Cooler Master Notepal U Stand Review

The cooling of a laptop is essential for the longevity of the system. Many laptops fail due to the over heating of its batteries. Laptop coolers have been around for quite a while, but somehow they have not gone as mainstream as much as they should have. While purchasing a notebook, a cooler usually does not feature as one of the primary accessories one considers. Notebooks and netbooks come with fans inbuilt, however, this does not keep a laptop as cool as it should be. Cooler Master is looking to break through in this market by launching the Cooler Master Notepal U Stand, a stand that doubles up as a laptop cooler and also featuring USB slots. Read on to know more about  this cooling pad.

Five levels of adjustment for best viewing angles

Design, Build Quality and Features
The design of the Cooler Master Notepal is not dissimilar to other laptop stands. However, the unique attributes of it lies in the way it is built. The stand by itself is already assembled, but one has to attach the fans that come bundled up with this U Stand. The set up process is quite straightforward, but for those who'd still require some guidance, there is a manual to help one assemble it.

The surface of this U Stand is made of brushed aluminium that is finished in black. The stand is predominantly black on the whole, but has a grey rubber strip that can be detached, so that a laptop does not slide off it. The rest of the stand is made of hard plastic, and it looks like it could withstand a couple of accidental drops. The surface of the stand is lined with perforations, so that it can cool different types of laptops depending on the size. This means that the fans on the under side can be positioned exactly how you want them.

Fans can be positioned accordingly

Another interesting bit about this cooling stand is that the height can be adjusted upto five levels. This makes it easier to use the laptop, depending on your sitting arrangement. This is not an uncommon feature, but having the ability to adjust the viewing angle of a stand makes the U stand a lot more useful. This laptop stand-cum-cooler has three USB 2.0 slots to its right. This makes it convenient to plug in several more USB drives at the same time, rather than being limited to the ones found on the laptop. Like most laptop coolers, it uses the power from the laptop itself to handle the cooling. The Notepal U Stand comes with two fans both measuring the same at 100mm. The speed of the fan is quite good with it running at 1200 RPM. Though the stand is loaded with features, the only thing it lacked was the ability to adjust the speed of the fan. To sum up this bit, we were really impressed with the features and build quality of this well-designed stand-cum-cooling pad

Performance
The performance of the Cooler Master Notepal U Stand was tested using a Lenovo notebook. Let us first start off by saying that even though the stand comes with two fans, it is really quiet. There was no noticeable whirring of the fans or any other sound emitting from it, whatsoever. Another feature of this laptop stand is the 5-way adjustment for viewing angles. We tried using this feature and the ergonomics of it are great at all different adjustment levels. With this simple design implementation, we were able to view the laptop in different angles, thus reducing the strain on the wrist.

Pegs at the bottom of the surface

When it comes to cooling, the U Stand performs really well. Though the Lenovo notebook used had good cooling capabilities, this stand reduced the temperature of the notebook even further. The USB hub that comes along with this stand can be used for multiple purposes and we hooked up a flash drive and it managed to read it without any hassles. Overall, the stand along with the cooler performed well and lived up to all it claimed to offer.

A USB hub with three ports

Verdict
The price of the Cooler Master Notepal U Stand in India is Rs. 2,450. While this may be quite expensive for a laptop cooler, it does offer features that are not found in most coolers. The addition of the 5-way tilt along with a USB hub make it an interesting option. This is a premium product with premium features. If one is looking to purchase a stand with cooling capabilities and has close to two and a half grand to spend, this may be the ideal cooling solution for your laptop. If not, there are several other options available in the market.