Kaiterra Laser Egg+ Chemical: Indoor Air Quality Monitor (Tracks PM2.5, Fine Dust, Chemicals (TVOCs), Temperature, and Humidity)

It does a good job giving readings that are easy to see and read. I enjoy the temperature and humidity sensor, but biggest value for me is the TVOC monitoring. It's worth paying a little more for this one over the 2nd generation. We have young kids (and one with asthma) so it helps to keep an eye on the air.Initially had some trouble connecting to the app, as I'd get an error message when trying to scan the Homekit code. But realized it was because I needed to connect to wifi - so double check that before trying to pair. Pretty simple setup afterward. Settings updates appear almost instantly on the device screen, and I like that I can see the air on my phone.

I'll preface this by saying I understand I'm very much an edge case.That said, I sleep best in a completely dark room. I have both blackout shades and blackout curtains on my windows. I long for the days when manufacturers didn't put blindingly bright LEDs on every device with the enthusiasm of a middle schooler bedazzling their shoes at a slumber party.I *specifically* looked to see if the screen of the Kaiterra Laser Egg could be turned off. I wasn't satisfied with the listing here saying it has a "sleep mode," I've been burned by other companies before.I went to the Kaiterra Laser Egg product support page where it distinctly says "Turn off the LCD display when dark."I know it's showing the stars, moon, and cloud LCD OFF screen, but I naively figured that was just the menu page for the feature since people might get confused if they were cycling through the screens and it suddenly went blank.Nope.That is the LCD being "off." Needless to say, the fine folks at Kaiterra and I have a profound disagreement as to the meaning of that word.So, I will be returning the device as it is unusable for me, absent a firmware update which would enable the device to actually turn off the screen when requested.Other things of note:The app is really poorly designed.When you set up the app the first time you must go through this whole rigamarole of pairing with the device, entering your Wi-Fi password, etc. Annoying to be sure but par for the course. Typically though, with other "smart" devices, once the device is on your network any other phone with the app can connect to it. You may need to scan a QR code or something, but it's typically pretty easy and straightforward after the initial setup.Not with the Kaiterra Laser Egg. Nope, you must go through the whole setup process again, telling it again which Wi-Fi access point to use, giving it the password, etc. Which is annoying to say the least. But hey, it's on me for having a 24 digit random password for my Wi-Fi since I naively thought "how many times am I going to have to enter this one everything is set up?" Well, at least the number of Kaiterra devices I want to put in my home multiplied by the number of devices I want to put the app on. That wouldn't be a deal breaker in and of itself, but it's worth noting they didn't put much effort into streamlining the onboarding process.Okay, lightning round!I've only had the device a day nor do I have anything with which to compare so I can't speak to its accuracy.It's relatively expensive at ~$200.It looks nice enough if you like egg-shaped things. Though it would be nice if they had color options for the ring, gold is rather gaudy in my opinion.It uses a micro USB adapter, which is fine, but for $200 it would be nice if they made the leap to USB-C. The device itself doesn't need USB-C, I'd just love to be able to get rid of my micro cords one and for all. (Ahem... looking at you Kindle!)It does have a battery, and a fairly large one at that. This confuses me since I would assume most people would keep this more or less in one place, but perhaps I'm wrong and simply lack imagination. Anyway, it's nice to have and you can move it without it turning off and needing to boot back up and reconnect to Wi-Fi, etc.The screen is a 2.6 inch LCD, it's 2021, I can find a 2.8 inch AMOLED display on Alibaba for $25. Maybe it's time to refresh the product?There's no mode which cycles through the displays, you have to manually click the menu button to cycle through. I anticipate this means most people will simply view the readings on their phone assuming they can get the app to work. Maybe make a discreet box without a screen at all?The device really is egg shaped which, again, if your like that sort of thing is nice. To stabilize it on a table though they gave it the tiniest little bumps for legs. This works well enough if you just let it sit there, but if you intend to change the screen displayed you'd best make sure you press directly down on the button. If you come in at even the faintest of imperceptible angles you'll probably knock it over.All in all, if the device actually does what it claims, you like the look of the design, you don't plan on changing the information it displays, you're not actively trying to rid your Life of micro USB cables, you only plan on having the app on a single device or you don't mind inputting your Wi-Fi password for every device you add, and you don't need the screen to be able to be turned off, then I wouldn't recommend against purchasing the Kaiterra Laser Egg.Otherwise, I'm looking elsewhere and I would suggest you do as well.

Purchased this to see if my efforts to improve indoor air quality were working.Good things:- The packaging and unboxing experience is great. Similar quality to unboxing an iPhone.- The iPhone app was pretty simple to set up and it looks great.Bad things:- Extremely expensive.- Must be connected to an outlet to stay powered. The promotional photos are misleading.- The software did not track historical data. I was looking for a product which would track each metric over time and allow me to visualize them in a chart so that I can see how air quality changes over time and in response to different household activities. There are charts for historical data in the iPhone app that look like they should do this, but they don't update.- No screen shows all of the information I want to track all at once. You can switch through screens showing each metric, and one screen which shows three of the metric, but no screen shows all of the metrics.- The device reboots itself a lot. Not sure why.- The product feels cheap constructed. It's a simple LED screen and it's constructed of a cheap feeling plastic (not metal as it might feel). It seemed to have a bead inside that made noise as a I turned it over in my hands. The product is designed and manufactured in China and it has about that level of quality.- Thermometer seems inaccurate, slightly on the high side. I compared with two other thermometers in my house, and it was consistently about 5 degrees Fahrenheit above the others.At this price level, I expect the software to work with no major issues and to provide additional value. A similar product recommended by the Wirecutter, the Temptop M10, is half the price (~$80 vs. $160-$200 for the Laser Egg), but lacks an iPhone app or internet connectivity. If the software provides no additional value (the historical data charts), then it's not worth the additional cost. I will be returning this and purchasing something cheaper.

So I like most things about the Laser Egg. It seems to work impressively well given its relatively small size and reasonable price point. When placed outside, readings correlate well with the local weather station. It reacts in less than 30 seconds to new pollutants in the house, for example burning something on the stove or even the smell of chlorine off a bathing suit waved in front of it. The battery means I can move it to different rooms, outside etc. It's small and light, so fairly portable.Unfortunately, the software lets it down a little. I found the set up pretty fiddly. I've had some issues with it losing connection with the app, and had to reset it, sometimes multiple times, to resolve it. I've messaged their tech support, and this was their recommended fix. So most of the time it works really well. But given the connectivity issues it's a 4/5 for me.Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. Just hoping they fix some things with software updates!