A temperature torture test revealed the Sony Reon Pocket Pro’s limits – this is what I found

Introduction

Are sweaty warm weather commutes are your idea of hell? Sony’s latest quirky wearable aims to prevent work shirt ‘pit stains – and wants to keep you warm in winter too. The Reon Pocket Pro climate control neckband keeps your hands free, unlike a portable fan, and is smart enough not to keep chilling when you get somewhere with effective air conditioning.

At least, that’s the theory. Can cooling a single spot really stop you from feeling the heat, to the extent that justifies the £199 asking price? (There’s currently no US launch planned, with Sony using this Reon generation to slowly expand from Asia into Europe.)

I wore one for a worst-case-scenario test: a packed press event in a Parisian townhouse sans air conditioning, on the hottest day of the year so far.

Design & build: ice to meet you

Side-by-side with 2024’s Reon Pocket 5, you can’t miss how much the Pro has grown. It’s significantly taller and chunkier now, to make space for even more cooling hardware and a much bigger battery. The basic design blueprint hasn’t changed all that much: cooling plates at the rear, air vent up top, neckband to keep it in position. You still get two vents in the box – a short one for t-shirts and a longer one for more formal collared shirts. They clip on and off with minimal fuss.

The light grey finish is meant to let it go incognito when wearing white office shirts (which never look properly white after they’ve been through the wash a couple of times), while the neckband is a darker hue. It’s more flexible than the previous model, with rubber tips that both help with comfort and keep the Reon in place at the top of your spinal column. Of course the whole thing is splash resistant, so your sweat isn’t going to cause it any grief.

Flip the Reon over and you’ll see its cooling pad has a much larger surface area than before. It’s also angled, to cover the natural curve of your spine. I found it surprisingly comfortable to wear, given the weight has also grown to a considerable 247g, and a lot of it is spread over your collarbones.

Inevitably the larger dimensions mean it’s not as invisible in use as the last Reon; it protruded out no matter what style of shirt I wore, and was particularly noticeable if I slouched or leant forward. That’s some encouragement to work on improving your posture, I guess.

Features & battery life: cool runnings

Sony hasn’t tweaked the Reon’s temperatures compared to last year, but doubling the TEC plate surface area means the cooling effect has also increased. The two peltier elements swap – one on, one off – every few seconds, stopping you from getting used to the sensation and feeling less refreshed over time.

The internal fan is noticeably quieter than before, too. I only noticed it spin up temporarily when first turning the cooling on; even at the maximum setting, it was barely audible in my home office. In louder public spaces those around you will be none the wiser.

I appreciate Sony adding physical controls to the Pocket Pro, meaning you don’t need to pair your phone if you just want the basics. It defaults to smart mode, but you can swap to cooling or heating before popping it around your neck. The recessed buttons make it easy enough to recognise the mode switch and cooling increase/decrease settings by feel alone. You’ll want to pair with a handset for fine-grain control over temps, though.

Sony reckons the Reon Pocket Pro lasts up to 15 hours in the Smart cooling mode at an ambient 30 degrees celsius, which is double what the previous-gen model could do. I found that a little ambitious, because the cooling settings erred a little too mild for what I was wanting on warm days; upping the chilling effect to max will see it drained in just over five hours. Dropping to level four out of five reaches closer to ten, and was the sweet spot I found when out and about.

It needs over two hours to recharge once the battery is drained, which isn’t great if you’re caught short when the weather turns. It’s smart enough to power down when you take it off, at least, so you can’t accidentally drain it in a bag or backpack.

Interface: cold as ice

Aside from a behind-the-scenes update that added support for the Reon Pocket Pro, Sony’s smartphone companion app hasn’t changed at all between generations. It still shows you the ambient temperature and humidity, what cooling mode is currently active, and offers a choice of cooling or heating levels when you’re in manual mode. This is also where you’ll get a clearer picture of battery life, and toggle the auto start/stop function on or off.

Clipping on the included Pocket Tag sensor can provide a more accurate temperature reading than the Reon can manage from underneath your shirt, which is useful when moving between locations with wildly different conditions – say, a sweltering sidewalk to an air conditioned store. The coin cell battery should last years before it’ll need swapping out, and the keyring makes it easy to hook on a bag instead of your clothes.

I like that you can customise the crossover points at which you’ll be cooled or heated in the app, or set a more general target temperature if you don’t think in degrees. They’ll be largely lost on you if you only reach for the Reon when noticeably feeling the heat, though. The changeover is more subtle, rather than blasting you with a frosty neck from the off.

Cooling performance: the big chill

When you put it on, the Reon Pocket Pro makes quite the initial impression. It takes just a few seconds to get properly chilly (or toasty warm) and the way the cooling slowly phases between the two TEC elements means your brain never filters it out. The sensation is pleasant, never getting uncomfortably cold, and I’d rather have it on my my neck in warm weather than nothing at all.

While the concentration of coolness on a single spot can’t entirely make you forget about how warm you’re feeling everywhere else, the psychological effect is still strong. It’s a bit like how a portable fan offers some relief through wind chill, even though it’s actually blasting warm air at you.

Keeping you fresh when the temperature is fairly mild is one thing; doing it in scorching conditions is another. The Reon Pocket Pro’s concentrated block of cold below your neck definitely does help you feel cooler than the ambient conditions, but its effect dips the further out of your usual comfort zone you get.

In my home office at an indicated 26 degrees celsius, cooling level three was enough to maintain a pleasant working environment. However, a rammed product launch in Paris, where the Pocket Tag sensor was reading 34 degrees celsius indoors? Even at full blast, it couldn’t quite take my mind off the heat. With no way to wick away sweat, the metal making contact with your skin can also get uncomfortably sticky. Someone more acclimatised to that temperature might fare better than I did.

Sony Reon Pocket Pro verdict

As long as you aren’t expecting the Reon Pocket Pro to make standing in the summer heat feel more like you’re in an Arctic snow drift, you’ll appreciate its ability to take your mind off rising temperatures. Sony’s thermal chiller can get properly cold when you need it to, and absolutely makes hot weather more bearable. Even more so than the last-gen model.

It won’t stop you turning into a sweaty puddle when you’re truly out of your climate comfort zone, though – or save you from wrapping up in the winter months when using its warming mode. There’s something here if you spend a lot of time in very humid countries, but everyone else can probably stick with their handheld fans, or a hats and scarfs.

Sony Reon Pocket Pro technical specifications