Sony Reon Pocket 5 Review – Novel Personal Cooling Solution

Malaysia’s blazing hot weather typically sees locals bustling about with a variety of battery powered neck or handheld fans to stay cool, However, Sony’s unusually named and designed cooling device, the Reon Pocket 5, aims to offer discreet cooling capabilities.

We’ve put it to the test in the sweltering concrete jungle of Kuala Lumpur – here’s our Sony Reon Pocket 5 review where we share if this new fangled design is a worthy addition to your everyday carry for braving the heat.

Sony Reon Pocket 5 review – Build and Performance

It’s no secret that Malaysia can get extremely hot, with the sun beating down at temperatures high enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk.

Sony’s Reon Pocket 5 aims to help you stay cool but works on a rather different principle than most would expect. Instead of using fans to move air around, the Reon Pocket 5 relies on the Peltier principle to keep you cool. It can also warm you up but that’s less relevant unless you frequently travel to colder climates.

Out of the box, our Sony Reon Pocket 5 review unit comes in an off white finish with a soft plastic attachment that gently latches on the back of your neck. The device itself also hosts a soft plastic vent attachment that can be detached as needed and a small metallic plate that is slightly larger than a square inch in size that acts as the Peltier cooling element.

This metal plate stays in contact with the skin just below your neck, either warming or cooling you, while a built-in fan expels heat away from the device.

Unfortunately these fans are not intended to cool you down directly and are meant to shunt heat up and through the aforementioned vent which exists somewhat just above the back of your neck and above your shirt collar.

Wearing it is a relatively straightforward affair and it latches on to the back of your neck in a discreet fashion without creating too obvious a bulge. It is still somewhat obvious if you’re just wearing a shirt especially with the cooling vent attached but it is well hidden if you’re wearing a blazer or jacket.

The Sony Reon Pocket 5 is also designed to work with a smartphone app that lets you adjust settings with your choice of five levels of cooling and warming power. Assuming you keep it at its lowest  setting (Level One), the Reon Pocket 5 is rated for about 17 hours of endurance and at maximum power (Level 5) it’s rated for about 4 hours of usage. 

The packaging of our Sony Reon Pocket 5 review sample comes with  the cooling unit itself including its integrated neckband, a detachable air vent cover, the usual warranty paperwork and a small Reon Pocket Tag that is intended to be attached to your clothes to intelligently adjust the cooling unit’s temperature settings.

Getting our Sony Reon Pocket 5 review sample up and running was a relatively simple process and it was able to pair up via Bluetooth to a phone with the Reon Pocket app recognising the cooler immediately.

When used on the daily commute on the local train and walking around Kuala Lumpur over the course of the past several weeks, our Sony Reon Pocket 5 review unit worked as intended with the Peltier cooling element immediately offering a chilling effect on exposed skin though it wasn’t able to keep up with the heat even when dialled to maximum cooling.

While it offered a modest amount of cooling near the portion near my neck, the rest of my body felt the full force of the heat with the local humidity making it a distinctly uncomfortable experience. 

At maximum cooling performance, it lasted a few minutes short of its stated four hour run time and charging it from dead zero takes close to a couple of hours.

Should you buy the Sony Reon Pocket 5?

While it does work, your mileage will vary depending on your heat tolerance. Under ideal usage scenarios, it would likely see use in situations where a more conventional cooling device isn’t an option or isn’t practical.

Unfortunately, the price for the Reon Pocket 5 is a significant barrier at a daunting RM799. As it stands, this is a unique device as there’s nothing else quite like it in the market and no basis for comparison. Still, it’s worth a look if you’re seeking a discreet alternative beyond the usual mainstream fan-based cooling solutions in the market, the Sony Reon Pocket 5 might be worth considering.

Sony Reon Pocket 5 review unit courtesy of Sony Malaysia. For more details please visit https://store.sony.com.my/products/reon-5