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Beat the Heat: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Laptop Cooler for Peak Performance and Longevity

Cesar Cadenas/ZDNET

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

The AICHESON K1 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad has the potential to be a gamer’s best friend.
This cooling pad has a 5.5-inch fan that can spin at 2,800 RPM, capable of cooling down even the warmest of gaming laptops.
The device is rather expensive at $70.

Anyone who has used a gaming laptop for an extended period of time knows they can get uncomfortably warm. To circumvent the problem, some power users opt for an external mouse and keyboard. If you’re going to do this, you might as well just get a regular desktop.

AICHESON K1 Gaming RGB Laptop Cooling Pad

AICHESON/ZDNET

The AICHESON K1 Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad is designed to be ergonomic and capable of supporting multiple accessories.

View now at Amazon

I frequently recommend that power users and gaming laptop owners pick up a cooling pad. These devices blast cool air up towards the bottom of the laptop, effectively solving the overheating problem. There are a lot of great options out there, but the AICHESON K1 stands above most.

The K1’s unique design makes it well suited for gaming laptops. The cooling fan sits inside a recessed pit surrounded by a piece of foam, which is held in place by six magnets. Placing a laptop on top creates a vacuum seal that, when coupled with the fan, allows the device to quickly cool down computers. I experienced this myself firsthand.

Also: The best laptop cooling pads you can buy: Expert tested

I own an old Alienware Area 51M. Although I took good care of this laptop, it begins to run warm a few minutes after starting up and becomes a furnace the moment you run a game on it. I use this computer whenever I’m testing a laptop cooler. In my mind, if a pad can quickly and sufficiently cool the Area 51m down, it’s a good product.

Many cooling pads fail at this task or do a poor job, but the AICHESON K1 passed with flying colors. After a few minutes, I could play a game on the old Area 51M like it was brand new and I didn’t have to deal with gross, sweaty hands.

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In addition to the vacuum seal, I attribute the K1’s success to the 5.5-inch fan. It spins at a maximum speed of 2,800 RPM. Although it took several minutes to cool down the Area51M adequately, the K1 can freshen up other computers much faster – a warm, lightweight laptop was good to go after about a minute.

That said, the fan can get quite loud spinning at 2,800 RPM and may disturb the people around you. Fortunately, you can lower the speed to a quiet 600 RPM through the scroll wheel or even turn it off completely by rolling all the way down.

AICHESON/ZDNET

Both the screen and the wheel sit on a touchscreen alongside two buttons. The first button is a power switch while the second, sporting a light bulb icon, lets you change the RGB lighting. You can pick between five solid colors and five moving patterns, such as the fast dashing rainbow.

Unfortunately, you can’t turn the lights off without turning off the cooling pad. Also, because the lights are bright, I don’t recommend using the K1 in a professional office setting. They’re too distracting.

Also: This 20-in-1 accessory is my new favorite tech essential (and it’s only $13)

AICHESON’s K1 can get power from two different sources. On the back is a USB-C port, which you can use to connect the pad to a laptop through the included USB-C to USB-A cable. This may drain your laptop’s battery, however, not to mention use up one of your USB-A ports. The second option is to use the included power adapter. Next to the power ports is a series of four USB-A ports for connecting extra accessories, like keyboards.

ZDNET’s buying advice

The AICHESEON K1 is available on Amazon for $70. It is a little expensive, but I firmly believe it’s well worth the price. The combination of powerful cooling, the four ports on the back, and its unique design make this a must-have; especially for people who want to emulate a desktop-like setup.

If you prefer something cheaper, AICHESON also sells the base Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad for $30. It’s not as powerful, but it’s less than half the K1’s price.