Best Laptop Cooling Pads That’ll Keep Your Laptop’s Temp Low (2024)

Jon Martindale

Contributor

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Sherin Shibu

Contributor

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Laptop Compatibility: 10 - 17-inch |Fans: 2 x 90mm |Weight: 2.1 pounds |Fan control: No |Ports: 0

Best for: Lightweight, convenient and unobtrusive cooling.

The Targus dual-fan laptop cooler is lightweight and comfortable, with effective, quiet cooling, and an attractive, understated design. It doesn't have any direct fan controls and lacks additional ports, but it only takes a single USB Type-A connection to power it up. The mat lifts your laptop, helping it sit at a comfortable angle as well as providing some additional room for added cooling.

The dual fans on the underside of the main metal surface provide sufficient cooling for a typical laptop, especially larger ones with a vented underside. This cooler supports laptops up to 17 inches in size. With its compact, attractive design, you can easily sit this on your lap and avoid cooking your thighs while on your laptop.

Pros:

• Attractive design
• Comfortable to place on your lap
• Effective, quiet cooling

Cons:

• No additional ports or USB passthrough
• No fan speed controls

Laptop Compatibility: 12 - 17-inch |Fans: 1 x 150mm, 5 x 70mm |Weight: 2.6 pounds |Fan control: On/Off |Ports: 2 x USB Type-A

Best for: Cooling on a tight budget.

The Kootek Laptop Cooling Pad is a great budget cooler with five fans and the ability to turn them on and off as you need them. It has flashy blue LED lighting (you can also disable the lighting if you prefer), and it has a USB hub built-in for powering additional accessories. The stand is ergonomic and adjustable to six different heights, so you can get the right setup just for you.

You can turn on the larger central fan for quieter cooling and then when you need added performance, turn on the additional 70mm fans for some extra airflow. This allows the overall design to be relatively quiet, though the smaller fans can get a little loud when spun up. The overall design is a little cheap feeling, with brittle plastic used throughout, but if you want to cool your laptop down without spending much, this is a great option.

Pros:

• Affordable but effective cooling
• Basic fan controls let you manage noise and performance
• Useful USB ports

Cons:

• No fan speed control
• Cheap feel

Laptop Compatibility: 10 - 19-inch |Fans: 1 x 200mm |Weight: 3.38 pounds |Fan control: Fan speed |Ports: No

Best for: Cooling even the largest laptops.

If you have a big laptop, the Thermaltake Massive 20 is a great option for a laptop cooling pad. Technically it supports up to "19-inch laptops,” but since those aren't actually a thing, just know that this cooler can fit any laptop you want to plop on top of it—including the forthcoming wave of 18-inch laptops. It features a single, 200mm fan that moves a lot of air in near silence, so you can keep your laptop cool without increasing noise levels. Direct fan controls let you raise the speed if you want more cooling, or you can lower the speed for quieter operation.

Nifty RGB lighting along the sides make it easy to customize the look and feel of your laptop cooler—just hit the RGB button to change the color profile. It has small extender feet that let you raise your laptop up for more comfortable use, and the whole thing folds flat and weighs just over three pounds.

Pros:

• Large, quiet cooling fan
• Fan speed controls built-in
• RGB lighting effects look cool

Cons:

• More expensive than most laptop coolers
• Bulky

Laptop Compatibility: 13 - 17-inch |Fans: 1 x 5000 RPM Turbine |Weight: 3.5 pounds |Fan control: Fan speed |Ports: 2 x USB-A

Best for: Keeping high-performance gaming laptops cool.

For high-end gaming laptops, high noise and hot surfaces are common place. The IETS GT500 is designed to help cool the laptop down, providing effective, targeted cooling using its high RPM industrial turbofan. It won't do much about noise, though, as this cooler gets quite loud, topping out at 65 db. Most gaming laptop players use headphones anyway, but they're an absolute must with a laptop cooler like this, and preferably a pair with excellent noise cancellation. That is, if you operate it close to its maximum performance. At lower settings, they're less of a necessity, but then you might want to look elsewhere.

Even so, you trade all that noise for a lot of performance. Reviewers and users alike have found that this laptop cooler has a big and noticeable effect on their laptop's operating temperatures, reducing them in some cases by around 10 degrees. That's enough to make sure your laptop maintains its top gaming performance throughout your session, and should extend the life of your laptop's components, too. There's even a built-in dust filter to prevent dust buildup in your laptop.

Pros:

• Very capable cooling
• Fan speed controls let you fine tune performance to noise
• Built-in dust filter

Cons:

• Quite expensive
• Very noise at top speeds

Laptop Compatibility: 10 - 17-inch |Fans: 1 x 140mm |Weight: 3.6 pounds |Fan control: No |Ports: 4 x USB Type-A

Best for: A smart and professional aesthetic.

The Soundance laptop cooling pad features a modest cooling fan and several ergonomic stances so you can adjust the slant and position of your laptop for comfortable typing and posture. It has a clean, professional look, with a metallic frame that is far sturdier and feels more premium than most laptop cooling pads. It also has four USB ports on the rear, giving you the option of plugging in a range of accessories, and is powered by a single USB Type-A cable that connects to your laptop.

The metal design makes this laptop cooler heavier than most, but it's still not heavy. The fan doesn't have any controls, but at 140mm it should stay quiet throughout most of your day. If you want a cooling pad for your office machine, this is a great choice.

Pros:

• Professional, clean look
• Quality metal construction
• Various ergonomic height options

Cons:

• Limited cooling performance
• No fan controls

Laptop Compatibility: 13 - 15.6-inch | Fans: 2 x 130mm | Weight: 3.01 pounds | Fan control: Yes | Ports: 2

Best for: Quiet cooling with an eco-friendly exterior.

With an exterior made from 100% bamboo, the Sumisky Cooling Pad contains two built-in plastic high-speed fans that are both silent and functional. While the fans run, blue lights activate to remind you that the fans are actively cooling your device. You can adjust the speed of the fans, too. The pad measures 15 inches by 11 inches, which makes it the perfect size for 13 to 15.6-inch laptops. It has two non-slip pads that ensure your laptop stays secure when in use.

For a more ergonomic setup, simply adjust the level of the stand. Two levels give you the option of lowering or elevating the angle with which you view your device. You can also move the anti-slip stopper on the edge of the cooling pad, which prevents your device from slipping off, to a higher or lower position depending on the size of your device. The adjustability of the stopper allows you to use the cooling pad with tablets as well as laptops. The pad has two USB ports, in case you want to connect two devices simultaneously, and it comes with one 25.6-inch USB cable and two USB-C to USB adapters.

Pros:

• Made of bamboo
• Silent fans
• Adjustable anti-slip stopper

Cons:

• Fans are made of plastic
• Connecting two devices at once may be unnecessary because of the size of the pad
• No option to turn off blue lighting when plugged in

Laptop Compatibility: 10 - 14.4-inch | Fan: 1 x 195mm | Weight: 5.86 pounds | Fan control: No | Ports: 0

Best for: Cooling on a foldable laptop desktop/bed desk.

It takes over 18 separate processes by hand for the Nnewvante laptop cooling pad/bed desk to go from bamboo to a cooling desk, from selecting the bamboo to processing it to assembling the final product. The extra time it takes to make a Nnewvante desk is well worth it because the result is multifunctional, sustainable and sturdy.

The cooling function happens on multiple levels. First, bamboo has heat-relieving properties of its own. Second, those properties are accentuated by the hollow design of the tray top. You also have a large 195mm USB fan that silently cools your device. These three components work together to cool your laptop.

The cooling pad can also become a bed desk or stand on top of an existing workspace to create a standing desk. Its leg height ranges from 9.4 inches to 13.2 inches, and you can lock the height of your choosing in place with the leg lock function. If you don’t need the height feature, just fold the legs in.

What our writers say: “I appreciate the little details of this desk, like the small, built-in side drawer, the adjustable angle of the cooling pad for ergonomic comfort and the rounded corners.”

Pros:

• Handmade with bamboo wood
• Adjustable height and angle
• Multifunctional

Cons:

• Can only hold up to 14.4-inch laptops
• Cannot change fan speed