Sony is about to launch a new device in the UK that warms you up in the winter and cools you down in the summer.
Sony has revealed a somewhat different product to its usual TVs, speakers and headphones, with a gadget that sits beneath your clothes and warms you up or cools you down, depending on your preference. Think hot, sweaty tube in the middle of summer and then imagine a small, app-controlled rectangular device with a metal plate against your skin, positioned between your shoulder blades, cooling you down as you start to heat up.
Or alternatively, warmth spreading across the back of your neck on a chilly spring evening.
Held in place via a neck band – of which there are two sizes and two colours – the Sony Reon Pocket 5 is in its fifth generation, having started as a crowdfunded project before Sony put its name on it in 2020. This version is the first time it’s being sold in the UK and it has three temperature sensors, a temperature and humidity sensor and a motion sensor on board.
Controlled via the Reon Pocket app – which is iOS and Android compatible – this wearable climate control gadget offers a Warming mode with four settings, a Cooling mode with five options, and a Smart mode. The Smart mode will automatically adapt warming and cooling depending on the temperature outside, the temperature inside your clothes, whether you are moving and what your preferences have been set to. You can, for example, set the Reon Pocket 5 to automatically start warming or cooling you when a specific temperature is detected.
As part of the package, there is also a Reon Pocket Tag that clips onto the outside of your clothes rather than hidden beneath them and this helps to determine the outside temperature and humidity, both of which can be viewed in the app and contribute to how the Reon Pocket 5 adjusts its warming and cooling settings.
Choose the right neck band and the Reon Pocket 5 will go reasonably unnoticed under the clothes on your back – but we urge you to pick wisely if you don’t want things appearing above your collar. The larger neck band is taller and designed for when you are wearing a garment like a shirt, while the shorter and smaller version is designed for when you have something like a t-shirt on.
In our experience of the Reon Pocket 5 – we had a demo before the announcement – the warming and cooling modes adapt quickly as you change the controls in the simple app. We didn’t test the Smart mode, nor the claimed 17 hour battery life, but we can say we preferred the shorter neck band as it was more discreet under the clothing we were wearing.
The Sony Reon Pocket 5 will be available from 15 May 2024 and it will cost £139 for the device, the neck band and the Pocket Tag. The neck band will also be sold separately for £25. Both will be available through sony.com.
