7.4 Score
There are plenty of personal devices out there that keep you cool depending on the weather and most of them are relatively affordable. Not the good ones though – like Torras for instance. But the majority of these devices available have a fan, that keeps you cool, that’s it. But Sony has a device that keeps you cool and warm depending on the external temperatures. It even works differently – how so? And is it any good? Find out more in this Sony REON POCKET 5 Review.
Sony REON Pocket 5 Review
Design and Build
If you have watched enough sci-fi movies with bizarre gadgets and gizmos that work crazy well, the Sony REON Pocket 5 has the same type of design going on all around. The moment you take it out of the box, you see this device with rubberized bands that sit around your shoulder and the long device with the metal plate sits on the nape of your neck. If you are worried that it might be heavy, well you don’t have to because it weighs about 160 grams – which keeps things light.
It’s designed in such a way to sit inside your clothes – so that way it doesn’t look out of place and is pretty discrete too. Along with the Sony REON Pocket 5, they have included two air vent covers – short and long.
The short one makes sense when you wear round-neck T-shirts and such whereas the long one makes sense if you are wearing a collared shirt and the device requires that extension to stay connected both outside and inside.
The discrete band that sits around your neck is supposedly ergonomic and sturdy – the issue I had with it is that it didn’t quite fit well for me in its default settings. Once you do bend the tube enough, it sits well. But it goes back to its original shape more often, a double-edged sword. There were folks around me that said the neckband is too big for them and Sony sells the smaller neckband separately but it costs RM 109 which is an extra price to pay on top of the Sony REON Pocket 5 which is already not cheap to begin with.
My biggest gripe with its design and build is that it is not the most portable device – because of the neckband. There were times I tried storing it away but with the worry that I might cause some damage. But seriously expect to have some sudden wear and tear out of nowhere. They do sell a special case to store the Pocket 5 away but again, it sets you back for RM 119.
How does it Work?
Okay, unlike those cooling fans that sit around your neck like some headphones, the Sony REON Pocket 5 works a lot differently. The device itself comprises a heatsink inside with a smart device that does the heating and cooling, which then gets dissipated through the metal plate which touches the nape of your neck. On the top and bottom of the Pocket 5, there’s a fan that regulates the temperature inside your clothes by keeping track of the external temperature – this is where the RNPT-1 Tag does its job by keeping check of the temperature and humidity in the air.
Essentially the Pocket 5 thermoregulates the temperature and keeps things inside your shirt at bay. So, when the environment is cold, the device will keep you warm and when it’s hot outside, it keeps you cool inside. To work along with this device, comes with an app that can be downloaded via Play Store and App Store.
The Application
The app for the Reon Pocket is pretty straightforward with 4 Main toggles right after you set it up: Smart Cool, Fan, Smart Warm/Cool and Smart Warm. All these modes offer 4 levels of heating up or cooling. But when you do wear it, all the modes except Fan will show you this heat gradient and the Pocket 5 indicator as to which target temperature it’s trying to hit.
The app has an additional setting for mode, which is customizable and gives you 5 options: Stamina Cool, Stamina Warm, Home Cool, Home Warm and Custom Mode. It even has two modes specifically designed for golfing – which makes sense. At the bottom of the app, you will notice two icons: the leftmost gives you the toggle to check if the device is working fine and compares the Surface and Exhaust Temperature.
On the right side, you have the external temperature and humidity values provided by the RNPT-1 Tag. For the most part, both the device and our smartphone communicated very well. The app runs in the background to make sure it keeps track of whatever that’s going on. We tried turning off Bluetooth and the device on its own is smart enough to keep things cool/warm based on the sensor and the body temperature.
Experience
To be frank, the Sony REON Pocket 5 took a while to get used to because when you have something that sits around your neck, you tend to be a little stiff and not move much as you might worry if it would fall. But after a good few days later, it felt normal. When you do wear it right after you unplug from the charger, the metal plate that’s in contact with your neck is initially in room temp as it has not initiated the cooling or the warming.
But once you wear it, you can immediately feel the “chilly” feel coming off the plate that radiates around your body. Depending on the situation, we did notice that it takes a while to cool or warm, especially when its too hot or cold – even the app shows a notification that it’s using maximum power to keep things cool/warm. If you are wondering about the noise coming out of the REON Pocket 5, worry not because it was pretty quiet with low noise, all possible due to the refined fan and DC Motor. Once you do take it off, it automatically stops the entire cooling/warming process – which helps you save some battery when you don’t need to use them.
When it works, it works well in keeping the temperature in check both externally and internally. While the fan isn’t the most powerful kind and it doesn’t blow air into your shirt, but instead sucks the humid air and releases it through the exhaust that’s protruding out of your neck and shirt and maintains the ambient temps. There were times when I’d just hop on the public transport and wear this, didn’t feel a single discomfort and cycled between the warm and cold temperatures very well.
With the sensor attached in my pocket, it was pretty easy to keep the device working in harmony. When I didn’t have a pocket, I’d either attach it to my bag or with the included key ring, you could attach to your keys – although it was scary as I feel it can be easily lost. In fact, I did misplace it at times which was enough to give me panic attacks. So, far it does sound like the device works well. But were there moments where it struggled to keep things cool or warm?
Yep, totally – now this is an issue that will vary across regions. Now, we tested this in Malaysia, which is where we are based at. And if you look geographically, the country is located extremely close to the Equator – a region where you experience both hot and cold temperatures pretty extensively. Due to our “diverse” tropical climate, we experience some odd spikes.
Because of those odd spikes in temperature, I have noticed that the Reon Pocket 5 struggles to keep things at bay. When it tries to cool, you can feel the condensation happening on the metal plate and true enough, I have noticed water droplets on the plate. It also struggles to keep things at bay when you wear thick clothing as it requires a lot of power to keep things calm and composed. So, the biggest key takeaway is that, you best hope to use this when you wear light clothing and make sure to have some sort of ventilation going on as it isn’t the type of device that would immediately cool you down – because of our Tropical weather.
We verified this with some feedbacks we read from countries like Japan, Hong Kong where this product is being sold and they seem to have the best experience out of the Pocket 5 than us.
Because of our Climate, the Battery Life is Extremely Short
Tropical climates are a tough climate to use such devices, and with the constant fluctuation with hot and cold temperatures, it’s hard to keep things at bay. This is where the battery life takes a huge hit – because most of the time when you wear it, it uses it’s maximum power to keep things cool, which means it uses a lot of the battery. And by the time you leave it in its ambient mode, the device has already lost 25-40% of its battery just boosting the cooling and has enough battery life to last for 3-4 hours.
Sony claims that the REON Pocket 5 can last up to 17 hours at Level 1 and so on, but it’s very climate dependent. If I was using this at Hong Kong or Japan, I can expect it to do its job very well and maintain the Level 1 cooling in those weather. In fact, when you use the warm mode, the level 1 mode gives you approximate 8 hours of life. So, yes, the battery life is extremely weather dependent – something you must take note of.
To charge this device, it takes about 2+ hours to get it up to 100% which in all honestly is okay, if you charge over night. But with the battery life we mentioned, I think you could use all the juice you could get and it would have been nice to have fast charging, maybe get 2-3 hours of battery with a 20-30 mins charge (vs 100 minutes charging to get 90% battery life).
Conclusion
Devices like these are an investment and you won’t be looking to change to the next generation every time a new one comes out. The availability of the Sony REON Pocket 5 in Malaysia is definitely a welcoming addition to the limited cooling/warming devices we have in the market.
But you have to remember, it’s a type of product that I wouldn’t go all out and recommend to everyone. For one, the RM 799 price tag can be a tough pill to swallow for many and for those who has a smaller physique, you would need to fork out the extra RM 100+ for the Small neck support.
Despite that, if you do purchase it, you would be happy with it if you have proper ventilation wherever you go and perhaps a more controlled temperature situation. If you plan to wear this when you are on the move all the time and jump between hot and cold temperatures too often, the Reon Pocket 5 will struggle.
I do see this device being a good buy if you happen to travel often to regions like Japan where it can be pretty cool and the Warming feature is a fantastic one. I love this one a lot. In fact, there were times at our office, I’d wear it to keep myself warm while the room is cool for the others. It works.
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