I'm pretty sure that the first utterance that came out of my mouth when I opened the box was, "Huh?"

It was a product sample from Dyson, and it was this tabletop... thing. According to the box, it was an "Air Multiplier," which still didn't help much. A whosis?

I was not alone in my confusion, as evidenced by one of the funniest promo videos I've seen.

Okay, so it's a fan. It looks vaguely like a large makeup mirror without the mirror. The middle is just hollow... no blades. That's right, no blades. That means no anxiety about little fingers or furry tails getting hacked off the second you look away from your fan.

I turned it on, and it was powerful and steady. You can easily tilt it and turn it, and set it to oscillate or to stay in one place. You can also adjust the air flow with a dimmer switch. It's about as loud as running a hairdryer on the low setting, and it comes in either a 10-inch or 12-inch model, with three colors. (The blue looks really cool, if you ask me.)

One of their most frequently touted features is that it eliminates "unpleasant buffeting" associated with regular fan blades, with a helpful link to a Wikipedia definition:

Buffeting is a high-frequency instability, caused by airflow separation or shock wave oscillations from one object striking another. It is caused by a sudden impulse of load increasing. It is a random forced vibration. Generally it affects the tail unit of the aircraft structure due to air flow down stream of the wing.

Now, personally, I have never noticed any unpleasant buffeting before. I have never felt particularly unstable around a fan, unless I'm in high heels and have recently taken Benadryl. But! I can say that the wind coming out of this Dyson fan does feel extra-smooth.

For me, the selling feature is all about the lack of blades. No matter how much other manufacturers try to imprison them in their metal or plastic cages, fan blades still make me nervous when little kids are around. With this fan, you'd never even have to warn your kids to stay away. The air is brought into the fan through the base, so there’s nothing to harm them, unless they perhaps pick the thing up and fling it into each other's heads. Which is not likely, unless you have those sorts of kids.

Now for the bad news: This fan costs $300. And you can't even get it on Amazon or somewhere you're likely to find a deep discount - it's available only on Dyson's website or in "select design stores."

The Dyson Air Multiplier was sent to Jenna Glatzer for review by Dyson's PR firm.