A year has passed since the launch of the Frore AirJet, a compact cooling solution that uses an innovative membrane method to direct hot air away from internal components, and at CES2024 Frore enthusiastically unveiled its latest model, the AirJet Mini Slim, promising to deliver superior cooling performance and convenient new features such as a thinner design, intelligent self-cleaning, and the ability to sense ambient temperature and optimize performance accordingly. The company enthusiastically showed off its newest model, the AirJet Mini Slim, promising to deliver superior cooling performance and useful new features, such as the ability to sense ambient temperature and optimize performance accordingly. [However, given that the original AirJet was not adopted, and given the apparent lack of global testing, we wonder if there is something we are missing.

In December 2022, we covered the collaboration between Intel and Frore Systems to integrate AirJet into the Intel Evo platform. It was presented along with a potentially exciting case study of using a single AirJet Pro to cool an APU with something like a Steam Deck. Intel's Evo laptops are designed to be small and slim, and the original Steam Deck was quite noisy under heavy load.

A thin, powerful cooling solution that operates quietly and efficiently would be the perfect solution for both, but both the release and subsequent refreshed versions of these devices remain conventionally cooled.

A quick look at Frore's website reveals a page that provides information on where to purchase AirJet-compatible products. One such system, the Zotac Zbox Pico P1430AJ, is billed as the world's smallest mini-PC; its two AirJet Minis are said to remove "an additional 10 watts or more of heat," and Zotac's unit primarily uses efficient thermal throttling and passive heat dissipation to It seems to suggest that it cools itself and AirJet helps as needed.

Here is a possible problem: AirJet may be remarkable in the sense that it provides no cooling at all in such a slim frame, but the cooling requirements of modern devices can be substantial, and cooling at only 5 watts per unit may simply not be enough. cooling requirements for modern devices can be substantial, and cooling at only 5 watts per unit may simply not be enough.

Devices are stackable and can be used in combination with each other for higher cooling performance. However, it is easy to imagine that the advantages of such a small form factor would quickly be negated by the need to fit multiple units into a single chassis if multiple units are needed to adequately cool the device.

Beyond that, there is the unfortunate problem of noise. It is difficult to find video or audio clips of the AirJet operating in a quiet environment where noise levels can be determined, but when Linus Tech Tips published a hands-on video of the technology last year, the noise output was not particularly high overall, but the conventional fan It was mentioned

that it reached a higher pitch than traditional fan setups, although the overall noise output was not particularly high.

This was theorized to be due to the laminar flow of air created by the vents, and it was suggested that this could be mitigated by modifying the chassis ventilation design of devices that use them to avoid creating noisy turbulence, but manufacturers simply design vents to accommodate smaller coolers It seems likely that manufacturers may be reluctant to devote R&D resources to

Fan noise can be annoying in many ways, but there is no doubt that the high-pitched whine is more irritating to the eardrums than the normal air hum produced by a conventional fan. If this is the case, it would not be surprising if the manufacturer was less than enthusiastic about making a name for itself as the purveyor of the first mosquito-scented laptop.

Regardless, these potential factors may provide an answer to why this new cooling method did not gain significant traction. Frore AirJet may be an innovative and creative solution to the ever-present heat-related problems in our electronics, but there is still a long way to go before companies fully adopt this technology.