Study the image to your left very carefully. Can you pick out the non-Apple related product?

Brookstone's Digital Alcohol Detector (third product from your left) looks like it should be a part of the Apple family, doesn't it? We're not sure if that's the look Brookstone was going for, so if you own many white Apple products, you may want to go with another digital breathalyzer. Nonetheless, the Brookstone Digital Alcohol Detector does the job for keeping you safe, despite a few gripes.

PC Magazine's Brian Bennett volunteered to escort the Brookstone device to a fancy cocktail party in the penthouse of the swanky NYC hotel, the Royalton.

After sipping on Gin and Juice, laid back, with his mind on his money and his money on...just kidding. He enjoyed one cocktail at a time, testing his BAC level after each drink. The first Kettle One and Cranberry drink rendered a reading of .02%; a Greygoose and Cranberry was a 0.4%; and a Bombay Saphire and Tonic was a .07%. And he wants to make it very clear that all of these drinks were top shelf, baby! To Bennett's knowledge, the device gave accurate readings.

How It Works: Just blow into the mouth vent and within 10 seconds your BAC is displayed in 2 decimal points, ranging from 0.00 to 0.12. The backlit LCD gives off a redish glow. Uses 2 AAA batteries (not included).

The Brookstone breathalyzer differs from Q3 Innovations' AlcoHAWK series of breathalyzers in that you must calibrate the device at least twice when you first get it. The process takes just a few minutes, then you can take as many readings as you like. (The AlcoHAWK series does not need calibration; however, if something goes wrong with it, you have to send it back to the company so they can recalibrate it.) The disappointing part about the device is that if you mistakenly hold in the power button when you turn it on to get a reading, it goes into recalibration mode, rendering all previous readings useless. So, to turn on the device, make sure you just press the power button--don't hold it in. To calibrate it, hold in the button.

Everyone at the party stood in line to try the breathalyzer. Bennett felt that it provided seemingly accurate readings with different people. For example, it gave a lower reading for the guy having beers as opposed to himself, who was rocking the hard alcohol cocktails. It even provided a zero measurement to the most responsible member of the group, who was drinking just Coke. 

Overall Impressions: He was impressed with the Breathalyzer's accuracy, and liked how small and easy it is to slip into pockets. But having the same button that both powers the device and triggers the device calibration procedure makes it way too easy to recalibrate by accident. And if there's no sober person around to recalibrate it for you, you're in trouble!
 

Get the Brookstone Digital Alcohol Detector for $50.00.

Stay tuned for more alcohol tests on GearLog. In the meantime, if you haven't already checked out our other alcohol tests, see below.

-Alcohol Test 3: AlcoHAWK Micro
-Alcohol Tests 1 & 2: AlcoHAWK Slim & AlcoHAWK ABI
-Alcohol Safety Month Intro