Much Improved: The Belkin Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad Is Worth Picking Up!

The Good: Inexpensive, Quiet, Easy to use, Easy to travel with.
The Bad: Requires USB power to use, Poor air flow
The Basics: The Belkin Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad is an adequate laptop cooling pad that does what it needs to well and inexpensively.


For my recent anniversary with my wife, she got me a new laptop computer and a cooling pad. The cooling pad was a Kootek Laptop Cooling Pad (reviewed here!) and it was an utter dud. When she returned the essentially worthless one, we went back to a brand we trusted for its replacement: Belkin. My new cooling pad is the Belkin Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad and it is a dramatic step up from the last pad she bought for me!

Having used the Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad for almost two weeks now, the only aspect of the device I have not been able to evaluate is its longevity.

The Belkin Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad, model 2814CS, is a hard plastic desk-like support for laptop computers which features rubber feet on the bottom and a curved top surface to promote air flow. It is 14" wide by 10 1/2” deep and 1 1/2” tall at the back. The front is lower, which makes the laptop’s keyboard raised when it is on the Belkin Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad. The laptop computer does not slide, though, because of the curved top surface, which seems to help hold the laptop on its surface and a pronounced lip at the front of the pad. The Belkin Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad features a single fan in its center, which sits beneath the center of the laptop that is placed on the stand.

The Belkin Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad is powered via USB power. There is a twelve 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 Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad begins blowing air up. Because the surface of the top of the Belkin Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad 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 Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad is that it is virtually silent. I only knew it was on because I stuck my hand in front of it and felt air moving. When one has a computer operating and set atop the Cooling Pad, the pad has no sound pollution from it! The laptop cooling fan (the one internal to the laptop) is louder than this cooling pad.

Unfortunately, the Belkin Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad is not very powerful. In fact, the Belkin Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling pad acts best as a supplement to a good internal laptop fan; it is not strong enough to cool older laptops or laptops that are overclocked and heat up excessively. But, it moves just enough air under my new laptop to prevent my new laptop from ever getting warm enough that I would worry about its internal components.

That said, Belkin included a neat feature on the Belkin Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad. The cord comes in a small channel which allows one to easily wrap the cord under the Belkin Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad when it is not in use. That makes the cooling pad easier to transport in computer bags securely.

While there have been other Belkin laptop cooling pads that I have preferred, it seems Belkin no longer makes or distributes them. That makes the Belkin Coolspot Anywhere Laptop Cooling Pad their best, most economic cooling pad on the market!

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

7/10

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

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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