A good way to pay close attention to the air quality in your home
The Airthings View Plus wireless monitor can accurately provide seven different real-time air quality measurements, but it lacks user-defined thresholds and will benefit from a larger, brighter screen.
If you suffer from asthma and allergies, or live in an area with severe air pollution, it is important to ensure that the air in your home is free of harmful pollutants. Airthings View Plus ($299) is a wireless air quality monitor that uses multiple sensors to measure levels of carbon dioxide, particulate matter, radon, etc. You can view the measured values in a color chart and receive alerts when certain thresholds are reached, but you cannot customize these thresholds yourself. We also encountered some usability issues during testing: the display on View Plus was difficult to see in the dark, and we were unable to link the device to our Google account. Aura Air is a smart air purifier that provides many of the same readings and can actually purify the pollutants in the air, so although its price is $499, it is also a better choice.
View Plus is an oval display with a matte white finish. It measures 3.5 x 6.6 x 1.2 inches (HWD) and weighs 12.7 ounces (with battery). You can hang it on the wall or put it on the desktop. Six AA batteries (included) power the device, and Airthings estimates that they will last up to two years. You can also use the included USB-C cable to power it, but you must provide an adapter. If you use the USB option for power supply, View Plus can be used as a hub for other Airthings devices.
There is a small 2.9-inch black and white LCD on the front of the device, which can only display two readings at a time; you can configure what it displays in the app. This limitation is surprising, because the device looks like it can accommodate a larger display. In addition, the display has no backlight, making it almost impossible to read in a dark room.
Above the display panel are two sensors and an LED indicator, while additional sensors and grilles are located on both sides of the housing. To quickly check the overall air quality, just wave your hand in front of the monitor. LED is green when the air quality is good, yellow in general, and red when the air quality is poor. The screen also shows good, fair or bad status. Behind the detachable back panel is the battery compartment, a USB port and a reset button.
The sensors on View Plus measure the levels of carbon dioxide, particulate matter (PM2.5), radon gas, and volatile organic compounds (VOC). The monitor also reads barometric pressure, humidity and temperature readings in your home, and connects to the Internet (via 2.4GHz Wi-Fi radio) to report the current outdoor conditions in your area.
View Plus technically supports Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands, but none of them worked well in my tests (more on that later). It also works with IFTTT applets; for example, this integration allows you to configure connected devices such as smart fans or air conditioners to turn on when a certain reading reaches a threshold.
You can access real-time and historical measurements and configure View Plus through the Airthings mobile app (for Android and iOS) or web-based dashboard. The device appears in a dedicated panel on the main screen of the mobile application. The panel lists the name of the device, battery level, and a green, yellow, or red circle, depending on the current air quality.
Click on the panel to view the larger color-coded circle and the readings of all seven measurements mentioned above. Select any reading to see the current state (again using color-coded circles) and a brief description of how the element under test affects you. Below the circle is a graph showing the measured values for the past 48 hours, one week, one month, and one year. When the reading exceeds the acceptable threshold, the graph line changes from green to orange, and then back to green when the reading is within the threshold again. You can switch between each reading by swiping to the left or tapping the relevant icon at the top of the screen.
Click the gear icon in the upper right corner to enter the View Plus settings; here, you can enable notifications when any reading exceeds a preset threshold. You can view a list of thresholds for each sensor reading, but you cannot change them to meet your specific needs. Although changing the threshold for radon or PM2.5 levels may not be a good idea, I want to edit the options for temperature and humidity thresholds. Other settings allow you to configure Wi-Fi preferences, change the location of the device, and select two readings shown on the monitor display.
Installing View Plus is easy. I downloaded the app, created an account, and clicked Add Device. Once I removed the battery label from the monitor, the app immediately recognized View Plus. I confirmed my country and clicked the activation code; the device’s screen generated a password, and I entered it in the app. Then, when prompted, I chose my Wi-Fi SSID and entered my Wi-Fi password. I click Next to give it a name and a location, and finally click Add Device to complete the pairing process. To test, I enabled notifications for all seven readings.
View Plus provided accurate readings in our tests. Its indoor temperature and humidity readings are consistent with those of the Nest Thermostat in the same room, while outdoor reports are accurate. I put the monitor and Prosenic A9 air purifier and Zhimi air purifier P1 in the same room and lighted a stick of incense. Within five minutes, the PM2.5 level of the A9 and P1 purifiers was 135, as was the View Plus. I extinguished the incense and let the purifier work for 10 minutes. At this time, the PM2.5 readings of the two purifiers are both 31. One minute later, the reading of View Plus is also 30.
I have a lot of trouble when trying to control View Plus with my voice. I successfully connected View Plus to my Alexa account, but no matter what I request, the display only forwards the current radon reading. Airthings does not appear in the list of devices supported by Google, so I cannot use Google Assistant voice commands at all. The lengthy chat session with technical support did not solve any of the problems.
Airthings View Plus can help you monitor the presence of harmful pollutants in your home. The device is easy to set up and manage, and can be used in conjunction with the IFTTT applet. However, we cannot make View Plus accept Alexa and Google Assistant commands, and hope it has a larger screen that can display more data. For a device that can both monitor and clean the air, consider Aura Air, which costs $499. If you can expand your budget further, the $549 Dyson Purifier Cool TP07 is the editor's choice award winner for our smart air purifier. It can not only monitor and purify pollutants in the air, but also can be used as a smart fan.
The Airthings View Plus wireless monitor can accurately provide seven different real-time air quality measurements, but it lacks user-defined thresholds and will benefit from a larger, brighter screen.
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As a contributing editor of PCMag, John Delaney has been testing and reviewing monitors, TVs, PCs, networks and smart home devices as well as various other hardware and peripherals for nearly 20 years. As a veteran who has worked in PC Magazine's laboratory for 13 years (most recently as Director of Operations), John is responsible for the recruitment, training and management of laboratory technicians, as well as evaluating and maintaining the integrity of laboratory testing machines and procedures. Before joining Ziff Davis, John worked in the retail business of Federated Stores, Inc. for 6 years, and then accepted a purchasing position at Morris Decision Systems, one of the first value-added resellers of the original IBM PC in New York. For the next five years, he was responsible for purchasing and configuring IBM PC, XT and AT desktops for many financial institutions in New York. Before joining PC Magazine in 1987, he worked for the now-defunct ComputerLand chain of PCs.
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