Razer started out as a relatively small peripherals maker, now they’re literally everywhere. If they’re not making a Bane mask (with RGB), it’s internal components (with RGB). Or how about a handheld console? No? Then what about the Razer Phone Cooler Chroma?
“What’s that?”, we hear a hypothetical but narratively-convenient voice cry? Well, suspiciously well-timed anonymous voice, it’s an attachment for your smartphone that keeps it cooler than its creators ever could. And yes, it has RGB. And MagSafe support, for the iPhone version of this overdesigned PopSocket.
How do we make this Phone Cooler?
See, rather than Candy Crush being the dominant mobile game, as was feared when Activision bought King.com back in 2015, people are playing real games on smartphones. Modern flagships are far more powerful than gaming PCs from just a few years back. But computing power has always involved two things: money, and thermal management.
Throwing money at Samsung or Apple will get you a 120Hz OLED display and enough power to create several thousand Apollo Guidance Computers. But if you want to cool your smartphone while popping skulls in your favourite mobile battle royale, that’s a little more difficult. Unless you opt for the Razer Phone Cooler Chroma, apparently.
See, it either connects to a supported iPhone using MagSafe or it’ll clip onto “most smartphones” using an expanding connector. So there’s Android support. obvs. Once there, there’s a cooling plate that connects to a Peltier cooler — the sort of thing used on Nvidia’s 8800 GPUs, back in the day. A heatsink and Bluetooth-adjustable fan, capable of spinning up to 6,400RPM, help with thermal dissipation. But you’ll pay a bit of a price for it — the fan maxes out at 30dB. You’ll sound like you’re using a gaming notebook, just a bit.
The $60 (R950) Razer Phone Cooler Chroma is powered by USB-C. The ‘Chroma’ part of the name refers to the twelve RGB lights on the outer side, and yes, those hues can be customised. But, unlike PC cooling, its actual usefulness is a little uncertain. Unless you pry off the backplate of your phone and layer it over bare metal and circuitry, you’ll be at the mercy of the phone’s design when it comes to cooling. But putting RGB on the back of an iPhone 13 Pro Max is cool, right? Right? Guys? Come back.