Razer sometimes feels like the king of wild concept products, at least for gamers, and this year it’s coming to CES with the Project Arielle gaming chair. This concept is one of many the company has come up with over the years. It’s also one that has the potential to become something that’s an actual product Razer will sell. Similar to the Razer Freyja that was announced as Project Esther last year. What is Project Arielle exactly? It’s a gaming chair with integrated heating and cooling. That’s a concept gamers can probably get behind.
As for some of Razer’s other concepts, perhaps not so much. Several years ago it came to CES with a few concepts that we really hoped would end up on store shelves. Namely its tri-screen laptop, Project Valerie, and Project Ariana, which was a projection system that would project the edge of your game’s graphics beyond your monitor. Sadly, neither of those came to pass. While we can’t say for certain that Project Arielle will be anything more than a concept, it doesn’t seem like it would be hard for Razer to mass-produce it.
For one, it’s built on the bones of Razer’s already available Fujin Pro gaming chair. And two, it genuinely seems like a product people would buy. Not just because it’s Razer, but because it has actual practicality. As cool as Project Valerie and Project Ariana were, I can’t imagine there would be a big market for either. Project Arielle, on the other hand, I have a sneaking suspicion that there are tons of gamers out there who wouldn’t mind a warm butt in the Winter and some integrated AC in the Summer.
The Razer Project Arielle gaming chair puts you in control of your body temps
There’s nothing more uncomfortable when gaming than sitting in an overheated room while sweat runs down your back like Niagra Falls. There are plenty of ways to mitigate body temperature while you game. Some pretty affordable ones too. A blanket for instance. Or a blanket and some slippers. This combo can work wonders. Cooling off is a little bit more difficult. You generally need to either have central cooling with AC or at the very least a fan of some sort.
But what if. What if the cooling fans and the heating were baked right into your chair instead? What say you to that, gamers? Project Arielle gives you on-demand heating and cooling, Razer says, with easy access touch panel controls so you can engage either one whenever you want. It also has the same quick-release connection system as the Freyja. That way the cable doesn’t get damaged if it gets yanked too hard.
We’ve seen something similar to this chair before with the Mavix M9. I reviewed this chair a few years ago. While it didn’t have the heating and cooling built-in, Mavix did sell an insert for it that slid into the back. I imagine this might work a little better.
Built with an integrated bladeless fan system
This is part of the magic in how this chair’s heating and cooling supposedly work. The integrated bladeless fan system is housed in an enclosure at the back of the chair. This circulates the air through channels that eventually lead to openings on the front. According to Razer, this design makes it so the fan noise is “as soft as a whisper,” but the company says it also makes things easier to clean. It also says this allows for full-body airflow.
In terms of temperatures, the heating side of things can push warm air that’s up to 30 degrees Celcius. For those of you who use Fahrenheit, that’s about 86 degrees. Toasty. For cooling, Razer says the fans can reduce the perceived temperature by 2 degrees Celcius to 5 degrees Celcius, or anywhere from 35 degrees to 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Those are no small numbers. Oh, the chair also has Chroma RGB, because it’s Razer.
Obviously, since this is just a concept, there are no release dates or prices to speak of. That said, if this does ever come to market, expect it to cost over $1,000. The Razer Fujin Pro is $1,049.99 without this integrated heating and cooling system. So there’s probably no world where Razer would launch this for less than the normal version of the chair.
