The new AeroActive Cooler 6 is here! It would appear that the ROG Phone gets a new, cooler design with each new generation. However, the brand-new AeroActive Cooler 6 features a brand-new four-button design, so I’m not complaining.
Because it adds so many new features and cooling capabilities to the ROG Phone 6, we believe it merits its own review in today’s review. In fact, this accessory is the sole subject of our review.
My opinion is that the brand-new AeroActive Cooler 6 arrives in a rather large box. The AeroActive Cooler 6 itself and a case are both contained within the box.
Although the phone case is only the one that comes with the ROG Phone 6 Pro, it has a larger cutout for the cooler to come into contact with the phone because the cooler is very big because the wing spans a large distance.
The AeroActive Cooler 6’s installation is also very simple: press the button at the top to release the clamp, insert the phone and connect it to the USB-C port, and then snap the clamp back in place.
The AeroActive Cooler 6 has four buttons all together. The L1 and R1 shoulder buttons are designed to be pressed downwards around the top curvature, and the two larger L2 and R2 buttons are pressed inwards toward the cooler.
You might ask, “Hey, can I just use the AeroActive Cooler 6’s buttons instead of the AirTriggers?” Not really, hmm.
How should the AeroActive Cooler 6 be held and used?
Throughout my experience, I believe this cooler is uniquely designed. I believe it was developed in conjunction with the ROG Phone 6’s built-in AirTriggers.
The AeroActive Cooler 6 can be set up in the same way that we set up the AirTriggers by mapping its buttons to our AirTriggers.
However, the way you hold the AeroActive Cooler 6 might need to change depending on how many buttons you want to use. Take a look at these two shots. The grip can be rather loose if I only use the L1 and R1 buttons. I will need to hold the phone in a very specific way if I want to use the L1 R2 and L2 R2 buttons.
Yet, regardless of which of the buttons of the AeroActive Cooler 6 I need to utilize, my pointers are dependably around the AirTriggers in view of how the cooler is planned. This demonstrates that the cooler was cleverly designed to be held in a particular way by users; however, whether or not this way of holding the device is comfortable is a separate issue.
Comfort:
When I played Genshin Impact, the L1 and R1 buttons are great because they work with the phone’s AirTriggers. However, because pressing these buttons causes the phone to constantly be pushed down, I must support that force with my palm’s base.
The phone will be pushed upwards, towards my face, if I want to use the L2 and R2 buttons, so the base of my wrist will have to wrap around the phone.
The overall grip is acceptable for big hands like mine, but I really dislike how the L2 and R2 buttons are positioned and require a lot of force to activate.
I would like to see a grip added to one of the improvements so that we can hold the device better. Perhaps something that can be quickly attached and removed, like the grip on the Kunai 3 Gamepad. Sincerely, that would significantly enhance the comfort.
Design:
Back to the AeroActive Cooler 6, shall we? It has a rubber flap on the top so that even after the cooler is installed, we can still use the power button. The phone’s back also has a lot of RGB on it.
It also has a kickstand, which I think is nice because you can make something similar with the AeroActive Cooler 6 and the Kunai 3 Gamepad.
Additionally, there is a second USB-C port at the bottom of the cooler, allowing us to charge the phone while it is attached or create this by utilizing it in conjunction with the Kunai 3 Gamepad.
Efficiency in cooling:
Okay, enough about the buttons; now let’s talk about the AeroActive Cooler 6’s cooling performance. Now, this is where the fun begins. At first, I made a 30-minute gameplay video, but I realized that it wasn’t scientific enough because the test was inconsistent.
We can enter the Armoury Crate to set the AeroActive Cooler 6’s cooling mode after plugging it in. There are four different options:
Frosty, on the other hand, activates both the thermoelectric cooler and the fan at the same time. Smart adjusts automatically based on the phone’s temperature. Cool only turns on the fan. TEC or Peltier cooler) Frozen: Turns on the thermoelectric cooler and speeds up the fan to its maximum. The charger must be plugged into the USB-C port on the cooler in order to operate in this frozen mode.
I used the 3DMark Wilf Life Extreme stress test to see how well it cooled. We use this test because it shows how much the temperature has risen since the test started. Naturally, I also activated X Mode to generate additional heat.
Therefore, I carried out a total of four tests: the first test was conducted without a cooler, the second test was conducted with the cooler operating in Cool mode, the third test was conducted with the cooler operating in Frosty mode, and the final test was carried out with the fan operating in Frozen mode.
The outcomes are intriguing. As shown in this table, the temperature delta with the fan operating solely in Cool mode decreased by 4°C when compared to the result obtained without the fan.
The temperature then decreased by an additional degree Celsius when the Peltier cooler was activated in the Frosty mode. Later, we’ll return to this.
The temperature actually dropped significantly by yet another 5°C during the most recent test conducted in the Frozen mode. That is a significant temperature difference of 10°C when compared to the bare phone; however, this also means that you will need to bring a power bank with you in order to use the device in frozen mode, and the fan noise is… loud.
However, the peltier cooler’s minuscule improvement is what I want to emphasize here. Peltier coolers basically create a hot side and a cold side by using electricity. In most cases, the hot side will have a fan to remove heat, but in the AeroActive Cooler 6, there is no way for the hot side’s heat to escape.
The fact that there is only a 1°C improvement may be attributable to the fact that most of the air on the hot side is being blown back into the phone, as far as I can tell.
Consumption of power:
Using the ROG Phone 6’s battery bypass mode, switching the fan modes, and recording our wattmeter’s reading, I can only estimate the power consumption of each cooling mode. I don’t think it matters much, but these are the power levels the cooler uses depending on the cooling mode selected.
How effective is the AeroActive Cooler 6?
In short, how effective is the AeroActive Cooler 6? Yes, but technically speaking, I believe the Chill mode is the most effective because it lowers the temperature by 4°C and does not require a power bank or charger.
Regarding the price of RM349, it is undoubtedly a hefty amount to pay for an accessory for the phone; however, it significantly enhances the gaming experience.
Can the ROG Phone 5 be used with the AeroActive Cooler 6?
I must point out one major issue: the AeroActive Cooler 6 we have here is made just for the ROG Phone 6. There is only one USB-C port on the side of the ROG Phone 6.
However, although we are able to plug this AeroActive Cooler 6 into the ROG Phone 5, it does not function. This is because ROG is going to release yet another limited-edition AeroActive Cooler 6 for the ROG Phone 5, but I have no idea why they are doing this because, as you can see in this picture, it plugs in perfectly.
It looks like the ROG Phone 5 is locked out of using the AeroActive Cooler 6 by software, which is disappointing. Additionally, due to the absence of pogo pins, the AeroActive Cooler 5 from last year cannot be utilized with the ROG Phone 6.
