While at CES 2025, I had the chance to experience a variety of awesome gadgets – I drove Segway’s new e-motorbike, experienced the first-ever interactive The Last of Us exhibit, saw some impressive AR glasses from brands like Xreal, and even played a stringless guitar. But as I get ready to leave Las Vegas, one device has stuck with me more than the rest: Razer’s Project Arielle concept gaming chair.
At a glance, Project Arielle looks like your normal mesh office chair, complete with a comfortable lumbar-supported design and Razer’s iconic RGB lighting. However, this chair has an extra motor at its base to warm or cool it as desired.
At Razer’s exhibit, I had the chance to experience Arielle first-hand, and while it sounds like it would be one of the most gimmicky launches we saw at CES – and we saw a lot of those it was probably the best thing I saw, and the gadget I’d be most likely to buy from the whole show (if I ever can, more on that below).
The functioning demo Arielle was super easy to control. A small touch control panel at the side allows you to adjust the temperature – between a cool 2°C and 30°C (35°F and 86°F) – as well as the intensity of the bladeless fan system. And while the convention wasn’t super quiet, I didn’t notice the chair loudly whirring away at the highest fan power setting.
Besides being an excellent way to find a little cooling in the warm Vegas convention center, I adored that Arielle wasn’t claiming to be anything more than a comfort system. Razer isn’t pitching this as a haptic chair that can mimic the in-game temperature of virtual environments to boost your immersion; instead, Arielle is here to make you feel toasty when you’re at your desk in the cold winter months or help keep you cool in the blistering summer heat – features which sound ideal for my UK-based home office which lacks AC.
Unfortunately, at the time of writing, Razer hasn’t made plans to release Arielle to the public – dashing my dreams, I’ll be able to have one at home. For now, it’s insisting that Arielle is merely a concept at this stage.
That said, as my host acknowledged, Razer’s Frejya haptic cushion was “just a concept” at CES 2024 – under the name Project Esther – before becoming a reality later in the year. I, for one, seriously hope history repeats itself with Arielle.
I’m seriously considering making a detour via the convention center before flying home to see it again, and I would love to make it a permanent fixture in my home. For now, we’ll have to wait and see what Razer announces.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
