The Best Laptop Cooling Pad and Why You Should Buy One

The thought of utilizing a laptop cooling pad feels antiquated. These days, laptop chips person go highly efficient. The fans connected MacBooks (if they adjacent person them) are hardly used, and some Intel and Qualcomm are pushing ratio connected the Windows front.

But radical support buying laptop cooling pads, truthful surely determination is simply a usage lawsuit successful 2026 that really makes sense, right? I tried retired a mates cooling pads paired with a mates of antithetic gaming laptops, and walked distant amazed astatine however effectual they could be.

Do Cooling Pads Actually Work?

Laptop cooling pads person been astir for decades, and the thought has ever been simple: supply other aerial to stroke done a laptop that’s different restricted by its ain cooling system. In theory, much aerial means little temperatures—and, ultimately, amended performance. This is the full thought of the powerfulness modes that beryllium successful Windows, which ramp up the RPMs (rotations per minute) of the fans to adhd much aerial to some amended performance. More than that, little vigor besides means a longer-lasting laptop that doesn't degrade arsenic rapidly implicit time. It’s by that aforesaid logic that laptop cooling pads connection help.

The problem, however, is that a cooling pad is simply a alternatively inefficient mode of transferring aerial into your device. Most laptop cooling pads, including the 2 that I tested, usage 1 ample instrumentality oregon 2 smaller fans to blast acold aerial crossed the bottommost of the laptop. This is the archetypal crushed wherefore the immense bulk of modern laptops won’t payment overmuch from a cooling pad, arsenic these laptops thin to lone person vents on the hinge. Without vents oregon unfastened holes, blowing aerial crossed a expanse of metallic oregon integrative isn't going to bash thing to chill the components connected the different side. It'll lone make a clump of instrumentality noise.

Gaming laptops are the main exception, though, which is wherefore they are the superior usage lawsuit for specified an accessory. Most gaming laptops person a fewer unfastened vents, usually supra the fans, similar the Razer Blade 16, which is 1 of the laptops I utilized to trial these cooling pads. Laptops similar the Blade 16 are designed for intensive tasks similar gaming, video editing, oregon section AI processing—and usage a high-wattage GPU and CPU to get the benignant of show you need. My exemplary has 2 of the astir almighty laptop components connected the market: the RTX 5090 and Ryzen 9 HX 370. As you mightiness guess, they make a lot of vigor erstwhile cranked up. Modern chips thin to max retired astatine 100 degrees Celsius, earlier throttling backmost show to bring down temperatures.

Most laptops usage fans to chill these components, but the thickness of the laptop chassis is besides a determining origin successful however overmuch the strategy volition request to throttle backmost show to support temperatures down. In the end, it's geometry and physics, and each millimeter of abstraction successful the laptop chassis has an effect connected however chill it tin support its interior components. And dissimilar successful a ample desktop PC, you person precise restricted space. That's particularly existent successful the modern era, wherever adjacent gaming laptops person go progressively thin.