and Igor Mikhnenko (CDO), formerly in charge of product and design at YotaPhone.
Unnboxing
Default packaging comes with a short USB-A to USB-C cable for charging the Atmotube Pro and a silver carabiner.
Atmotube Pro
Atmotube Pro is a wearable, portable device that continuously monitors air quality in real time and alerts you when it gets unsafe.
It tracks PM1, PM2.5, and PM10 pollutants, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Temperature, Humidity, and Pressure.
Designed to be portable and for hanging on your bag, it measures 86 х 50 x 22 mm and weighs 105 g
The only indicator in the Atmotube Pro is located in front. It acts as a power/charging indicator and at the same time, when you press the button, it will show you the status of the air quality score.
- Blue = Good
- Green = Moderate
- Yellow = Polluted
- Orange = Very Polluted
- Red = Severely Polluted
The outer body is made up of black polycarbonate plastic, and the inner frame is made of aluminum all the way to the carabiner mount.
The air vents (also known as airflow mesh) located near the bottom is where Atmotube Pro gets the air from.
It comes with a non-removable 2,000 mAh Li-polymer rechargeable battery that gives you about one day of usage in always-on mode. You will be happy to know that it charges via USB-C.
Using It
Atmotube app is available for both iOS and Android.
The setup process is straight forward.
Once paired, the dashboard in the Atmotube app will show you four cards:
- Current air quality score, PM1, PM2.5, PM10, and VOC readings
- Current barometer and altimeter readings
- Current temperature and humidity
- Air quality map round you
Tapping on any of the cards will show you historical data of the readings.
Atmotube Pro connects to your phone via Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 (BLE 5.0). BLE 5.0 is very stable, and in my two weeks of testing, I have zero connectivity issues with Atmotube Pro.
The readings of Atmotube Pro are shown in the Atmotube app in real-time. With the app open, you can walk around your house with the Atmotube Pro in your hands to see which part of your home is the most polluted.
Your phone doesn’t need to be connected to the Atmotube Pro all the time. Atmotube Pro on itself will store about five days worth of data before it starts overriding the older data.
Of course when your phone’s Bluetooth is within range of the Atmotube Pro and if you open the Atmotube app, it will synchronize the data to your phone and then to Atmotube’s cloud.
By default, your readings are synchronized to Atmotube’s cloud. This allows them to aggregate the readings and show the real-time air quality score within your vicinity.
Besides the dashboard and four historical data screens, there is a measurement info screen which explains to you what various terms and their pollution level means.
One feature of the app is the ability to send you push notifications when the air quality score changes or when it reaches a certain threshold predefined by you in the settings.
If you are cooking something, and there is smoke, the air quality score will drop to very polluted.
In the always-on mode, the Atmotube Pro can last for slightly more than a day. You can also adjust it to take readings every X minutes.
The X is customizable, and the three default values are 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes. Those values will give you four days, eight days, and 12 days of battery life respectively.
Conclusion
Having owned an exisiting expensive air quality monitor device, uHoo, I would think that the Atmotube Pro is a much better product.
Atmotube Pro is cheaper, portable and much more reliable. I have reliability issues with uHoo, as it will periodically stop sending data back to uHoo servers, and I have to restart it.
Besides the device, the Atmotube app is way ahead of the uHoo app regarding speed, design, and user experience.
With Singapore at the mercy of Indonesia’s haze, the Atmotube Pro is a good investment if you have asthma or is allergic to certain toxins in the air.
