Though not a household name, iClever is a major producer of household devices, ranging from smart plugs to kitchen appliances to security sensors. Its latest is an indoor air quality (IAQ) monitor that can, naturally, interact with many of its other products, or be used alone.

The monitor is a boxy little unit measuring about 2.5 by 3 x 3 inches (HWD). It is a slight device—holding it in my palm, I’d swear it was hollow—so although it’s meant to be portable, it probably requires careful handling when toting it around.

Designed to give you at-a-glance insights into your air quality, the monitor displays information in two ways: An LCD provides numerical scale readings for temperature, humidity, and particulate matter, as well as indicators for the monitor’s Wi-Fi signal strength and lithium-battery level. Additionally, a light ring around the bottom of the device glows different colors to identify the current state of the air quality: green for good, yellow for so-so, and red for unhealthy.

This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best indoor air quality monitors, where you’ll find reviews of competing products, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping.

iClever

My unit came partially charged out of the box, so I only needed to press the power button below the LCD to activate it. As with any IAQ monitor, it takes several hours for it to get accurate readings, which was just fine as that gave me time to fully charge the battery. One gripe I had was that although iClever supplies a USB charging cable, it does not include an AC power adapter, so I had to scare one up myself.

The monitor is designed to stand freely on any flat surface, but placing it provoked another minor complaint. Because the LCD and light ring are on opposite sides, it’s nearly impossible to see both simultaneously. If you position it with the LCD facing forward, as you would a clock on a nightstand, then the light ring will be at the back facing away from you. In that position, the light ring is practically invisible if you’re looking at the monitor from across the room. It also puts the charging cable precariously jutting straight up from the top if you leave the monitor plugged in, as I did most of the time.

If, on the other hand, you place the monitor with the light ring down—the optimal position for seeing its color-coded readings—then the LCD is at the top facing up, requiring you to walk over and look down on it to see the numerical readings. Since I was using the device in my living room where I’d be viewing it from across the room, this was the less-than-ideal setup I went with.

Michael Ansaldo/IDG

What makes iClever’s IAQ unique is that it measures three different sizes of particulate matter, the particles and droplets that circulate in our air as the result of cooking or smoking or outdoor pollution that travels inside through open doors or windows. Of these, PM 2.5—the only size most IAQ monitors track—are prominently displayed on the LCD in a type size that can be seen at some distance. PM 10 and PM 1.0 are displayed much smaller on the side of the LCD, along with the current indoor temperature and humidity.

During my usage, the monitor’s temperature and humidity consistently jibed with the indoor thermometer and hygrometer I have set up. Evaluating the accuracy of particulate matter readings was harder, but they generally remained low when I had the downstairs windows open and rose when I was cooking or had the house sealed up, as you would expect. The light ring readings, meanwhile, always corresponded to the fluctuations between “good” to “moderate” air quality.

You can also remotely access the monitor’s readings with iClever’s Smart Life mobile app. Connecting it to the device is simple; the app prompts you through a simple pairing and Wi-Fi connection process. As the app is designed to manage the whole ecosystem of iClever products, you must select the IAQ monitor from the home screen when you launch it.

The app displays the same measurements as the monitor, set against a background color that corresponds to the current good-moderate-unhealthy air quality level. It also displays the current outdoor temperature and PM2.5 levels.

My experience with the app was mixed, at best. The indoor readings I got never completely agreed with what the monitor was telling me, usually showing a discrepancy of a couple degrees or micrometers. More troubling, it often displayed particulate matter readings of zero, even thought the monitor was showing positive levels. The outdoor readings, which are not sourced in the app, also routinely showed zero levels that were highly suspect. And although the outdoor readings were labeled “good,” they were displayed against the orange color that indicates “moderate” air quality.

Michael Ansaldo/IDG

When this happened, I would use the Check Device Network feature in the app settings. Invariably, I’d get a Poor Network Condition result, even though I’d followed all the app’s proposed network optimization tips to a tee. To confuse matters more, I got the same Poor Network Condition message when the app seemed to working fine.

In addition to current air quality readings, the app also a historical record of PM2.5 readings that you can view by day, month, or year, though considering how unreliable the app readings are in general, it was effectively useless in my tests.

Verdict

While the air quality monitor worked well, my experience with it was undermined by its poor-performing companion app. That’s an easy enough problem for iClever to address; but until it does, you’d be better served by checking out some of the other IAQ monitors in our guide. If you want a device with a display, consider the Kaiterra Laser Egg+ Chemical, which offers a similar feature set to the iClever monitor, but also tracks levels of volatile organic chemicals in your air.