I have a 17" macbook pro, so it's a behemoth of a laptop. And Apple's all aluminum enclosure sure looks slick, but man does it conduct the heat. You really don't want the thing on your lap w/o a stand, because it gets really red hot.
This is the 45h cooling stand I've had for this machine, and already by far the best. The previous two had three important issues - first was that they were small - designed for 15" notebooks, so there was a lot of overhang on mine. Annoying, but not the end of the world. More important was the fact that the power cable plugged into the edge of the stand and could be detached. Since I use my laptop on my lap, that connection tended to get bumped around a lot, and eventually the connection became so loose that the fan would only work intermittently and required fiddling to get going. That's why I replaced both of those - loose connection, no fan, no cooling.
This stand is a huge improvement.
First of all, the power cord is molded onto the stand, so I can't jar it loose like I could on the other stands. Plus, it's halfway up the back of the stand, so it'll be much harder to bump around anyway. So I shouldn't have the same issue I'd had in the past.
Second, it's huge. It fits my 17" laptop perfectly. No overhang. Obviously, this is really only a stand for a big laptop. If you've got a 15", the stand will be bigger than your machine.
Third, the wedge shaped cooling gives it a huge amount of space to pull air in from the sides. Like I said, I use my laptop on my lap. Previous models pulled air in from underneath. But since it was sitting on my lap, there was minimal airflow available. Now, since this one pulls in air from the sides, it really cools things off fast. Since I've had it, the laptop's internal fan has come on only once or twice. it used to come on all the time, even when the old stand's fan was working properly. So the cooling is top notch.
I have two complaints -
There's no power switch, so I need to unplug it to turn it off. A minor annoyance, but it'd be nice to have one.
And as others have said, the rubber bumpers to hold on the laptop are pretty lousy. I lost one within the first two days of getting the stand (I have no clue where), and they didn't do that great a job of holding up the laptop anyway. The laptop would tend to slide down the stand, even just during normal use, let alone when I moved it around. So that was unacceptable.
The fix was just to attach several rubber stick-on picture frame bumpers. Available at arts and crafts stores for about a buck for 16 or so, and 4 seem to do it. I had some sitting around from a previous stand that had the same issue. You will want to add your own bumpers.
But once those are on? it's a fantastic product. Highly recommended. Targus Lap Chill Mat AWE55US (Black with Gray)
the chilling mat is awesome. my laptop is a 15 inch dell studio. and when i put it to work it gets HOT! so hot that my finger starts to burn on the mouse pad. so i definitely need something to keep it cool. i thought that my last chill mat did a good job. but this one is phenomenal. its 17 inches so i have extra room for my laptop. it has a very comfortable fabric underneath which is great for me because i always have it on my lap. it's slanted which is great. the usb cable that has to be plugged in for it to come, on is coming from the back of the chill mat so i don't have to worry about pulling it out like i did my last one. and after using it all day i felt under my laptop and it was actually cold. this is great and well worth the money paid for it
I have been thru 3 of the $20 duel fan cheapos, they were worthless. I have had this unit for over a month, it runs perfect, and handles my HP Pavilion DV9000, a very heavy large 17" laptop. I paid $40 plus shipping, and it is worth every penny. 5 stars all the way.
Very quiet fans seem to do a good job at keeping things cool. Comfortable enough on the lap. The one little problem is with the design of the little rubber bumpers that mount in the vent holes on the top to serve as non-skid spacers for your computer. They can pop in and out of the holes so you can move them around to fit your individual computer's footprint. That's a good thing, but they pop out a little too easily and I've lost one from each of the two Lap Chill Mats I own. Luckily, I found and reinstalled them both. Now I keep a wary eye on these guys.
Over all this is a great cooling pad. It fits a wide screen 15in perfectly!
Pros:
Fan intake design (it drawls air in from the sides, you can put it on a bed and not worry)
Looks great
Light
Comfortable to have on your lap a LONG time.
If you want to, you can store excess cords inside the pad!
Cons:
Cannot move the fans
was OK to good for 3 months and then stopped working. the construction is such that you can't troubleshoot/repair in any practical way.
fans are fixed, so if the notebook's heat isn't where the fan is, then you need to move the notebook around and hope. not great. it did adequately reduce the temp on my notebook for the 3 months it was working but it could have been much better imo.
it does have a nice design for use on desk or lap... comfortable on lap. that's about the best feature.
the grips that are supposed to keep the notebook from slipping came off after about two weeks- two of the four, anyway. So my notebook ended up sliding around on the mat quite a bit.
For the $35-$40 that this cost, I recommend that you try something else. - Laptop Fan - Laptop Cooling Pad - Notebook Cooler - Targus'
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