The scent-powered water bottle is hardly a new idea these days. But with a 710ml stainless-steel design, a twist-and-flip lid and a £30 price tag, the air up Pro 3 gives existing owners something else to consider. Is it a worthwhile step forward or simply another bottle for the collection?
When air up first started making waves with its scent-powered water bottles, the conversation was largely about how the thing worked. Plain water that apparently tasted of cherries, cola or tropical fruit without a drop of flavouring being added? Fair enough. That was worth investigating.
But air up has been around for a while now, and the novelty of making your nose do the tasting is no longer quite the conversation starter it once was.
These days, anyone already familiar with the brand is likely to have rather more practical questions. Is the bottle easier to use? Will it keep water cold? Does the lid behave itself when it’s rattling around in a bag? And, perhaps most importantly, is there any compelling reason to replace the one you’ve already got?
That’s where the new air up Pro 3 comes in.
The 710ml stainless-steel model, available in the Choco Rose colourway for £30, combines the company’s established scent-pod system with a twist-to-unlock, flip-to-sip lid, claimed leakproof construction and insulation designed to keep water cold for more than 12 hours.
On paper, it’s a useful set of features. The more interesting question is how the Pro 3 fits alongside the bottles air up already sells.
What’s Different About the air up Pro 3?
The obvious starting point is the design.
The Pro 3 featured here uses stainless steel rather than the lightweight Tritan material found in air up’s Click series. It also has a 710ml capacity, placing it between the 600ml and 800ml Click options.
The lid is another point of interest. air up describes the Pro 3’s mechanism as a simple twist to unlock, followed by a flip to drink. The company also promotes its quiet operation, something that may sound inconsequential until you’ve tried opening an unnecessarily complicated bottle halfway through a meeting.
There’s also the promise of more than 12 hours of cold-water retention, compatibility with both still and sparkling water, dishwasher-safe construction and a shape designed to fit a cupholder.
None of these details is particularly glamorous. They’re the things that tend to matter once a water bottle has moved beyond being a new purchase and become something you use every day.
However, there’s an important distinction between a feature being included on a new model and that feature being genuinely new to the range.
Stainless-steel construction and sparkling-water compatibility, for example, already appear elsewhere in air up’s line-up. The Twist Pro offers stainless-steel options and is designed for both still and sparkling water.
So the Pro 3 shouldn’t automatically be credited with introducing either feature. Its appeal appears to lie in the particular combination of capacity, material, lid design and price.
How Does It Compare With Other air up Bottles?
The existing Click and Twist Pro ranges provide useful context for anyone deciding whether the Pro 3 is the right choice.
The Click starts at £25 and is offered in 600ml and 800ml sizes. Made from Tritan Renew, it’s positioned as the lighter option for school, the gym and everyday carrying. It’s designed for still water and can go in the dishwasher.
The Twist Pro, meanwhile, starts at £40 and offers a broader choice of capacities, ranging from 480ml to 1,000ml. Depending on the configuration, buyers can choose Tritan or stainless steel, while the range accommodates still and sparkling water.
That puts the £30 steel Pro 3 in an interesting position.
It’s £5 above the Click’s advertised starting price and £10 below that of the Twist Pro, although those starting prices don’t represent identical bottle sizes or specifications.
For someone moving from a lightweight Click bottle to a steel design, the Pro 3 offers a different combination of materials and everyday features without reaching the Twist Pro’s advertised entry price.
For someone who already owns a stainless-steel Twist Pro, the decision is less obvious. Insulation and sparkling-water compatibility are not, by themselves, reasons to change bottles. The appeal would need to come from the Pro 3’s particular shape, capacity or lid arrangement.
And that’s an important consideration. The available product information doesn’t establish a direct generation-by-generation comparison with a named Pro 3 predecessor, so it would be premature to declare the new design better in practical use without testing both.
The Scent Technology Hasn’t Changed the Basic Proposition
Of course, the main reason people buy an air up bottle remains the same: the flavour experience.
Rather than adding ingredients to the water, air up uses scented pods that release aromas as you drink. Scented air travels through your mouth towards your nose, influencing the way your brain perceives flavour.
The process is known as retronasal olfaction, and it helps explain why food can seem rather less interesting when you have a blocked nose.
The water itself remains plain, with no added sugar or artificial flavourings.
air up currently advertises more than 25 scents, including Kola, Wild Berry, Watermelon, Cherry and Mango Passion Fruit. Three-pod packs in the supplied UK range cost between £4.99 and £6.99, depending on flavour.
Someone drinking two litres of water daily might use around three pods a week; that’s an estimated flavour cost of £4–£5 over seven days. That is an illustrative figure rather than a guaranteed expense, particularly as some three-pod packs cost more than £5.
There’s no subscription requirement, but replacement pods remain an ongoing cost.
For existing owners, one particularly useful question is whether their current pods will work with the Pro 3. The product information supplied doesn’t confirm compatibility between every bottle generation, and it’s a detail worth checking before upgrading.
Should Existing air up Owners Upgrade?
That depends largely on which bottle they already own and what, if anything, they find lacking.
If you’re using a lightweight Click and would prefer stainless steel, the Pro 3 presents a clear alternative within the same brand. The 710ml capacity, claimed cold-water retention and twist-and-flip lid may make it attractive for commuting, office use or trips to the gym.
If you’ve already got a steel Twist Pro that performs perfectly well, the argument for replacing it is considerably harder to make from the published specifications alone.
The new lid design may prove more convenient, and the Pro 3’s dimensions may suit some people better, but those are questions that require hands-on comparison rather than assumptions based on a product listing.
It’s also worth remembering that the underlying scent-pod experience remains the reason for buying into air up in the first place. If you’ve never found the flavour sensation especially convincing, a different bottle design is unlikely to change that fundamental preference. Equally, anyone with a reduced sense of smell may find the effect less noticeable.
And if you already enjoy drinking plain water from an ordinary reusable bottle, there’s no particular hydration requirement that demands a scent-powered replacement.
The Verdict: A New Bottle, but Do You Need One?
The air up Pro 3 makes a reasonable case as an alternative within the company’s growing bottle range.
For £30, the 710ml Choco Rose model combines stainless steel, a twist-and-flip drinking mechanism and the manufacturer’s promise of cold water for more than 12 hours. Those are sensible everyday features, particularly for somebody looking to move away from a lighter plastic design.
air up no longer needs to introduce the world to the idea of tasting through scent. For existing customers, the decision is much simpler: does the new bottle solve a problem their current one doesn’t?
If the answer is yes, the Pro 3 deserves consideration.
If the old one is still doing the job perfectly well, there’s no great urgency to give it early retirement.
