Targus Lap Chill Mat 17-inch

The Lap Chill Mat is a really useful, I spend a lot of time on the sofa using the laptop and it keeps me and the laptop cool. There was a noticeable difference after I started using this with my laptop and its much cooler and doesn't overheat any more.
This would also be equally adept if you wanted to use it on a desk or table.

Its a comfy design and I fell fine for long periods of time using this, its well built, and it maybe even appears a little more expensive than the [...] I paid for it.

The fans used for the cooling are silent and as I have a 16" Laptop this fits nicely onto the surface nice and securely and doesn't really seem to add to the overall weight of the laptop.
This is a good size and is not noticeably bulky.

The only downside (but that's my laptop as much as the product) is that the fans are at the top and (my laptop) gets hot at the bottom from the graphics card, but certainly not hot enough to be a concern and certainly don't let it put you off buying this, its more of something to note about where your laptop gets hot.

In summary I would recommend this to anyone that's laptop gets hot, or the laptop fans always seem to be running on high or people who use there own laptop on the sofa, the Lap Chill Mat adds to the comfort of using a laptop.

I have a well spec'ed 17.4 laptop and this mat lets me use my laptop in bed,on the sofa,in my lap etc.

Because my laptop is 17.4 and not 17, it slightly protrudes to the left and right sides,but it is still comfortable to carry around while still on the stand.

I've never had a reason to turn on the 2 fans, because I did not buy the stand for an overheating laptop,but for one that does not like soft surfaces as its intake fan is on the bottom. But if you decide to turn them on, its as easy as plugging an USB cable and the noise is not loud. Also the fans blow the air up, meaning they provide the laptop with fresh cool air, rather than sucking out the hot air and torturing the bottom placed laptop fans.

I also like the soft neoprene bottom of the mat and it feels very comfortable when you place it on your lap.

The top is covered in holes plastic with 4 rubber "feet" , stopping the laptop from sliding. The top flexes a little when you press it, but the mat seems resistant to damage from that. Also this way it takes less space in your baggage when you travel with it ;-)

Overall, this is an awesome mat with a soft comfy bottom covering and two up-blowing fans for the folks with overheating laptops.

Build Quality: Very good, can be bent if you squeeze it, but never under the simple pressure of a laptop with hands resting on it. Think of it as a big ring binder with holes in the top, and two fans attached in the middle (blowing upwards).

Noise: If you're the kind of person who works in a dead quiet room, then the noise emmited from the fans is noticeable. But then again so is the noise of the wind outside. If you have music on, or are working infront of a tv, or even in an office, you won't hear them at all. The fans are about half as loud as my laptop fans when my laptop heats up. So in reality having them on can actually cuts the fan noise by 50%.

That being said, if you really can't stand fan noise you can just not have the fans on. Given that the air circulates well under the laptop, that your machine is raised slightly by rubber pads and that there are more ventilation holes in the product than on a cheese grater, the laptop is well ventilated just by sitting on the chill mat.

Cooling: Partly already covered in the noise bit, but definately has an effect. The two fans are excellent, blowing a good flow of room temperature air onto the laptop. I use a program called "speed fan" which effectively lets you control fan speeds in your laptop, but more importantly tells you what temperature various parts of your laptop are. When gaming, both my processor cores and graphics card got insanely hot, to the point where the air coming out of the fan vent could scold the skin if left too long. With the fans on, the temperature drops anywhere between 6-8C (by about 10%).

In regular use, my core temperatures drop by well over 10C, by about 20%.

All in all, its a solid product, it's a good buy. I bought one for my self a few months back, and have just purchased one for another family member as we now fight over using it when wanting to watch a film before sleep.

P&P: comes very well packaged in somewhat excessive amounts of bubblewrap, but its good to know they want it to be safe.

Conclusion: Excellent product, one of the best buys i've made online in a while. Much better than other strangely shaped cooling pads which I can only imagine become a game balancing laptops on. Don't buy the cooling fans which claim to suck air away from the laptop, they just plain don't work.

All in all, great product, great buy. I no longer use my laptop without it!