Turbo Handheld Fans

This is the shape most people picture when they hear portable fan, and it is the one that has to justify the space it takes in a bag. The head carries seven blades on a brushless motor, which is the difference between a stream of air and the thin whistle a two-blade toy produces. At the top step it is genuinely loud, because moving that much air is not free, but the useful range sits in the middle where it stays quieter than a laptop under load.

The handle is the second half of the argument. Folded back it becomes a stand, so the same fan that walked with you through a car park sits on the desk afterwards without a bracket or a stack of books under it. Runtime is quoted at the lowest speed by the manufacturer, and the lowest speed on these heads is still worth using, which is not true of every fan sold on that promise.

The Pro sits in the same section because it is the same idea taken further: a dial instead of five fixed steps, a hundred increments of airflow, folded to roughly the footprint of a phone. Pick it if you resent choosing between step two and step three.