Akasa Helix Widescreen Notebook Cooler Review

Final ThoughtsThis is one of the best designed and best looking laptop coolers I have seen. Yes, they have kept it simple but it has a nice sleek design that looks like a serious accessory. It certainly works although whether it is worth having a laptop cooler, is always very debateable!

There were a few problems with this laptop cooler however, the fan is very finely balanced and if you press the top of the cooler near the middle (even lightly) the fan will start to clip the fan surround. This was unfortunately the case when I first turned it on and had to remove the fan and resecure it to the cooler – it then worked fine for a period of time. This was only the case on the highest speed setting and was not present all the time, I was not able to establish a root cause of it so for this reason I cannot give it our highest ratings as there is a design fault. Apart from this the cooler worked and certainly worked better than the Lapchilla I previously tested.

In general this cooler does work, running on Low speed it is inaudible but during High speed it is not too quiet. However, it does produce fairly impressive results as it is quite hard to cool down a laptop when you don’t have direct access to the components producing the heat.

Pros

• Will improve the cooling of your laptop
  
• Raises the laptop up to a more comfortable angle
  
• Has a Low and High speed

Cons

• Doesn’t give much cooling
  
• Fan catches on the surround
• Can’t be used on a lap
  
• Is fairly large for storage
• Is not that quiet