Personal cooling stops being a gimmick the second you’re stuck on a hot platform with a train that won’t come. A small fan in your bag turns a miserable 10 minutes into a survivable one. But while most portable fans cost less than lunch, they are as noisy as an angry wasp when you ask for airflow. So when Blueair put a $59.99 price tag on the AlwaysCool portable fan, my first reaction was to laugh. Then I looked closer.
Blueair’s foray into personal cooling revolves around one concept that the budget crowd ignores—near silence. A pocket follower can run out of time on a work call without anyone hearing that it’s worth getting paid. Whether AlwaysCool deserves that price is the question I want to answer.
What comes out
Blueair AlwaysCool (Night Coal)
The audio number carries the entire tone. Blueair quotes 46 db up and frames the rest of the market at 70 db-plus, which is the distance between a quiet library and a vacuum operating in the next room. AeroSilent is a brand wrapped in that equation, and if it sticks away from a certain sheet, a fan you can run at full speed during a work call becomes its own selling point.
Most pocket fans give you three speeds and call it done. Blueair uses a range from 1 to 100 that you set with the wheel, so you can settle into the pleasant breeze of the desk or ditch it to wait for the sweaty arena. A small dynamic display shows speed and remaining battery, more control and feedback than a $20 clip fan offers.
Battery life is another strong point. Blueair claims up to 32 hours on low, with USB-C charging enabling a backup in a few hours. Even though the 100 speed clocks it in much faster than the headline figure, a fan that covers a workday, commute, and night on a single charge clears the bar most people set for a grab-and-go gadget.
Portability seems to have been addressed. The fan is lightweight, wraps around your wrist, and the tilting head directs the air where you want it instead of forcing your arm into an angle. The Cloud Linen and white finish lends itself to the calm Scandinavian look that Blueair uses throughout its range, so it never screams gadgetry on a cafe table.
What is stopping me
$60 is a figure that gives me pause. You can buy three capable fans for that price, so the Blueair should get a few decibels quieter. The 32-hour claim is also stellar, as it runs on the lowest setting, and previous owners have noted that the fan can be heard when you push it close to high.
Small spaces also add up. No carrying case comes in the box, one buyer has already been marked as missing out on a gadget designed to stay in a bag. The 46-versus-70 decibel comparison comes directly from Blueair and never mentions a competitor, so I’d take it as a marketing line until external measurements appear.
Who should pay attention
Anyone who works in a shared office or quiet study is clear game, because a fan that can run during a call without streaming is always rare at any size. Commuters in hot cities are ideal as well, think a bunch of bags and a train looking for strong airflow to roll up into a tote and last all day. Pilates and regular yoga get a nod on the Blueair page, and the low-noise angle suits a cool room better than a screaming desk fan.
My current take
My decision is yes. Blueair saw a soft target, a segment that was competitive on price and ignored noise, and built a fan around the one complaint people talk about the most about pocket models. Whether peace survives without a media image, and whether enough consumers spend $59.99 on fans, are questions that proper testing can resolve. At the moment the AlwaysCool looks like a very well thought out handheld fan in the slot, and that alone earns it a spot on my watch list.
Related: Dyson HushJet Mini Cool review: The summer survival gadget I wish I had right away
Grigor Baklajyan is a technical copywriter at . His contributions include product reviews, buying guides, how-to articles, and more.