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All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Springtime means cooler weather, and for some, overbearing allergies.
Luckily, air purifiers can help the allergy-stricken find some relief. But regardless of whether you have allergies, it’s good to have an air purifier on deck. It’ll help get rid of dust, mold, pet dander, smoke and more.
To get you on the right track, we commissioned the help of Anna Chan, Billboard’s deputy editor on the digital side — and resident cat lover — to test out a few budget air purifiers that you can buy on Amazon and have delivered overnight, if you’re a Prime member (click here to launch your 30-day free trial).
Below, find our review of the three best air purifiers under $200. The list below includes options that are perfectly giftable for Mother’s Day.
LEVOIT Core Mini Air Purifier
If you’re looking for a smaller, no-frills, plug-and-play air purifier for a cozier room, this could be the winner. Setup takes mere minutes, and the unit – which has three stages of filtration — is streamlined with just one button: The power button.
It turns the unit on/off and control fan speed, which has low, medium and high options. It also has to displays: fan speed and the “check filter” indicator, which turns red when attention is needed.
BEST AIR PURIFIER UNDER $50
LEVOIT Core Mini Air Purifier for Bedroom Home, 3-in-1 Filter Cleaner with Fragrance
Size: 6.5” x 6.5” x 10.4”, 2.2 lbs
Smart Controls: No
Setup Time: Less than 5 minutes
Filter Refill Cost: $24.99
The fan is also pretty quiet, and is practically silent when on the lowest setting. The medium setting is pretty soft and nearly unnoticeable, even for this very light sleeper. The highest setting – for when your air quality isn’t great – is noticeable, but not distracting.
One nice little bonus is the built-in aromatherapy tray. Simply pop it open, and add your essential oils to the little pad as needed. Don’t want or need to use this feature? Pretend it’s not there!
Pros: This small unit fits great on a nightstand or dresser, and barely takes up any space. It’s also very light at barely two pounds, so it’s easy to move around too.
It’s so quiet you won’t know it’s on, making this a great air purifier for bedrooms. It comes with a little aromatherapy drawer/pad built in, so you won’t need a separate aromatherapy machine in the room.
Cons: The lack of smart controls means you can’t turn it on/off, adjust the fan speed or check the air quality of the room remotely. And it’s pretty small, so probably may not be as efficient for anything bigger than a medium-sized bedroom.
Coway Airmega True HEPA Air Purifier
Conway’s Airmega True HEPA Air Purifier not only boasts the ability to help purify the air in your home, but does so while looking sleek. (Think super large iPod Shuffle in black or white.) The unit and its three fan speed, four-stage filtration system isn’t huge – though it feels a tad large for a tiny New York City apartment – but it does seem to get the job done with minimal user effort. The control panel features an air-quality indicator (blue = good, purple = moderate, red = unhealthy) and five buttons – power, fan speed, filter change reset, timer and ionizer, though the ionizer isn’t explained in the user manual, so its purpose is unclear to this basic tester.
BANG FOR YOUR BUCK
Coway Airmega AP-1512HH(W) True HEPA Purifier with Air Quality Monitoring
Size: 16.8” x 18.3” x 9.6”, 12.3 lbs.
Smart Controls: No
Setup Time: Less than 10 minutes
Filter Refill Cost: $59.79
The air-quality sensor seems pretty sensitive, and for me, the unit automatically kicked into high gear after a minute of sautéing food in a cast-iron pan, even when the fan in the range hood was on high. Speaking of cooking, the unit boasts the ability to deodorize thanks to the carbon filter, and while it does so a little, it’s no match for someone like me who uses a cast-iron pan daily. Just a little oil and some eggs and hash browns is enough to leave a lingering scent all day in this small apartment despite the unit running the entire time, though it is a little less noticeable than when I didn’t have the Airmega.
To further prove its sensitivity, the Airmega’s fan speed also went from low to medium immediately after I applied some spray hair wax in a nearby room, and completely skipped the medium setting for high alert/max fan speed when I barely cracked my living room window open on the first nice day of spring.
While the max fan speed is quite loud (roughly 53 dB(A), according to Coway), it does have the added bonus of seemingly cooling down the air temperature too, which could be a bonus in the summer months.
Pros: For those of us trying to be cognizant of our electrical use, the unit’s Eco Mode is a great feature. After 30 minutes of the air quality being “good,” the Airmega’s fan switches off automatically to conserve energy. And as soon as it senses a drop in air quality drops, it’s back on.
The air-quality sensor appears to be pretty sensitive, so this could be a good unit for anyone suffering from allergies or other respiratory issues. And it’s pretty!
Cons: The biggest bummer for me was the unit’s lack of smart controls. My apartment may be small, but I’m still sometimes too engrossed in my TV shows (read: lazy) to get up and turn the air purifier down, or off. It’d also be nice to be able to turn the unit on/off from my phone while I’m away from home.
With con No. 1 noted, I should also point out that on max speed, the air purifier gets loud, like, crank the TV volume waaaaaaaay up loud. (It also woke me up one night when the air quality apparently became bad for some unknown reason, and the unit kicked in on max speed. Alas, without smart controls on my phone, I could not turn it back down without getting out of bed. Spoiler alert: I did not get up.)
This unit sure does attract cat hair! While unboxing the Airmega and putting it together, it seemed to summon all of my little black cat’s fur from the living room to its casing, as if it were Magneto grabbing all of my silverware with a wave of his fingers. Unluckily for me, my Airmega is white, and my beloved feline is black.
The user manual is really bare bones, causing minor confusion with the filters during setup, and doesn’t explain how the eco mode or ionizer work. Also, the filter replacement cost is pretty darn high.
LEVOIT Vital 100S Air Purifier
Good things do come in smaller packages! The Vital 100S is a nice little unit that not only takes up just a small amount of floor space and is quite light, it seems to do a pretty good job of detecting air quality and improving it with its three-stage filtration system while keeping fan noise pretty low. The 100S detects four levels of air quality and is color-coded on the sleek display on top: very good (blue), good (green), moderate (orange) and bad (red). In terms of sensitivity, this unit kicks in quickly when I start cooking on the stovetop with a cast-iron skillet, and within minutes of me turning on my aromatherapy machine.
AIR PURIFIER FOR LARGE ROOMS
LEVOIT Air Purifiers for Home Large Room Bedroom Up to 1110 Ft²
Size: 12.6” x 6.3” x 16”, 7.26 lbs.
Smart Controls: Yes
Setup Time: Less than 10 minutes
Filter Refill Cost: $31.99
The Vital 100S is also marketed for homes with furry little friends running around. It boasts a Pet mode, which, according to Levoit, “alternates between fan speeds to keep your air clean and virtually odor-free with energy efficiency.” The U-shaped air inlet is also supposed to help capture fur and other larger particles (perhaps human hairs?).
Another highlight is the unit’s VeSync app, which is pretty handy and incredibly easy to set up. Once on your phone, the app allows users to turn the unit on/off remotely, displays the current air quality of your home, and also alerts you when air quality drops and fan speed increases, and vice versa. It also shows you the history of your indoor air quality, as well as filter life, lets you create a schedule and more.
Pros: It’s quite compact, attractive and easy to tuck into homes with limited space. The app is super easy to use and adds a level of convenience that’s worth the extra cost.
It’s a very quiet unit, and when in Sleep Mode, you won’t even know it’s on while you snooze!
Cons: Like the Coway Airmega, the Vital 100S boasts odor control, but neither unit was able to eliminate basic stovetop cooking scents. And while neither was great at this, the Airmega did outperform the Levoit on odor elimination by a smidge.
The app may show you the filter life left, but that can also be a downside. After three weeks of testing, the filter life had already gone down by 5%.
For more product recommendation, see our roundup of sustainable tech gadgets to shop beyond Earth Day.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Mother’s Day is less than a month away. Have you started shopping yet?
If the answer is no, we’ve found a hilarious throw pillow that your mom just might love – if she’s a fan of the original Mean Girls.
Tina Fey’s 2004 comedy, which celebrates its 20th anniversary on Tuesday (April 30), still lives rent-free in a lot of our heads, but even if your mom isn’t familiar with Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, Cady Heron and The Plastics, she’ll probably get a laugh out of this handmade pillow inspired by Amy Poehler’s infamous Mean Girls quote: “I’m not like a regular mom, I’m a cool mom.”
Made from 100 percent wool, the Cool Mom Needle Point Pillow retails for $108. The pillow is available at Furbishstudio.com and retailers such as Revolve, but it’s currently out of stock at Amazon, Bloomingdale’s and Etsy.
Measuring 8 x 14-inches, the throw pillow is hand-embroidered in wool and backed in cotton velvet, per the product description. Besides the laugh factor, your mom will appreciate how much time it takes to make Furbish pillows. Each pillow takes around 20 hours to stitch by hand, according to the company.
Furbish offers a large selection of pillows with funny quotes such as, “If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say, Come Sit By Me,” “Nobody Is Perfect. I’m Nobody” “This Is Actually My First Rodeo” and “My Favorite Thing to Make for Dinner Is Reservations.”
While there’s never enough money to show just how much we care for our mothers, shoppers on a tighter budget can turns to Amazon and Walmart to find cheaper pillows and other Mother’s Day gift ideas.
For more shopping recommendations, see our list of new beauty drops of the season, where to buy a Dyson Airwrap in ceramic pink and rose gold and a luxury perfume dupe for under $25.
Benny Blanco is boyfriend of the year!
The producer took to Instagram on Monday (April 29) to document an adorable romantic gesture for his girlfriend, Selena Gomez — making her a full-blown steak dinner. “I woke up early this morning and I was like, ‘I want to do something nice for my girlfriend.’ I was thinking, whenever I want to put a smile on her face or get laid, I just make her steak.”
Blanco then took fans through his process of making the perfectly smoked steak, crispy potatoes and a Caesar salad. “If you’re not making homemade croutons, you’re an idiot,” he joked.
When the meal was finally complete, the star put the food into a storage container and was planning to “sneak” into her work and give it to her. However, Gomez had the day off, so he went to her house. When he arrived, the “Love On” singer was still sleeping. “I’m going to write a cute little note and leave it by her bed so she can eat it later,” Blanco revealed, before writing the note and putting it on her nightstand, giving her hand a little squeeze before heading out.
When Gomez woke up, she shared the sweet gift to her Instagram Stories, along with the note that reads: “I love you! Sleep well! I made you steak.”
Gomez first confirmed that she and Blanco were dating on Dec. 7, about six months into their romance. In a reply to fans on Instagram, she wrote that he “is my absolute everything in my heart” and that she is at her “happiest” in the relationship.
Watch Blanco’s steak dinner journey below.
A new partnership reaches No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart (dated May 4), as Feid and ATL Jacob’s “Luna” rises 2-1 to lead the 50-track-deep ranking. The song becomes the 11th collaboration in 2024 to land at the summit, with three of them Feid collabs.
“Luna,” released on Universal Music Latino/UMLE, ascends to the top slot from No. 2 after a 15% increase to 10.73 million audience impressions on U.S. reporting radio stations during the April 19-25 tracking week, according to Luminate. The new No. 1 unseats Prince Royce and Gabito Ballesteros’ “Cosas de La Peda,” which spent one week in charge. It falls to No. 3 with 8.33 million in audience, down 23%.
“Luna,” produced by ATL Jacob, where the latter also provides background vocals, is one of ten cuts from Feid’s Ferxxocalipsis set, which earned the Colombian a third top 10 on Top Latin Albums (No. 9 debut last December). The song generated significant attention only after Feid shared an acoustic version on his Instagram account in January, thus followed a No. 20 launch on Latin Rhythm Airplay in February, where it holds at No. 1 in its second week.
With the new champ, American rapper ATL Jacob checks into the penthouse on the overall Latin Airplay tally for the first time. Feid, meanwhile, picks up his seventh No. 1 among 14 career entries. Further, as “Luna” shakes up the scoreboard, here’s a look at the 11 collabs, whether through co-billed or three-way combined efforts, that hit No. 1 on Latin Airplay in 2024:
Title, Artist, Peak Date
“Según Quien,” Maluma & Carín León, Jan. 6
“Bubalu,” Feid & Rema, Jan. 13
“Harley Quinn,” Fuerza Regida & Marshmello, Feb. 3
“Borracho y Loco,” Yandel & Myke Towers, Feb. 17
“Qlona,” Karol G & Peso Pluma, March 2
“Por El Contrario,” Becky G, Leonardo Aguilar & Angela Aguilar, March 9
“No Es Normal,” Venesti, Nacho & Maffio, March 16
“Puntería,” Shakira & Cardi B, April 6
“Perro Negro,” Bad Bunny & Feid, April 20
“Cosas de La Peda,” Prince Royce & Gabito Ballesteros, April 27
“Luna,” Feid & ATL Jacob, May 4
In addition to its Latin Airplay control, “Luna” ascends 9-8 on the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart, which combines airplay, streaming data, and downloads, despite a 6% dip in streams, to 3.5 million official U.S. streams generated during the same period.
“Luna” is one of the 36-song setlist on Feid’s Ferxxocalipsis Tour, the North American 27-date run that launched in Sacramento April 24 and will close in Miami on July 26.
All charts (dated May 4, 2024) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, April 30. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Sorry, but PartyNextDoor is outside and will be taking his new album PARTYNEXTDOOR 4 (P4) with him on the road on the Sorry I’m Outside Tour, which he announced Monday (April 29).
In the 48-second trailer directed by Aidan Wilde, Party (real name Jahron Anthony Brathwaite) takes fans through his latest album journey from the studio to the stage and from the bright lights and police sirens of Hollywood (with his “Real Woman” single title replacing the Hollywood sign) to his Toronto hometown. In one scene, a sea of people are throwing their hands up in unison while chanting the sample of the late DMX‘s “Party Up (Up in Here)” in his single “Lose My Mind.” “Dates announced tomorrow,” Party wrote underneath the clip on Instagram.
The Canadian-Jamaican R&B star released his fourth studio album, PARTYNEXTDOOR 4 (P4), on April 26, 2024, via OVO Sound and Santa Anna Label Group. P4 arrives four years after his last studio LP Partymobile, which peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and No. 4 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. The 14-track project contains no features and other previously released singles “Her Old Friends” and “Resentment,” the latter of which reached the top 10 of Hot R&B Songs. “This is the hardest I’ve ever worked on an album. This is the proudest I’ve felt,” he told Billboard in his recent cover story.
PND has been outside promoting the album, with performances at SXSW (he first revealed the LP’s title during his headlining set at Billboard‘s THE STAGE at SXSW concert series), Rolling Loud California and Souled Out in Australia.
See the Sorry I’m Outside Tour trailer below.
A three-year-old was shot Sunday in Homestead, police say. The toddler is hospitalized. The details of what transpired remain sparse. But police have confirmed that the child was transported to … Click to Continue »
Miranda Lambert‘s new single “Wranglers” is coming, and fans at Stagecoach got to hear it first. Reba McEntire got to hear it, too — because she showed up to Lambert’s stage as a surprise guest Saturday night (April 27).
Reba joined Lambert for a three-song finale of “Mama’s Broken Heart,” her own “Fancy” and “Gunpowder & Lead,” wrapping Lambert’s headlining set that featured the live debut of the unreleased “Wranglers.”
“@Reba at @stagecoach y’all,” Lambert wrote Sunday on X (formerly Twitter), reacting to the fun she had at the Indio, California, festival the night before. “Thank you to my hero and friend for coming out here as my special guest. I’ll never forget it. She brought all the fire.”
“What a night!!! Thanks @mirandalambert for asking me to be part of @Stagecoach last night. And thanks to all the #Countrymusic fans for sticking with us in that wind! #badasssisters #bas #stagecoach,” Reba posted on her own account.
“Wranglers” — written by Audra Mae, Evan McKeever and Ryan Carpenter, and recorded in Austin with co-producer Jon Randall — is set to be released on May 3. The song can be pre-saved here.
“‘Wranglers’ is a classic tale of a woman taking her power back,” Lambert said in a statement released to press. “I think we can all identify with the character in this song, because we have all had a time in our life where we needed to find our strength, and also get a little revenge on someone who did us wrong or hurt us. This offers such a cool, raging take on how something like this unravels. I think the songwriters nailed it.”
She added, “I am so proud to sing it. It feels like it could have been on the same record as Gunpowder & Lead in a lot of ways. ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ is a pretty powerful statement, and the way it’s written, you can tell, we’re not kidding.”
Watch a clip of Lambert’s live “Wranglers” performance below, and see some footage of her Stagecoach duets with Reba.
Although Funk Generation just missed the lead on Billboard‘s weekly new Latin music poll results, Anitta‘s new album is triumphant in topping this week’s new music poll that features artists in various genres of music.
Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (April 26) on Billboard, choosing Anitta’s Funk Generation as their favorite new music release of the past week.
The new set from Anitta brought in more than 50% of the vote on this poll, securing a notable edge ahead of new releases from Normani and Gunna, Tems, PARTYNEXTDOOR and more.
The veteran Brazilian star pumps up the funk on her sixth studio album, which has her singing in Spanish, Portuguese and English. The collection features singles including “Funk Rave” and “Joga Pra Lua,” and has Sam Smith guesting on vocals for “Ahi.”
Anitta has mapped out a tour in support of Funk Generation, the Baile Funk Experience Tour, a global trek that includes the singer’s first-ever North American leg: there will be stops in Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, Boston, Toronto, Chicago and New York. Find the latest tour information on Anitta’s official website.
Trailing behind Funk Generation on this week’s poll is Normani’s team-up with Gunna for “1:59,” with 23% of the vote. The track is set to appear on her long-awaited album Dopamine, out June 14.
See the final results of this week’s poll below. Check out Billboard‘s Friday Music Guide to catch up with more must-hear releases from this week.
