Sony Reon Pocket 5 Review

Verdict

The Sony Reon Pocket 5 feels like it could be a useful wearable for commuters who need to cool down or warm up a tad, though it still needs to do some shrinking in both the design and price to make it a travelling essential that you won’t leave the house without.

Introduction

The Sony Reon Pocket 5 is a wearable that wants to keep you cool or warm you up depending on what you need to feel comfortable.

The device, which actually started life on Sony’s own crowdfunding platform, has, as the number in the name suggests, been through a few iterations. For its latest version, the company promises that the device is more effective in heating and cooling you down, while also letting you do that for longer in between charges.

While previous Reon Pockets have been trickier to get hold of outside of Japan, Sony has now decided to make its wearable thermal device more available globally. That was good news for this reviewer who had it to test during a mini-heatwave in the UK, making it ideal to see if the Reon Pocket 5 has the power to be a great means of bringing cold or heat, or if it’s just a bit of a pricey gimmick.

Design and comfort

• Worn around back of neck inside of clothes
• Comes with two vent sizes to suit different clothes
• Resistant to splashes of water and sweat

The Reon Pocket is made up of the main unit, which is about the same height as a smartphone like an iPhone and only slightly slimmer. That’s attached to a silicone neckband that’s got a little flex to it, but is pretty rigid in structure to ensure that the unit it’s attached to is resting in the correct place, all to ensure that you feel the true benefits of this thermal device.

That neckband is suitable to fit neck sizes between 34-46cm, though there is a smaller version available suitable for those measuring in between 29cm-35cm. You will however have to pay an additional £25 if you find the one included to be too big for you. Generally it was fine for me to wear, though something that wrapped a little closer wouldn’t necessarily have been a bad thing.

Weight-wise, as a package, the entire set up comes in at roughly 116g. So that’s lighter than carrying an iPhone 15 (171g) around your neck if you’re planning to take it on your travels, but you’re not going to forget that it’s there. For shorter periods, it’s not really a problem but for longer periods walking around it’s perhaps more noticeable. If you’re sitting down on a train for an hour or two, it’s going to be less of an issue.

While it can be worn relatively discreetly and covered up by a shirt collar, you need the removable vent on top to be exposed, which can look a bit odd walking around with it. 

That vent comes in large and small sizes and are designed to make the Pocket 5 a better fit with more formal and relaxed clothing. So you’ll use the smaller one for casual clothes, and the larger vent when you’re wearing a shirt for example.

On the one side of the device you’ll find a button to turn it on and connect to your phone via Bluetooth 5.0 and below that is the type USB-C charging port, which works with the accompanying cable or your standard USB-C cables. Sony says the Pocket 5 is dust and splash resistant, so if things do get sweaty underneath your shirt collar, it shouldn’t cause any operational issues, and having used it in some pretty sweltering conditions I can confirm that it’s not broken down on me when I’ve needed it the most.

Alongside the main Reon Pocket unit is the Reon Pocket Tag, which is a clip-on device that is included with the Pocket 5 and can also be used with the Pocket 3 and 4. Unlike the main unit it’s worn on the outside of your clothes, ideally on a shirt pocket or clipped to your collar. It’s designed to detect the changes in temperature outside of your clothes and when combined with the Pocket’s sensors, aims to help pick the correct cooling or warming mode based on the data collected by sensors on both devices. 

Features and performance 

• Automatically cools and warms
• Pocket Tag tracks temperature from outside of clothes
• Battery life dependent on cool or warm use 

Essentially, the Pocket 5, like previous Pocket devices, wants to be a device you can put on to help you feel cooler in hotter environments or warmer in colder ones. It’s clearly aimed at commuters, but Sony is also thinking here about people who would quite like it for long walks or going for a round of golf. So largely sedentary scenarios or the type of exercise when there’s not a lot of frenetic movement involved.

So how does it work? There’s an array of onboard humidity and temperature sensors that are there to measure these metrics in real-time to adjust the mode of the device accordingly. Sony uses something called a Peltier module, which can be found in refrigerators and converts electricity into heating or cooling energy. This is represented by a metal plate on the rear of the unit that sits against the back of the neck when the Pocket is worn.

When used in the cool mode, the unit activates a built-in fan to expel heat from the warm side of the module to create that colder sensation. That fan is not in use when it’s in warm mode.

This is all controlled from the companion Reon Pocket app, though unlike previous versions, there’s also a useful automatic start and stop mode that can use the kind of motion sensors typically found in wearables like smartwatches to detect when it’s on and around your neck and when it’s off your body so it can turn it off and make sure you’re not wasting the battery. You can manually control the warming and cooling from the app or leave it to a smart mode that will adjust temperature based on your environment.

I’ve been using the Pocket 5 on its own and in conjunction with the Pocket Tag, which isn’t essential to using the Pocket and does also mean you do have to wear a separate device less discreetly. 

Arriving during the start of the summer and whilst having to handle some hotter temperatures, I used the Pocket 5 at home in a sweltering flat where floor fans couldn’t quite do the job of stopping the sweat. I also used it on walks and on train journeys, and the latter is where I think it’s going to be most useful. 

The first thing you need to get accustomed to is wearing it. While I wouldn’t say it’s heavy, it’s also not the most svelte device to don and you need to make sure placement is correct and that metal plate is in prime position on your upper back to get the best experience. That wasn’t always the case, if for instance it slightly moved or I was wearing a bag that might have nudged it out of position. 

When it is in place and jumps into action, I think the best way to describe the feeling of the Pocket 5 in the cooling mode is that it’s like someone‘s dropped an ice cube down the back of your shirt but without the initial shock you would get from said ice cube. It’s more akin to the chill you get to feel if you pop your head in the refrigerator for a short period. It’s not going to stop you sweating, but the reprieve it offers from hotter environments really is quite a pleasing feeling. It’s not going to entirely stop you feeling a little hot, but it can definitely offer some chilled relief from it. It felt most useful in more stationary scenarios, though I could see the appeal of it for walking as well too. 

The conditions for testing the warming mode weren’t exactly ideal, but I did give it a try as well. In this mode, the Pocket offers a gentle warming sensation, without feeling like it’s going to scold if you put it to the highest warming level. I do feel though that it’s in the cooling mode where this device is going to have more appeal.

When you are using it in cooling mode, that brings the fan into play, which Sony says is 80% quieter than the fan used on the previous Pocket. I’d say it’s whisper quiet at times and more audible at others, particularly when it needs to work a bit harder to activate the stronger cooling mode levels. In public, in busier environments it’s less noticeable, but sitting down next to someone in a room, that noise can be more telling.

The battery life is solid here too and not as bad as I’d feared. It’s entirely dependent on using it in the warm or cooling mode. When using it in the highest cooling setting, you can expect around four hours from it. Drop to the lowest level of cooling mode and that jumps to 17-hours. Using it in the warm mode demands more battery with the highest setting giving you eight hours and the highest dropping to four hours. I was able to use it comfortably for a day, for a few hours in the morning and then in the afternoon from a full charge. 

When it does go flat, it can fully charge in just under three hours or or get up to 0-90% in just over 1.5 hours. So, if you want to use it throughout a day, it pays to fully charge it or at least get close to a full charge.

If you’re using it with the Pocket Tag, then you’re going to need the kind of CR032 coin cell battery used on heart rate monitor chest straps and some watches to power it up. That should give you a year’s use before you’ll need to hunt out a replacement.

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