Razer Phone Cooler Chroma Seems Like Snake Oil Targeting iPhone Gamers

Last Updated on December 8, 2021 by Anu Joy

Razer is known for making cool products, but it has now announced an actual cooler for iPhones. The PC and console gaming peripherals manufacturer is now targeting iPhone and Android gamers with the rather imaginatively named Razer Phone Cooler Chroma. The RGB-heavy device latches onto the rear end of iPhones using the MagSafe accessory standard to “defeat the heat”.

The product comes in two flavours: one of them being the MagSafe compatible version meant for the iPhone 12 and 13 models. However, Android users will have to make do with an unwieldy clamp to accommodate most makes and models of the poor/smart man’s iPhones.

Razer hasn’t specified a compatibility list for popular Android phones, so Android users should probably ensure that their purchase is backed by a solid returns policy. Both iPhone MagSafe and Android Universal Clamp versions are priced at $60.

Fancy Being Chained to a Wall Outlet?

The Razer Phone Cooler Chroma claims to be more than a fancy RGB fan slapped onto smartphones. The puck-shaped design of the cooler features a solid-state Peltier module sandwiched between a cooling plate and aluminium heat sink that’s actively cooled by the 6400rpm axial fan.

The Peltier cooling module is essentially a solid-state thermoelectric heat pump. If that sounded Greek and Latin, it’s a tile shaped piece of semiconductor that magically cools one face and heats up the opposite one when an appropriate voltage is applied across it. That makes it a highly inefficient, but incredibly compact means to actively cool anything that it’s slapped onto.

Even the smallest Peltier modules are highly inefficient, so they typically consume at least 60 watts to be of any practical use. And sure enough, Razer hasn’t bothered to specify the total power consumption of the device, or that of the cooling module, in the technical specifications section of the official product page.

This makes it highly unlikely for even the Android version of the Phone Cooler Chroma to be powered by the phone’s USB-C port. Wouldn’t it be easier to game on your PC or console at that point?

And that also might explain why Razer has neither bothered with issuing a press release, nor publishing a blog post or YouTube video showing how the product works. It’s almost as if it is deliberately trying to hide something.

Something like the fact that you most probably will have to hook it up to an electrical outlet.

Barking up the Wrong Thermal Tree

Unfortunately, it gets even worse when you consider the actual location of the heat source on the iPhone 13. The A15 Bionic SoC is located on the top right-hand side of the phone. This can be easily verified by the excellent thermal imaging work done by the zollotech YouTube channel.

The Razer Phone Cooler Chroma, however, attempts to cool the centre of the phone.

And that’s not the brightest idea, because all iPhone 12 and 13 variants incorporate a glass panel at the rear. Being an excellent thermal insulator, glass isn’t very good at conducting heat. The JerryRigEverything YouTube channel has done a great job demonstrating its heat insulating performance—the ceramic coating notwithstanding.

That means, all practical heat dissipation in the iPhone 12 and 13 phones occurs through the sides of the device along the metal frame. While the rear glass panel does eventually get hot, it happens after a significant delay. In fact, cooling the rear glass panel has a relatively insignificant impact on phone performance, as opposed to heat dissipated through the metal frame.

Please Wait For Independent Reviews

The Razer Phone Cooler Chroma is the iPhone equivalent of blowing onto a thermos flask to cool the hot coffee inside. It’s both comically ridiculous and downright insulting at the same time.

Then again, we could be wrong and Razer has indeed bent all laws governing conventional physics to make this product work. At any rate, please wait for independent product reviews before plonking down $60 on this RGB-addled gimmick.