One annoying thing about cool laptops is that they aren’t really all that cool, at least not when it comes to placing them in your lap and working with them for countless hours. Research show that boys/guys/men, in particular, may run into problems with hot laptops (don’t we always run into problems with hot things in our lap).
The major cooling problem you run into with a laptop is that everything is miniaturized, including air ducts/vents/outlets and fans. This in combination with the fact that many laptops are placed in laps (pun intended), which by definition is an uneven surface, makes for really poor cooling and ventilation. As with any gadget, cooling systems for computers are in abundance, but many cooling systems for laptops are bordering on ridiculous in their design or what they actually accomplish. Some make more noise than the laptop itself, others require the laptop to be mounted on some sort of plate, and some, like the cooler plate or cooling pad from Swedish company Climator, nicely fit under your laptop, have no moving parts, and just work.
The company claims that their passive laptop cooler will keep the temperature at bay and always below 28 degrees celsius. The LapTopCooler product is made from a plate, something called glaubersalt, and some “secret ingredients”. The theory is that as the laptop heats the materials, they “melt” and attract heat away from the computer. Then computer is turned off and gradually cools down, the cooling agent solidifies again. According to product information, the pad will keep the laptop cooler for 3-5 hours of usage time. When the computer is turned off (or the pad removed), the pad is “re-charged”. This technique is called PCM or Phase Change Material and is also used in some air conditioning products to improve on environmental friendliness.
I haven’t benchmarked my laptop with and without the LapTopCooler, but after having used it for an hour and a half, I can only summarize it with: the product works!
Note; the product has been updated since I first wrote about it. You’ll find a review of the new and improved version here.