CoolerMaster NotePal LapAir Notebook Cooler Review
Chris Hadley / 14 years ago
A Closer Look
Once the cooler is taken out of all its shipping packaging, we can finally see the simple yet aesthetically pleasing design it has to offer. The top of the cooler is made up of 3 separate areas. Firstly is the main seating area for where you would sit your laptop upon during use. This is slightly recessed into the surface and around the edge is approx 1 of area to allow for cables etc to hang over with out getting damaged or knocked during use. The final part of the top is the plastic grill through which cool air is pushed onto the base of the laptop and then out at either end.
In order to clean the underside of the grill and the fan area, there is a fabric tag with the brand name on it
Another subtle label of branding is found on the top of the cooler.
On the back of the cooler we can get a clearer view of the unique feature of this cooler; namely the foam and fabric padding for using the cooler on your lap.
A close up shot shows the material used.
Around the padding, we can see a cable recess for neatly directing the power cable around the cooler to the most convenient USB port on you laptop. Also built into the rear is a recess for stowing the USB pass though connector into whilst not in use – far better than having a cable dangling about and at risk from getting snagged on something. Beneath this is a sticker with the Cooler Master logo and regulatory logos and also a serial number/barcode for each individual device.
Some laptop coolers come with either a USB socket or two on the cooler to add to or passthrough the connection that would be lost on the laptop. Cooler Master here use a USB passthrough socket..
Conventionally, laptop coolers draw air from the base of the cooler up and through to the base of the laptop. The LapAir however draws air from the rear trough a set of vents. This is to allow for a smoother airflow and also to prevent the fan from drawing up dust a debris from whatever its sitting on.
Cleaning out the inside of the cooler is a breeze. By lifting the fabric tag on the right hand side, the grill comes up and completely off the base.
Most manufacturers put a small mark on their products as an official seal. Here we see a holographic sticker on top of the fan with ‘genuine’ quite literally printed all over it.
With the grill removed, we can see the fan that keeps everything flowing. As the air is drawn from the rear and not the underside of the casing, the fan design is also different to conventional coolers. These normally use a mechanical fan with pitched blades that pull and push air through effectively blowing the air through them. The LapAir uses a centrifugal fan to pass air through similar to what we normally see on AMD graphics cards. When the fan is rotating, air is drawn from the side rather than the bottom and the resulting pressure that builds up forces air up and out of the top of the housing.
