Post-Birthday Review #2: Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge Is Awesome But Expensive!

The Good: Great air flow, Quiet, Easy to use, Easy to travel with.
The Bad: Requires USB power to use, Expensive
The Basics: The Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge is a powerful way to effectively cool one’s laptop computer!


Following my wife’s 25th birthday, there are now new things around the house for me to review! Tonight, that is the Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge! I loathe how poorly laptop computers are put together; the one my wife bought me two years ago gets so hot that the paint on the bottom has effectively peeled off. My wife’s laptop gets warm, but when her last laptop cooling pad crapped out, I had to find her a new one and for her birthday, I decided expense be damned, I was going with a brand name. So, I picked her up the Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge.

Having used the Laptop Cooling Lounge for over a week now, the only aspect of the device I have not been able to evaluate is its longevity.

The Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge, model F5L041, is a hard plastic desk-like support for laptop computers which features a cushioned bottom. It is 14" wide by 11 1/2” deep and 2” tall at the back. The front is lower, which makes the latop’s keyboard raised when it is on the Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge. The laptop computer does not slide, though, because of the curved top surface, which seems to help hold the laptop on its surface. The Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge features a fan in its center, which sits beneath the center of the laptop that is placed on the stand.

The Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge is powered via USB power. There is an eight inch cord that ends in a USB-male jack that plugs into any USB port on the laptop. As soon as the device is powered, the fan on the Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge begins blowing air up. Because the surface of the top of the Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge is very curved, the air that is being blown up blows out both sides of the base of the laptop.

The first thing I noticed about the Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge is that it is exceptionally quiet and it has amazing air flow, both when the laptop is on top of the Cooling Lounge and when it is off. In fact, the fan on the Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge is virtually whisper-quiet. While it very effectively moves air, the Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge does so quietly enough to not be disruptive in a public setting . . . or while one is watching television and working on one’s laptop. While the Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge is not a huge energy hog, I have noticed that it cuts down my laptop battery’s life by half when it is active and my laptop is not plugged in.

Belkin does manage to do something neat with the Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge, though. The cord comes in a small channel which allows one to easily wrap the cord under the Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge when it is not in use.

The cushioned bottom to the Belkin Laptop Cooling Lounge makes it comfortable to keep one’s laptop on their lap when it is in use and it does not warm up one’s laptop to have it there. That is the mark of a fine cooling station and were it not for the initial expense of the Laptop Cooling Lounge, it would have been perfect!

For other products laptop coolers, check out my reviews of:
iWorld Laptop Cooling Station
Belkin Laptop Cooling Stand F5L055
Targus AWE45US1 HeatDefense Cooling Mat

8.5/10

For other computer-related reviews, be sure to visit my Computer Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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