Sony's Reon Pocket Pro Plus: A Neck-Worn Cooler That Actually Works, According to Engadget
Sony's Reon Pocket Pro Plus, a wearable device that cools or warms the back of your neck, has received a surprisingly positive review from Engadget, which found it genuinely effective at lowering body temperature during real heatwave conditions. The device is priced at $260 and is currently listed as out of stock on Sony's own store (Engadget).
The Reon Pocket Pro Plus relies on the Peltier effect for its core function. In simple terms, the Peltier effect uses electricity to create a temperature difference across a small component: one side gets cold, the other gets hot. In the Reon, an electrically cooled metal plate makes direct contact with the back of the neck and the top of the spine, drawing heat away from the body. Sony describes the device as a contour-fitted wearable thermal device that uses dual thermo-modules for both cooling and warming (Sony). According to Sony, the Pro Plus can cool its plate an additional two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with the previous generation, amounting to a 20 percent increase in cooling performance (Engadget).
Battery life claims from Sony are substantial: up to 10 hours on the second-highest manual setting and up to 15 hours in Smart Cool mode. In practice, during peak heatwave days, an Engadget reviewer reported getting roughly four to five hours of actual cooling. That gap between laboratory figures and field results is wide, but the device also supports charging while worn via a USB-C cable, which mitigates the shortfall for users who can stay near a power source.
The Pro Plus includes a four-level warm mode for winter use, making it a year-round device rather than a seasonal novelty. An included attachment extends the exhaust vent and allows adjustment of the exhaust angle, giving users some control over where waste heat is directed. The device is also remarkably quiet, particularly when compared with handheld electric fans, which is a meaningful advantage for office or commuting environments.
Physical buttons on the device provide access to almost everything available in the companion REON POCKET app (Sony), meaning users are not dependent on their phone for day-to-day operation. The device ships as part of what Sony calls the Sensing Kit (model RNPKP1PTH), which includes a smart tag that clips to a bag to track ambient temperature and humidity. The Engadget reviewer found the tag could unpair easily and made no tangible difference to cooling performance. Sony also offers a dedicated neckband (model RNPBNP1PH) designed to hold the device securely against the body (Sony). Sony's store lists the Sensing Kit at $259.99 with financing from $22 per month (Sony).
The Reon Pocket line traces back to 2019, when Sony unveiled the original Reon Pocket as a slender thermoelectric cooling unit designed to fit inside a shirt pocket, launching it on Sony's crowdfunding platform in Japan (The National; Cool Hunting). Seven years on, the concept has matured into a product with meaningful battery life, dual-season capability, and, by at least one reviewer's account, genuine effectiveness.
The broader context here matters. Research from the University of Reading estimates that air conditioning exists in only about 4.3 percent of English homes, compared with 90 percent of US homes. That disparity frames a real problem: a growing population in regions where residential AC is rare but heatwaves are becoming more frequent and severe. A $260 wearable that provides targeted personal cooling, rather than attempting to condition an entire room, is a different proposition from a window unit. It is thermodynamically efficient in the sense that it cools a person rather than a volume of air, which is the same logic that has driven heated apparel and battery-powered cooling vests in industrial settings.
The Peltier effect itself is not new technology. Thermoelectric cooling has been used for decades in applications ranging from portable coolers to CPU cooling in compact electronics. What has changed is the combination of battery density, miniaturized control electronics, and ergonomic design that makes a neck-worn Peltier cooler something a person might actually wear for hours at a stretch. The four-to-five-hour real-world runtime under heatwave conditions is the honest figure to weigh, and it tempers expectations. But the ability to charge while wearing the device, the quiet operation, and the physical button controls suggest Sony has been iterating toward a practical consumer product rather than a proof of concept.
The smart tag's inclusion feels like an underbaked feature, one that adds cost and complexity without delivering measurable value based on the reviewer's experience. Whether Sony refines or drops it in future iterations will be a signal of how seriously the company is tracking user feedback on this specific component. For now, the core thermal module is the story, and it appears to work.
