I recently replaced my six year old gaming laptop with a new one (a Lenovo Legion 5), which ironically isn’t as good at keeping itself as cool and quiet as the old one (which actually never needed a cooling pad), so I decided to look for a decent one that would do the job. I looked at various models, but kept coming back to this Kootec one after reading numerous reviews saying that it was one of the best. It wasn’t the cheapest either, but I’m thoroughly of the opinion that you get what you pay for (most of the time) so I decided to go for it.
I was a little put-off by the fact that it was coming from the US, but I needn’t have worried as it arrived within a week. I’ve been using it for a few days now, so let’s get on with the review!
>>>WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
The Kootek pad comes in a slim box, and in the box you’ll find the pad itself and a small set of instructions – and that’s it!
>>>FIRST IMPRESSIONS?
I’ve had a few cooling pads over the years, but this one feels better designed than any of the previous ones and it generally feels pretty well built, too. The cooling pad comprises of two parts; the upper section which has a metal meshed top surface that contains the fans and the cooling gubbins, and the bottom section, which acts as the base – they’re connected at the front by a hinged mechanism which allows the rear of the pad to tilted up, allowing more airflow and a more comfortable typing angle. There are two chunky supports at the front of the pad to keep your laptop in place while it’s tilted, and they fold away neatly when not in use and have foam pads on them to stop your laptop from slipping.
Through the metal grille on its top, you can see four small fans at its corners and a big beastly one in the centre. Underneath, you’ll see the intakes for the fans and a non-removable short USB-A cable with a recess to clip it into, along with a handy little cable storage bit. Along the rear edge of the cooler, you’ll find two USB-A ports and two buttons with large LEDs next to them.
>>>GOING AT FULL-TILT!
One of the problems I’ve had with previous laptop coolers is that they’ve had tiny, spindly legs to raise them up to a small angle to increase airflow, but I’m glad to say that that’s not the case with this one. There’s a metal bar connected to the underneath of the top section of the cooler, which fits into notches in the base part; there are five levels of height adjustment which range from a gentle slope to a severe slope of around 35 degrees – and you can also choose to leave it completely level, but I would imagine that you’d lose some of the cooling ability while it’s like this.
>>>WILL IT FIT BIGGER AND HEAVIER LAPTOPS?
Take a look at the photos and you’ll see images of the cooler with my new 15.6″ laptop and my old 17.3″ behemoth sitting on it. The pad is generously sized and should fit all but the most massive of laptops. My old laptop is an Asus ROG G751, which is probably bigger than most of the new 17.3″ ones – it’s also very heavy, tipping the scales at 4.2Kg, and the cooler surprisingly seems able to handle its weight without bending or wobbling.
>>>HOW DOES THE COOLING PAD WORK?
This laptop cooler has five fans in all, which push cool air towards the underneath of your laptop. The fans are controlled by two buttons on the coolers rear edge; one button turns the four small ones on, and the other turns the large central one on – and you can of course have all them all operating simultaneously for maximum cooling.
The fans have blue backlighting, which can’t be turned off, and the blue LEDs next to the power buttons on the rear of the device are very bright.
>>>IS IT LOUD?
When you use the four small fans on this cooler, you’ll hear a gentle whooshing noise – it’s very quiet and unobtrusive. The large fan makes a deeper whooshing noise and with both turned on the noise level elevates slightly, but never to an annoying degree. There’s also a small amount of vibration, particularly from the large central fan, but it’s again never an irritant.
>>>EXTRA PORTS
If you’ve got a laptop that’s got a tiny amount of USB ports, here’s some good news – you gain an extra one with this cooler!
>>>HOW EFFECTIVE IS THIS COOLER?
I’ve done some testing with my Lenovo Legion 5, using the Witcher 3 running at 1920×1080 and all the graphics settings turned up to Ultra. Without the cooler turned on, the laptop reports GPU temperatures of 70-72c, and with all of the cooling fans on, it reports a pretty stable 65-67c – which represents a respectable 4-5c drop! This will undoubtedly vary between laptop models, but with the Legion 5, the placement of the two rear fans on the cooling pad almost exactly match the intakes on the underneath of it, so it’s a very good match. However, since there are five fans on the pad it should suit the majority of laptops.
>>>CONCLUSION
Summing up, I would say that this is pretty much the perfect laptop cooler; when you invest £1500 on a powerful piece of hardware, keeping it cool is super-important and I would consider it an essential purchase. Its powerful cooling fans are very good at boosting your laptop’s cooling abilities, and on top of that it’s cool-looking, quiet and highly adjustable. Would definitely recommend!
Report