Sony Reon Pocket Pro Review

Introduction

The Sony Reon Pocket Pro is the brand’s latest attempt at a portable personal air conditioner.

The Reon line of Sony gadgetry quietly launched in the UK last year with the Reon Pocket 5. It works via a cooling plate that sits between your shoulder blades to regulate your internal temperature to keep you cool.

This new Reon Pocket Pro model comes less than a year later from the middling Reon Pocket 5 and brings some notable upgrades, including a much larger contact plate, a quieter fan and longer battery life.

It’s a different proposition to many of the best fans while having a similar price of £199. I’ve been using Sony’s wacky air conditioner for the last few weeks to see how it fares.

Design and Comfort

• Larger and heavier than its predecessor
• Bigger cooling plate
• Surprisingly comfortable for extended periods

The Reon Pocket Pro is larger than its predecessor, with a much taller and thicker profile to accommodate more cooling hardware and a bigger battery. With this in mind, the general design hasn’t changed, with a device that sits neatly on your back, complete with a rubberised neckband to keep it in position and an air vent out the top to dissipate hot air.

There are two air vents in the box, with a shorter one for use with t-shirts and a taller one if you’re using it for more formal activities with a collared shirt, but still want the powers of the Reon Pocket Pro. Its light grey finish is pleasant and is offset by the darker grey of the neckband for an altogether tidy look and feel.

The neckband is more flexible than with the Pocket 5 for easier adjustment, but it was sometimes a little hit or miss as to whether it would sit on my back properly or fall down after a few minutes of moving around. Your mileage may vary, but it’s worth taking the time to make sure that it’s in place properly for optimal cooling performance.

The cooling plate on the Reon Pocket Pro is much larger than that of its predecessor, while also being angled to work with the natural curvature of your spine. As much as its weight has grown to 247g (which is over double that of the Pocket 5), I didn’t find it uncomfortable or fatiguing to wear for extended periods, especially as the weight is distributed well across the unit, and I got used to wearing it reasonably quickly.

There are on-board controls on both sides of the unit, with textured and rubberised buttons that allow you to select either hot or cold modes, as well as adjust the intensity on the other side. This Pro model also now has a Smart auto mode that reacts to your body and the environment around you if you want to set and forget it. 

This is also helped by the addition of the wearable Reon Tag that pairs to the mobile app and feeds environmental data back to the app to best adapt the device’s cooling to you. It can adjust the cooling/heating intensity based on the temperature outside, humidity level and whether you’re indoors or outside.

Further down the unit, you’ll find a USB-C port that’s covered by a rubber port. The Reon Pocket Pro is splashproof according to Sony, so it should be okay in dealing with natural sweat and such. There isn’t an official IP rating, though.

Performance

• Surprisingly effective performance
• Provides more internal  temperature regulation than outright cooling power
• App control is handy, and battery life is reasonable

Admittedly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Reon Pocket Pro when I first saw the item. I’m not used to having a wearable air conditioner, and mostly get cooling powers from a range of fans we have dotted around our house, including the Shark FlexBreeze and MeacoFan 1056.

The feeling of using the Reon Pocket Pro is a good one, with it providing a sudden coolness to your back that dissipates into a mellower sensation as time passes. You don’t feel cold per se, but the device instead regulates your temperature, so you generally feel a lot cooler than if you weren’t wearing it. 

The device is quite effective on its maximum setting, where I tested it most during some of the recent hot weather the UK has been experiencing, and it certainly has taken the major edge off the heat. I went to test it on the notoriously warm London Underground on the Jubilee line on the way to the O2 for a recent concert, and it helped there too. Enough to make you feel noticeably cooler in a more subtle manner.

It is only so good, though, and on especially hot days and indoors with lots of people, the Reon Pocket Pro’s powers are reduced somewhat – this is more to do with your own threshold when you feel like you’re overheating and sweating buckets.

The app control that this device provides is a must-have for use on the go, especially as changing the controls when it’s planted on your back can be quite difficult. Pairing it to the app is simple, too, and using it to slide up or down the cooling level is easy. It also shows you the ambient temperature and humidity, while you also get an idea of battery life and can toggle the Reon Pocket Pro’s auto start/stop function.

Sony says the Reon Pocket Pro should last for up to 34 hours with its included battery, virtually doubling its endurance against the Pocket 5. However, using it on the maximum setting will predictably diminish it a lot quicker, taking its battery life down closer to five hours. 

I found this claim to be pretty much bang-on, with it lasting for around that five hours at full pelt, or closer to ten hours if I dialled it back to level four out of five on the manual mode. Charging via USB-C takes a couple of hours, so you will need some patience before getting the Reon Pocket Pro back around your neck again.

Should you buy it?

FAQs