Leave it to Razer to turn your iPhone into a gamer’s dream. The gaming hardware maker’s latest colourful creation is the Razer Phone Cooler Chroma (I kid you not), an RGB-illuminated cooling fan that mounts to the back of your iPhone.
There are two versions of the Cooler Chroma: a magnetic model compatible with MagSafe cases and another with a universal clamp. The former snaps onto the back of your MagSafe case while the version meant for Android users has extendable arms that hug the sides of the phone.
Razer’s website breaks down the device, and there’s actually some pretty neat stuff going on inside. Positioned closest to the phone is a small cooling plate behind a cooling tile and a heat sink. Pushing air away from your precious handset is a seven-blade fan behind a disc-shaped cover with 12 LEDs.
Much like Razer’s gaming keyboards, this RGB fan attachment supports 16.8 million colours that can be displayed in various patterns and effects. Not that you have good seats to this light show — the fan faces away from the phone so you’ll only see rainbow hues when they’re reflecting off other surfaces or when the device is placed screen down.
But hey, if you’re like me, any reason to get people to talk to you, right? Anyway, you might be wondering why you’d even need this thing. Well, phones get hot when they’re pushing heavy workloads, and gaming is one of the most intensive tasks you can do on any device. The Cooler Chroma will make sure your iPhone or Android device doesn’t throw you an “overheating” warning when you’re down to the last two standing in a battle royale.
There is a major drawback to Razer’s device, and it’s one that would probably prevent me from considering it. Despite being made for a mobile device, the fan needs to be plugged in to work. Razer confirmed to Gizmodo that there is no built-in battery, meaning the fan needs to be tethered to an outlet. The company told us that most phones don’t provide enough amperage to power the cooler, so you can’t plug the accessory into your handset’s USB-C port. Instead, you need to use the provided USB-C-to-USB-A cable to connect to a power source, be that a power adaptor or a portable battery.
If you’re not bothered by that limitation, despite how ridiculous it sounds, the Razer Phone Cooler Chroma can be purchased for $US60 ($84) on Razer’s website.