Best Laptop Cooling Pad 2021: Laptop Coolers for Your Desk and Knees

The portability of a laptop is one of its greatest strengths, but with the compact form factor there are tradeoffs. Laptop cooling is generally not as rugged as desktop computers unless you have a gaming laptop, and the narrow boundaries inside a laptop don’t take up as much dust and hair before performance can really start to decline. A laptop cooling pad is a useful way to deal with a device that becomes uncomfortably hot. Throwing your laptop on a pillow or blanket can choke its air intakes, but a laptop cooling pad cannot. Many also include fans to blow extra air through your laptop, which can help cool internal components and the chassis. This extra cooling can also help keep your laptop more comfortable to the touch. These pads can be especially handy in keeping your legs comfortable, as they act as a buffer between your warm laptop and your skin.

TL; DR – These are the best laptop cooling pads:

1. Thermaltake Massive 20 RGB

Best laptop cooling pad

Thermaltake addresses heat in the name, and the Thermaltake Massive 20 RGB is ready to help remove thermals from your laptop, and it does so with a massive 200mm fan (maybe the product name makes sense. now). This allows for abundant airflow past your laptop without the sound of a bunch of small fans spinning at high speed. Thermaltake complements it with an RGB light strip that extends all around the base, so you can look cool while your laptop stays cool.

2. Klim Ultimate

Best gaming laptop cooling pad

Your typical gaming laptop is a machine that produces about as much heat as a gaming machine. If you plan to get a lot of performance and keep it consistent, you will need cooling media. The Klim Ultimate gives your laptop aesthetic a dose of RGB lighting while giving your laptop interior a dose of fresh air. The cooler is packaged in a 200mm fan that can spin at 750rpm for quiet cooling. And, if you plan to use an external keyboard, you can take advantage of the built-in system to elevate your laptop screen.

3. TopMate C5 Laptop Cooler

Best High Airflow Laptop Cooling Pad

What’s better than having four fans moving cool air over your laptop components? How about five fans. The TopMate C5 has four smaller fans around the perimeter and a powerful fifth fan in the center. There is also a sleek control unit on the front that lets you adjust the fan speed and turn on the lighting and the unit itself. On top of that, a small ledge lifts up and you can tilt the entire unit upwards without worrying about your laptop slipping. There is a lot of cooling equipment for little money.

4. Targus Lap cooling mat

Best laptop cooling pad for your knees

The Targus Chill Mat has been around for ages, and that’s because it does the job it sets out to do. A wide opening and two fans generate plenty of air to keep your laptop cool. Plus, multiple rubber grips can be positioned where you need them on the top of the cushion to help hold your laptop in place, whether large or small. The fabric on the underside is even comfortable on bare legs if you use it on a hot summer day.

5. Klim Wind

Best laptop cooling pad

The Klim Wind cooler will ensure that your laptop gets plenty of air without loading you too much for the fans. And, yes, they are fans, in the plural. This Klim Wind offers four 120mm fans, and they can spin up to 1200RPM for an awesome airflow reaching the base of your laptop. You can use this cooler on small laptops as compact as 11 inches or massive models up to 19 inches. Klim even says you can use it with a PS4 or Xbox One if you want to increase the cooling of your aging console.

6. Cool +

Best laptop cooler

If you want a smaller, more portable option to keep your laptop cooler on the go, you can go with the Klim Cool +. This device is designed to increase your laptop’s cooling capabilities by attaching to its exhaust port and sucking in even more air. This will likely only work with laptops that have side exhaust vents where the Klim Cool + can easily attach, but for compatible laptops it can improve on-board cooling. It even has different operating modes that allow it to run quietly for a light cooling or to step up a gear for some serious gaming.

7. Havit RGB Laptop Cooling Pad

Best RGB Laptop Cooling Pad

Sometimes a little RGB lighting isn’t enough. Your gaming laptop might already have an illuminated keyboard, but the Havit RGB cooling pad can give you even more. This cooling pad will support laptops up to 17 inches, making it a great choice for gaming laptops, which tend to be larger. At its base, it has an RGB light strip that goes all the way around.

You can set the RGB light strip to run through all of its available colors, or choose a color to keep it on with a breathing effect. The cooler also features four internal fans with lights, though they’re still blue, reminding you of their job of cooling your laptop.

8. CosyFame laptop table

Best laptop cooling stand

A lot of cooling pads will do a great job if your goal is to use your laptop in your lap or on a desk. Sometimes that’s not what you’re looking for, and that’s where the CosyFame laptop table comes in. This stand has adjustable legs with several long segments, allowing you to keep the stand low or lift up to 18.9 inches tall.

The stand can just as easily be used on sofas, in bed or at a desk. There’s even a removable mouse pad clip. And, of course, it wouldn’t really be a laptop cooling stand if it didn’t do cooling. In the laptop tray there are two cooling fans to help keep the cool air blown in front of your computer.

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Mark Knapp is a regular contributor to IGN and an irregular tweeter on Twitter @ Techn0Mark