Hands on: Razer Arctech iPhone Gaming Case aims to chill your iPhone

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone edited September 2019
A couple of weeks ago, Razer invited AppleInsider to check out their new accessory for the iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, with the Arctech Gaming Case said to help keep the Apple smartphone from overheating during lengthy 'Fortnite' scrapes.

Razer's Arctech Pro in their Quartz color
Razer's Arctech Pro in their Quartz color


The Razer Arctech is a gaming case that apparently has advanced cooling technology to help you extend mobile gaming sessions, by preventing your iPhone from getting too hot and throttling in the middle of a game.






According to Razer, the average gaming session lasts a little bit over an hour, and with Apple Arcade coming soon, the game peripheral maker thinks it will drive longer gaming sessions. If you're a fan of using cases on your iPhone, regular cases will trap heat and will end up overheating or throttle your device.

Razer's gaming case will help with overheating thanks to its Thermaphene layer, which collects and transfers heat away from the device. By pulling the heat away, this reduces the chance of throttling.

Razer's Thermaphene layers
Razer's Thermaphene layers


The case also features a soft microfiber lining to help protect the phone from micro scratches when taking the case on and off the phone, and it also has small perforations to increase airflow to dissipate heat.

Inside the Razer Arctech case for the iPhone 11 Pro Max
Inside the Razer Arctech case for the iPhone 11 Pro Max


We don't have Apple's new iPhones just yet, so we can't really comment and say whether our gaming sessions have gotten better, nor whether our phones stayed cooler versus using an ordinary case. We were able to use our iPhone XS and XS Max with their prototype cases during our short meeting with Razer, but there wasn't enough time to figure out whether these cases actually help dissipate heat or not.

Razer did show us a graph which compares two iPhone XS using their Arctech Pro case versus an ordinary iPhone XS case, running the 3D Mark benchmark for two hours straight, and came away with the Razer Arctech's maximum temperature lowered by 3.7 degrees Celsius.

Razer Arctech Slim in their Mercury color
Razer Arctech Slim in their Mercury color


Once we have Apple's newest iPhone and Razer's new gaming case in our studio we'll do a full review to determine whether it's worth picking these up or not, especially if you're an avid mobile gamer.

Razer Arctech Pro in white for iPhone XS
Razer Arctech Pro in white for iPhone XS

Where to buy

These cases are available for purchase now on Razer's website and Amazon, starting at $29.99 for the Slim variant and up to $44.99 for the Pro version.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    widmarkwidmark Posts: 37member
    Cool idea.... looks like it needs to come bundled with a compressed air can with all those holes though.
    cgWerks
  • Reply 2 of 8
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,198member
    How does air/ventilation get through the Thermaphene layer? Wouldn't better heat transfer occur if the liner didn't have holes? It looks like the only benefit to any of the holes is increased surface area on the exterior.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    rossb2rossb2 Posts: 89member
    Linus tech tips , on YouTube, tested thermal throttling with phone cases. They found that cases had no significant impact. If this case has cooling properties, that may have an impact. You would need 4-5 tests both with and without case , to be sure.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    I wonder how a regular, naked phone without any case would do in that test, compared to the two with cases on them.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    randominternetpersonrandominternetperson Posts: 3,089member
    Ladies and gentlemen, your American education system at work.
    FileMakerFeller
  • Reply 6 of 8
    foregoneconclusionforegoneconclusion Posts: 2,678member
    The marketing claim they're making is that this case prevents the phone from going over the max recommended heat threshold (42C or 107.6F) while doing intensive gaming vs. using a standard case. The number of degrees reduction or what temperature scale is used is largely irrelevant.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    mkralmkral Posts: 57member
    apple ][ said:
    I wonder how a regular, naked phone without any case would do in that test, compared to the two with cases on them.

    I think you have your answer, based on the fact that Razwee makes no claims about the axe being cooler than a naked iphone
  • Reply 8 of 8
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    If it makes the phone more comfortable hold when it heats up then that's something, even if it makes zip all impact on the internal temperature and performance of the phone.
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