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The Reon Pocket Pro alongside the smaller Reon Pocket 5
- Larger cooling surface
- Comfortable fit
- Easy controls
- More expensive
- More conspicuous
Following the sunniest spring on record, the Met Office predicts this summer is likely to be hotter than usual. That means personal cooling devices, like portable fans and mists, are likely to become increasingly indispensable. The Sony Reon Pocket Pro is a more expensive way of keeping cool at £199, but it might be just the thing for hot-and-bothered tech enthusiasts.
The Reon Pocket range operates unlike any other personal cooler on the market. It sits on the back of the neck and between the shoulder blades, with a metal plate that rests against the skin. This plate heats or cools depending on the ambient temperature, humidity levels and the user’s skin temperature – essentially, it’s a personal air conditioner that doesn’t rely on fans.
Ahead of the launch, I got my hands on a product sample and have been testing it out for the past week. Helpfully, Sony also sent the Reon Pocket 5, so I could check if Sony’s improvements were worth the £60 price increase. The new model has an bigger cooling and warming zone, a more comfortable fit and double the battery life of its predecessor but, sadly, I found these improvements led to a slight compromise in size.
What do you get for the money?
The Sony Reon Pocket Pro will cost £199 upon release and will be available to buy directly from Sony on20 Junew. In the box, you’ll get the main heating and cooling unit, its upgraded neckband, a USB-C to USB-C charging cable, and long and short air vent covers. You’ll also get the Reon Pocket Tag, which is a handy keyring-sized device that measures the ambient temperature and humidity, and communicates this to the Reon Pocket Pro.
The Reon Pocket Pro alongside the smaller Reon Pocket 5
The included neckband is suitable for neck sizes ranging from 34cm to 46cm, and can be bent, flexed and adjusted more easily than the previous neckband, leading to a secure-feeling fit. Each end of the band has also been fitted with a soft silicone tip to aid the overall comfort. Sadly, unlike the Reon Pocket 5, there is no option to purchase a smaller neckband.
Like many so-called “smart” products, the Pocket Pro has a free accompanying app, although, mercifully, there is no mention of AI anywhere. This allows users to set their comfort preferences, control the device manually, or set it to automatic mode. It is the same app used with the Pocket 5.
How does it work?
Like its predecessor, the Reon Pocket Pro is designed to sit at the back of the neck, reaching down just between the top of the shoulder blades. Its neck strap wraps around the neck, in line with the shoulders, to keep the device securely in place. It’s worn underneath your clothes so the metal cooling and warming plate is in direct contact with your skin.
This metal plate is connected to a battery-powered Peltier element. These are typically found in camping fridges, but here have been repurposed to directly cool or warm up when triggered either by flicking a switch in the app, or by changes in your environment.
The Reon Pocket Pro alongside the smaller Reon Pocket 5
The Reon Pocket Pro has far clearer on-device controls than the single-buttoned Pocket 5, including a plus and minus button to control the level of cooling and heating, a power button and a mode switching button. However, the best way to control the device is through the app.
Once the device and the Reon Pocket Tag are paired with your phone via Bluetooth, the app allows users to seamlessly switch between cooling modes, warming modes, and an automatic smart cooling mode. The latter uses data from the Tag and your body temperature to automatically set the optimum temperature for that moment, adjusting it as soon as conditions change. A similar process occurs when the device is set to Smart Cool or Smart Warm mode – the only difference is the device will not get warm if the device is set to Cool or vice versa.
The Reon Pocket Pro alongside the smaller Reon Pocket 5
You can also control the device in manual mode, which allows you to set a level of cooling or warming; there are five levels of cooling available, and four warming levels to choose between. The app makes it very easy to select the temperature, and the device only takes a few seconds to adjust itself. That is, unless you’re going from maximum warming to maximum cooling, but I can’t fathom a use case for this – and even then it only takes ten seconds or so.
As you might expect, battery life is dictated by the level of warming or cooling that is selected. The maximum battery life is 37 hours is only achievable when cooling level 1 is selected, dropping to 27 hours at level 2, 18 hours for level 3, 10 hours for level 4 and 5hrs 30mins at maximum cooling.
Similarly, when the lowest level of warming is selected, you’ll get 10 hours from a full charge, dropping to 8 hours at level 2, 6hrs 30mins at level 3 and 5hrs 30mins at level 4. That means you’ll likely get a full working day’s use out of the device – not too shabby from a device that can fully charge in three hours.
The Reon Pocket Pro alongside the smaller Reon Pocket 5
While being worn, the air vent covers poke very obviously out of the top of your clothing, which might bother you if you don’t like the occasional odd stare. These will emit a gentle stream of air while operating at higher cooling powers and output emit a puff of air when switching between warm and cool modes.
Is it effective?
I’ve been testing the Reon Pocket Pro for a week now and to my delight, it operated as well as it promised and easily out-performed the Pocket 5.
Its cooling sensation can be described in many ways. Where the Peltier cooling plate is in direct contact with the skin, it felt a little like the feeling of a cold tile on a hot day, or having an ice pack pressed against your neck. The difference is that, unlike pressing an ice pack against your neck, it maintains the same level of cooling for much longer and won’t warm up over time.
The Reon Pocket Pro alongside the smaller Reon Pocket 5
Warming, on the other hand, felt a lot like using a hot compress, or wrapping your bare hands around a warm mug of tea on a cold day. It’s certainly a sensation I’m not used to feeling at the back of my neck, but I think it would help to keep me warm on nippy winter walks.
The main improvement here – and this is something our tech editor, Andy White, picked out in his review of the Reon Pocket 5 – is the size of the heating and cooling element. While the previous cooling element measured a mere 50 x 45mm, the Pocket Pro’s is more than twice as big at 45 x 110mm. Pair that with the new curved shape of the element, which now better contours to the shape of your neck and upper back, and the difference between the two models is noticeable.
This still doesn’t completely eradicate another problem Andy identified. The device can still only cool you down locally, and the sensation doesn’t spread much further than your shoulders. You can see this in the below pictures, taken using a thermal camera, which show the very localised cooling effects of the Pocket 5. While we haven’t tested the Pocket Pro using a thermal camera, I can confirm that sweaty pits are still a very real threat when using this thing.
That being said, I was highly impressed by the Reon Pocket Pro’s responsiveness. In manual mode, the device could switch between different levels of heating and cooling in a matter of seconds.
To test the automatic Smart mode on a warm day, I placed the Reon Pocket tag on top of a bag of frozen peas and timed how quickly the device responded to the cool environment by getting warmer. To my surprise, this only took about ten seconds to adjust and I could feel my back getting significantly warm.
Once the tag returned to ambient conditions, it only took a minute or so to return back to cooling me properly, after a “temporary pause”. Granted, the device is unlikely to deal with such staggering changes in temperature on a normal day, but it’s good to know that the device will respond quickly if you’re magically teleported to the Arctic tundra.
The Reon Pocket Pro alongside the smaller Reon Pocket 5
And despite its localised cooling having minimal effects on the rest of my body, I was grateful to have the Reon Pocket Pro to provide light relief on long, hot journeys on the London Underground. As a frequent user of the Central line, any relief is better than none and it certainly had more kick than my usual pocket fan. It was also simpler to use and less obtrusive while walking or working.
What could be improved?
While many aspects of the Reon Pocket have been improved in the latest Pro iteration, there’s still a long way to go before the technology becomes a viable option for most people. Its cooling surface has doubled in size, for example, but it still can’t give the full-body cooling sensation you might desire.
And one negative consequence of the improved battery life, cooling surface and controls is that the device is larger than before. As you can see from my photographs, the Pocket Pro is significantly thicker than the Pocket 5, as well as a few centimetres longer. That means the device is more conspicuous to wear than before, despite the more subtle light grey colouring.
The Reon Pocket Pro alongside the smaller Reon Pocket 5
My posture is far from perfect, but the 30mm thickness of the the Pocket Pro didn’t do anything for me, lending my upper back a slightly hunched look. The easiest way to improve this would be to reduce the thickness of the main body, but I worry this would be impossible to do without compromising on heating and cooling power.
Similarly, the Pocket Pro weighs 250g, which is 90g heavier than the Pocket 5. This might not sound like a huge difference, but I can confirm that the Pocket 5 is more comfortable to wear for longer periods of time.
The biggest issue, for me at least, is that the Pro neckband is not available to buy in a smaller size. With my neck measuring almost 34cm on the dot – the smallest size recommended – I found the device would slip down my back occasionally, even when the neckband was tightened all the way.
The Reon Pocket Pro alongside the smaller Reon Pocket 5
This proved inconvenient enough when sitting still, but was far more bothersome when trying to wear the device while doing household chores. I certainly wouldn’t want to wear it during exercise as it’s likely to get in the way or come flying off entirely. The device is better suited to wearing while sitting down or walking which, in fairness, is the target use case.
I also had some trouble trying to dress around the Reon Pocket. People who usually wear collared shirts to work, or high-necked jumpers will find the device far easier to wear than I did. While wearing a plain black T shirt, I found the Pocket Pro very conspicuous to wear, thanks to the air vent that sticks out at the top. This rules out wearing backless or strappy tops if you didn’t want to attract some funny looks.
I would suggest, then, that it is a device better suited for men to wear than women, particularly in summer.
Should you buy it?
This is a tricky one. Overall, the Reon Pocket Pro is fit for purpose: it offers powerful warming and cooling, responds quickly to environmental changes and is very easy to control. While the Pocket Pro isn’t a medical device, I can see it being handy for people who run hot or just need something convenient to take the edge off on hot days.
The look just won’t work for everyone, and it’s certainly not for me. I prefer wearing lower-backed garments in the summer, which means I can’t wear the Pocket Pro without looking like something out of a Star Trek Borg episode. However, if you’re desperate to find a solution to your overheating issues (or you feel the cold in the winter and like the idea of having a personal heating system), then the Reon Pocket Pro certainly delivers the goods.
