The Squair Mobile is available in four different color combinations: brushed aluminum silver, aluminum and black, black anodized aluminum with gold, gold with red and gold anodized aluminum. Loasby admits the gold with red and gold anodized aluminum combinations are more geared towards Asian market tastes.
We’ve spent the last week using it in our office and vehicles and can attest to its design quality, ease of operation and clear design. The Mobile’s aluminum body has a clean, contemporary look and feel, and a nice weight to it. The aluminum is brushed to give it a technical, authentic aesthetic, reflecting the premium quality of the material and the product itself.
The Mobile is also relatively quiet, though this largely depends on which of the fan’s three settings you choose to use. At the low speed setting it only emits a faint hiss, just enough to let you know it’s working. Sifting through the different settings – from 100 percent, two-thirds and one-third – is done via the illuminated touch button on the side of the device. “I wanted to make it straightforward, easy to understand and easy to use,” says Loasby.
For a device with such innovative technology – which a decade ago required a machine the size of a living room to function – the Squair Mobile is case study in efficient packaging. The non-thermal technology was combined with small fans (about the size of computer cooling fans) and a filter that can be easily changed by pressing down on the top to release the mechanism holding it in place. It is more than adequate to purify the three to five cubic meter space within a vehicle’s interior.
The company spoke to potential consumers, listened to their feedback and packaged the non-thermal plasma technology into a compact design that is 20cm tall. “[It’s] about the size of a big beer can,” Loasby says. “Yet it can take particles out of the air that gets into the vehicle when you open the doors pretty quickly.”
Besides its inherent safety and convenience virtues, the decision to make the Mobile fit into a cupholder was also important for the company’s future goals. “With this device we’re looking at ways to make sure any car company can of course fit it in their car or can be supplied as accessory or people can buy it privately,” says Loasby. “We’re trying to take barriers down so if it fits and works, the barrier’s removed.”
Squair has chosen to launch the Mobile through Kickstarter to gain feedback from the global platform’s users and gauge reaction to the product. Given that there’s a global concern about air quality, that’s a very good idea.
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