“I need a $100 facemask that has a sensor and pairs to my smartphone” said no one. I was intrigued by the idea and decided to order the airpop active plus mask.
Best Buy came through like usual with super fast shipping. I honestly had no idea what to expect as I hadn’t read any reviews or videos or really photos of this product. Maybe I was first consumer to buy one. Anyways, the packaging is extremely neat, and on par with you might expect a $100 mask to present as. It comes with a the outer mask shell, the air sensor, 4 individually wrapped and sealed filters, a nice drawstring carrying pouch, spare ear elastic adjusters (pair already installed), a plug for if you remove the sensor, and instructions.
The first step, after unboxing, is to download the Airpop app on your device of choice and pair it to the sensor in the mask. I was concerned when I saw on the Apple App Store that the app had a 2.5 out of 5 stars. The app installed on my iPhone 11 Pro Max no issue and paired via Bluetooth to the Airpop sensor easily and quickly. So far, great.
The next step is to install a filter. Each individually wrapped filter has a QR code you scan in the app to register it. Each filter is rated for 40 hours of use so 160 hours of use with the 4 included filters. This felt advanced and techie but I really suspect this is more to keep you using Airpop brand filters.
So far I was impressed and smooth sailing, and then it all went downhill. Installing the filter, it only attaches to the outer mask shell at two small points on the left and right inside edges. There is no where in the middle, top or bottom, to help secure the filter. The clips are hardly clips and just D shaped rubber posts the filter sits on. It took me a few times to get the filter is seat on the posts.
The mask itself has no seal, it’s all on the filter. It’s a double layer silicone gasket that looks like it would create an air tight seal. It doesn’t. The gasket is angled inside to the filter. You have to flip it out when putting it on to create the seal, and it’s nearly impossible.
The biggest issue here is there is no conforming nose piece, so on my face it left a massive gap around my nose and cheeks- not sealed. It also caused my glasses to fog up more than even a $8 mask off Amazon. Unacceptable from a $100 mask.
At this point, I was pretty much no longer interested as without a seal, it is basically useless as a real filtering mask. So, not to pile on, but the fabric outer shell portion of this mask is ridiculously large. I have a big head (size 8 3/8 fitted New Era) and this thing made me look I was hiding a beak and maybe a burrito under my mask- it sits incredibly far off the nose and face. There is no other size available. On a normal sized person I think it would look absolutely comical. I tried adjusting the fit multiple times and never got it right or to seal.
The mask is a cool concept. For the 5 min I wore it, the sensor would glow as I took breathes indicating it was analyzing the air. The glow color on the sensor can be disabled, or changed to a few different colors within the app. The app showed the particulates being captured and measures your respiratory rate. Nifty features. It also syncs all this data with Apple Health. It also tracks how long you wore the mask and counts down the time remaining on your 40 hour filter.
If the mask would form a real seal I would even consider putting up with its beak-like construction for the analytics and Apple Health sync provided. But it’s unacceptable that a $100 mask fogs up glasses and doesn’t seal.