Overview
BudgetGadgets.com have been kind enough to let me get my hands on a laptop cooling pad, I have been interested in this gadget for a while now, as every time I use my laptop I get what is more commonly known as ‘burning lap’ syndrome by us people that use our laptop while watching the telly for a more ‘productive’ use of our time.
Now you would thought that with it being called a laptop it would have been designed for use when placed on…..well your lap.
But oh no, give it an hour or two using high performance applications and well it brings a whole new meaning to the phase it’s hot down under.
So how does this laptop cooling pad help with this bane of laptop computer usage, well let's find out.
Review
Style
Coming in a black/silver design this laptop cooling pad will look the part when used against a laptop of the same styling but might look a tad out of place if placed underneath a pink or blue colored laptop, but hey its all down to personal preference and you might think blue and black go together (just don’t come knocking to paint my living room).
The pad seems to have been designed mainly of plastic or something of a similar material which gives it a rather cheap feeling when placed in your hands and with the fold out section looking even more like a kid's toy this might not appeal to everyone's taste.
But with the price of this model being classed at around £15-20 you may want to forgive it.
Underneath you will find a nicely placed storage compartment for the pads USB hook up lead, yes that's right you don't have to worry about powering this pad up with another plug, it's all done with the help you your laptop and a spare USB.
This compartment also means tidying up after you using this pad is a doddle with no worrying over where the USB lead is going to go, which in my house leads to a number of conversations over where ‘x’ lead is going to be place which cannot be placed with the ‘x’ amount of leads I already have in the ‘y’ draw. Although, I never hear hear complaining when she needs a phone charger/USB cable.
Under the bonnet
Now that we have talked about the style I think it's about time we got onto the matter of how this actually works one thing I think that is worth a mention is that this cooling pad also works as a USB hub. So plugging this into your laptop gives you 4 USB ports to use instead.
Now onto how it works, with its fans activated on powering on your laptop it will help keep all the heat away from the bottom of your laptop which will mean a much cooler laptop that will extend the life of your laptop as it will not ‘burn out’ as fast. Plus for those of us techies out there it means that we could in fact ‘overclock’ our laptop to increase performance as it will not be running as hot as it usually would.
Now while your lap will no longer feel like a pair of chicken thighs at KFC they will however feel rather warm as the heat has to go somewhere and unfortunately this means its blows directly on whatever is underneath is but hey I would rather feel warm legs than suffer third-degree burns.
Below are the results I achieved using my old HP laptop I had knocking around the house which I generally use and abuse, as you can see there is definitely improvement when using the pad (please note the heat is measured in fahrenheit)
| Base Temp | Temp w/o Pad | Temp with Pad | |||
| Laptop | 67.5 | 103.8 | 95.4 |
The Gaj-It Verdict
Design 6/10
Usability: 10/10
Features: 10/10
Value: 7/10
We Say
If you're worried about your laptop overheating or just want to get more life out of your current machine, you might want to consider purchasing a laptop cooling pad. While this one is in a very nice price bracket its style might not please all.
Shop For It
BudgetGadgets – Use the coupon code SM5OFF2 to get 5% discount on your order
