A physical dial you can turn by hand to adjust fan speed
At Computex 2026, a cooling hardware maker named Levelplay offered a quiet provocation to an industry long content with anonymous black plastic: that the machines keeping our processors alive might also carry a soul. Their Newtro lineup borrows the visual grammar of industrial machinery — dials, stitched tubing, burnt orange — and pairs it with thermal performance capable of taming the most demanding modern chips. It is a reminder that function and character need not be strangers, even inside a computer case.
- Levelplay arrived at Computex 2026 with coolers that looked engineered in a 1970s factory and tested in a 2026 benchmark lab — a jarring and deliberate contrast.
- The flagship liquid cooler pushes up to 350W of thermal dissipation, enough to handle aggressive overclocking, while a physical hand-turned dial lets users adjust fan speed without touching a single software menu.
- The Newtro Air 5 tower cooler extends the same retro-industrial identity to air cooling, supporting CPUs up to 250W across AMD and Intel's current and next-generation socket platforms.
- RGB lighting runs throughout the entire lineup, signaling that Levelplay is betting builders want their cooling hardware to make a visual statement, not just a thermal one.
- Despite the bold debut, no pricing or release dates have been announced — the Newtro series remains a vivid promise without a delivery date attached.
At Computex 2026, Levelplay unveiled its Newtro cooling lineup — a collection of air coolers, liquid coolers, and fans that looked less like PC hardware and more like artifacts from an industrial past. The defining element was aesthetic: a bold orange palette, stitched tubing, and a design language borrowed from vintage factory equipment, all lit from within by RGB lighting.
The liquid cooler leads the lineup with a 350W thermal dissipation capacity, placing it comfortably among solutions for the most demanding processors on the market. Its most distinctive feature is a physical dial on the pump head — styled like a vintage control panel knob — that adjusts fan speed by hand, bypassing software entirely. The stitched tubing reinforces the industrial theme in a way few coolers bother to attempt.
The Newtro Air 5 tower cooler carries the same visual identity into air cooling territory. Five heat pipes and direct contact technology move heat from the base plate through an aluminum fin stack, supporting processors up to 250W. Compatibility covers AMD AM4 and AM5 sockets as well as Intel LGA1700 and the newer LGA1851, making it broadly relevant for current and near-future builds.
Levelplay's broader lineup extends the same orange branding and RGB integration across additional fans and cooling solutions, suggesting a coherent ecosystem rather than isolated products. What the company has not yet revealed is when any of it will reach shelves or at what price — leaving the Newtro series, for now, as a compelling statement about what cooling hardware could look like, still waiting to become something you can actually buy.
At Computex 2026, Levelplay walked the floor with something that looked like it had been pulled from a 1970s factory floor and plugged into a modern gaming rig. The company unveiled its complete Newtro cooling lineup—a collection of air coolers, liquid coolers, and fans designed to handle everything from modest office builds to high-end gaming systems. What set them apart wasn't just their cooling capacity. It was the look: a bold industrial aesthetic wrapped in signature orange, paired with RGB lighting that would glow from inside any case.
The Newtro series leans hard into retro-industrial design, and that philosophy runs through every product. The liquid cooler, the flagship of the lineup, can handle processors drawing up to 350 watts of thermal power—enough for serious overclocking or the most demanding CPUs on the market. But Levelplay didn't just spec it out for performance. The pump head features a physical dial, styled like something from a vintage control panel, that you can turn by hand to adjust fan speed. No software required. No menus to navigate. Just a tactile, mechanical adjustment that feels intentional. The tubing itself is stitched, a detail that reinforces the industrial theme and adds a layer of visual personality that most coolers ignore entirely.
For those preferring air cooling, the Newtro Air 5 tower cooler follows the same design language. It's a vertical stack of aluminum fins in that same distinctive orange, with the same retro-industrial touches. The cooler supports processors up to 250 watts, which covers most current-generation CPUs. Inside, five heat pipes connect the base plate to the fin array using direct contact technology—a straightforward approach to moving heat away from the silicon as efficiently as possible. Socket compatibility spans AMD's AM4 and AM5 platforms as well as Intel's LGA1700 and the newer LGA1851, meaning it'll fit most systems built in the last few years or coming soon.
Levelplay's broader cooling lineup includes additional fans and solutions, all carrying the same visual identity. The RGB lighting is integrated throughout, giving builders the option to create a cohesive, colorful aesthetic if they want it. The company clearly understands that cooling is no longer just functional—it's part of the visual statement a build makes.
What remains unclear is when these coolers will actually arrive in shops or what they'll cost. Levelplay has not announced pricing or a launch window. For now, the Newtro series exists as a promise: that cooling hardware can be both serious about performance and unafraid to look like something other than a black plastic box.
Notable Quotes
The pump head features a physical dial, styled like something from a vintage control panel, that you can turn by hand to adjust fan speed.— Levelplay Newtro design specification
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a cooling product need to look retro? Isn't that just nostalgia marketing?
It's more than that. The retro-industrial look gives the cooler a sense of craft and intentionality. That physical dial on the pump head—you can actually touch it and feel the adjustment. That's not nostalgia. That's a deliberate choice to make the hardware feel less like a black box and more like something you're in control of.
But does the orange color and stitched tubing actually help it cool better?
No. Those are purely aesthetic choices. The cooling performance comes from the heat pipes, the fin design, the direct contact base. The orange and the stitching are about identity. They're saying: this is a product we're proud to show off, not hide inside a case.
So it's for people who care about how their PC looks?
Partly. But it's also for people who want their tools to feel intentional. A lot of modern tech is designed to disappear. This is the opposite. It says: I'm here, I'm doing important work, and I'm not apologizing for taking up space.
What about the 350-watt capacity? Is that actually necessary for most people?
Most people? No. But for anyone pushing a high-end processor or overclocking, it's real headroom. The liquid cooler can handle the most demanding chips available right now. The Air 5 at 250 watts covers the mainstream. Levelplay is offering options for different ambitions.
When can people actually buy these?
That's the question nobody can answer yet. Levelplay showed them at Computex but hasn't said when they'll ship or what they'll cost. For now, they're a preview of what's coming.