You might not think you need a laptop cooling pad. Historically, I didn’t either. Having spent a lot of the last year testing them for TechRadar, I mostly associate them with gaming. Not only does their conspicuous RGB styling make their raison d’etre seem to be oriented entirely around making Cyberpunk 2077 run better, but most of the testing I run on them is built around gaming benchmarks.
That would be fine. After all, I am an unrepentant, lifelong gamer. But the one thing that’s always stopped me from permanently installing a cooling pad on my desk is that I’m not a laptop gamer. Not only do I already have a dedicated desktop rig and a Steam Deck, but the only laptop I own is a middle-aged MacBook Pro, which doesn’t have the hardware guts to play serious AAA titles at a decent level. So what do I need with a gadget designed for those who do play that way?
