Described in its marketing as 'an environmental Tricorder', referring to the Star Trek gadget, of course, the new
Atmotube Pro is one of the more interesting phone accessories I've seen in a while. Essentially, it's an air quality (i.e. pollution) monitor and weather station that's technically standalone but a million times more useful when hooked up to an Android or iOS smartphone.
The core use case is to warn you of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and PM1, PM2.5, and PM10 pollutants (think dust, pollen, soot, and mould). All of these can cause serious health issues, principally in (but not limited to) the lungs. But you also get something of a portable weather station, with read outs of humidity, temperature and barometric pressure, always interesting for the wetaher geek in all of us.
As you might expect, detecting VOCs and Particulate Matter (PM) isn't trivial - so we're talking here of a small chamber with a laser and sensors in it, along with a fan that draws air in. None of this is the sort of thing that can be done inside a smartphone, which is why it's left to an accessory, typically hooked on (with a carabiner) to a rucksack or some other part of your equipment as you venture into new air areas.
As you'd also expect, running a fan and a small laser beam requires power. An internal 2000mAh Li-Ion battery is recharged by a (thankfully) modern USB Type C port and runs the Atmotube Pro for around a day at a time, non-stop. Thankfully, this is worst case battery life and in daily life you'll want to leave the Atmotube Pro in one of its periodic modes, typically using the provided Android (or iOS) application to set 'readings taken every ten minutes' (i.e. this is how often the fan and laser are fired up), in which case you get (up to) 10 days battery life per charge. Then the idea would be that if you had to venture into the city or a building site or a natural risk area, you'd switch the device back to 'always on' for a short time, for real time warnings.
Which is fair enough, though the provided app interface doesn't make it quick to switch modes. You have to dive into Settings and it's effectively six taps to set-up. It might have been better to have a slider or similar control in the main UI. Yes, you can press the button on the front of the Atmotube Pro to take a single reading 'instantly', but it's not quite the same. Still, it's only software and both the companion application and the Atmotube Pro itself can be easily updated (the latter through a firmware updating option in the phone app).
When running, the Atmotube Pro's fan is audible, but only just ('whispering leaves' is quoted in the manual!) - though still worth noting, should you be doing any audio recording in the same room or wondering which of your gadgets is 'making that whirring noise'!
It's unusual in the modern age to have moving parts (i.e. the fan) in a phone accessory, but the makers claim an eight year life for the Atmotube Pro and I believe them - it's
very well made in black (tough) plastic and aluminium.
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| What you want to see... excellent low VOCs and PM readings! |
Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) is used between your phone and the Atmotube Pro, making for low power drain while connected, which is good, though the low bandwidth also means that if your phone and the accessory are separated for any length of time, there will be several minutes of background 'syncing' when connected again, while historical data (which is cached for up to five hours by the Atmotube Pro) is transferred into the app's data archive.
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| Swiping back on historical data, possibly very useful if used in a commercial or industrial context.... |
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| Uh -oh! All the explanatory text when something's out of whack with the air may seem a bit over the top, but I rather liked it - you can never be too careful with health matters! |
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| Testing here in a closed parking lot with engines running - you wouldn't want to be here for long! |
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| Some of the many general weather readings and indicators... |
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| The extensive Settings menu, though note the Mode switch being buried here a little (and see below) - switching modes should be FAR quicker.... |
Quibbles over changing the reading mode aside, the Atmotube Pro application is pretty (albeit only in a white theme), with clear indicators. Past readings are scanned by swiping and then tapping on 'back' controls, as needed.
One thing that has me slightly concerned about the physics of the Atmotube Pro is that it's, by definition, not fully waterproof - after all, it works by wafting air in from multiple grilles. So get caught in a major rainstorm with the Atmotube Pro still hanging free and things might stop working. I'd suggest being aware of this and trying to stop any serious soakings. Given its function, there's no way round this, but it's an acceptable compromise and, after all, if you're worried about air quality then you're more likely to be in dry and warm environments in the first place.
Weighing just over 100g, this is a smartphone accessory that most of us will hopefully never need but which will be an essential tool for the minority, depending on occupation and location. I'm a writer and live in the country and I had to both journey into town and also seek out known polluting sources in order to get some of the screenshots in this review - here's hoping that you live somewhere equally healthy and that you never get the Atmotube Pro notifying you of a real issue!
This retails at $130 or so and is available imminently. It's not cheap but then it's just about as specialist as you can get in the phone accessory world. Even if you haven't got a commercial reason for purchasing one, this will also appeal to anyone with a streak of 'weather geek', I predict!
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