This Cooler Master Notepal X-Slim laptop cooler does pretty much what every laptop cooler I’ve owned does — it keeps my laptop a bit cooler than it would be otherwise. With a 160mm fan that blows air upward toward the bottom of the laptop, it just works like it’s supposed to. It does have two advantages, however, that have little to do with its cooling functions:
- It’s cheap – $14.99 on Amazon. I was able to buy two — one for home and one for the office — for less than $30, and when I inevitably have to throw one away when the fan dies it won’t sting as much as when my $40 laptop cooler died.
- There’s no goddamn LED light. I have no idea why PC builders and aficionados think that they have to include a blue or red LED on every single piece of equipment where it is feasible, but it’s a stupid trend. So, yes, one of the best things about this is that it is missing a common “feature.”
The only negative thing I can say about the Notepal X-Slim is that in the marketing copy, Cooler Master claims you could use this with a 17″ laptop. I’m assuming that was included as a joke. I don’t know what sort of 17″ laptops the folks at Cooler Master are using, but no way would this work for a 17″ laptop. You’d need the next larger version of this which, of course, features a goddamn blue LED.