It's a fan – It calls itself an air circulator, but it doesn't cool, dehumidify, purify or condition the air in any way. It just moves air around, hence it's a fan, but one with a fancy name and some extra quality-of-life features.

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS ARE GOOD The product comes in recyclable packaging, is compact and looks very smart. The cover has a grey speckled fabric finish which is a nice touch. The unit is light and easy to move around.

WHERE IS THE HANDLE? The product page on the manufacturer's website lists "Concealed Carry Handle" as a feature, but it's not clear to me where this handle is. You can pick up the fan by the cover, but the underside has a slightly tacky feel which makes me wonder if it will deteriorate over time as many rubbery surfaces do. There's a slot at the back that looks like a handle (see attached photo), but if you try to pick up the fan by putting three fingers in the slot and your thumb on the top, it's not possible to get a firm grip.

WORKS WELL AS A FAN It performs its basic functions well. There are 12 speed settings which is a lot more than you'd find in a conventional fan. The DC motor is quiet at the lower speeds and does an effective job of moving air around. The oscillation has a wide range and you can switch horizontal and vertical movement on and off independently. The oscillation speed can't be changed: horizontal oscillation takes about 40 seconds and vertical about 30. Interestingly, when horizontal oscillation is turned on, the entire unit including the base rotates.

CONTROLS ARE POORLY DESIGNED A series of 8 touch buttons on the base control all the functions, but the layout and labelling are poor. The designers opted to use symbols rather than words and the usability suffers for it.

For some reason, the power switch is button number 5 out of 8. There's no logical reason for this and it is identified only with a power symbol, which I think is far from universally or intuitively understood. I'd expect the power switch to be the first button on the far left. As it happens, the first two buttons ARE labelled "OFF" and "ON", but these don't turn the fan off and on; rather, they're for setting the off-timer and on-timer respectively. It's confusing.

The oscillation buttons have left-right and up-down arrows printed on them, but the former also has the word "Wi-Fi" printed above it. This makes it look like the button is for Wi-Fi and not for something else. The last button has a "wind" symbol on it and activates turbo mode. By not putting the word "TURBO" or "MAX" on the switch, the designers have made it a guessing game as to what the button does. A "wind" symbol on a fan tells me nothing.

REMOTE CONTROL IS SIMPLE The remote is a very simple thin rectangle that seems to have been designed completely separately from the fan itself. The colour doesn't match the fan, the buttons are dome switches rather than touch, the buttons are all labelled (and in mixed case) unlike the ones on the fan, and the order of the buttons bears no resemblance to the order on the fan. Having said that, the remote works well and is a useful feature. It would be even better if there were a place on the fan to store the remote.

WI-FI DIDN'T WORK The fan can be controlled with an app, but I could never get the pairing to work. The instructions are convoluted and the app requires registration which I find annoying and intrusive. Why does a app to control a fan need my email address? The user manual has a QR code for more instructions, but the QR code doesn't work, leading to a page that says "The QR Code Campaign has been disabled for some reason". I found this whole experience pointless and frustrating and couldn't get any further than an error message in the app that said "Failed to add the device".

CONCLUSION Overall this product works well as a fan. It's well built, quiet, moves air around efficiently and the remote control is useful. It's let down by poor control design and Wi-Fi connectivity that didn't work. It's currently on sale at 35% off which is reasonable value, but I would consider it overpriced at full price. It has a two year warranty.