Cooling Pad N200

Anyone who's used a laptop for more than 10 minutes at a stretch will agree that it's a gross misnomer. You can't use one on your lap to play a game of solitaire without risking a Kapura Fry. However, it's not just your family jewels at stake. Place the laptop on your bed, and the pliant surface suffocates the vents, which in turn puts your expensive hardware under potentially catastrophic thermal stress. Unless you intend to use your laptop as an expensive desktop replacement, it's wise to invest in a decent laptop cooler. That's why we called in Logitech's latest Cooling Pad N200 for review.
A single fan design may not be powerful, but it's silent

Design And Build Quality
Unlike its confounding cousins - the Cooling Pad N120 (Rs 1195) and Cooling Pad N100 (Rs 1545) - which exhibit identical features and specifications yet different prices, the N200 sports significant revisions; the most important being the inclusion of a padded base sporting a breathable mesh. This gives the cooler an edge over its plasticky counterparts. The N200 is a pleasure to use, thanks to its light weight and soft padding that prevents sweat even in humid climates.

The cooler can house laptops up to a 16" screen size. A protrusion along the bottom edge, along with a pair of rubber bushes at the top, arrests your laptop from sliding down. That means you can use it at an angle without a sweat. The quality of plastics is disappointing, though. Logitech should have employed better materials than the hard, shiny, and evidently cheap plastics used with the N200. The slats on the bottom vent are thin, flimsy, and liable to break if inadvertently sandwiched between the weight of the laptop and a protrusion of some kind.

Cable management is a great addition.

The cooler features nifty cable management through multiple channels housing the USB cable, flush with the chassis during both storage and operation. The cable emerges from the centre and can be routed through the channels on either side. This is a godsend if the USB ports are occupied on one side.

The two-speed fan controller.

The aerodynamics are well thought out in the N200. A hollowed-out bottom ensures adequate airflow even if you place the cooling pad on the bed. Air is sucked in from the bottom and dissipated through vents that force cool air all round the base. However, a single fan design focuses only on the centre of the laptop, as opposed to twin fan coolers that employ a dedicated fan to cool the hot exhaust vent, which usually lies at the top-left hand side. The upside of the N200's design though is whisper-quiet operation. If things get hotter, you can switch between high and low cooling modes using the two-speed, in-line fan controller. The fan purrs along at this setting, but that's hardly noticeable over the laptop exhaust fan, which will anyway be roaring away at full blast.

A concave bottom helps maintain good airflow.

Testing And Performance
The test setup employed a 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5-520M bearing ASUS B53F-A1B laptop, stress-tested with three instances of SuperPI and one of FurMark thermally torturing the CPU and GPU respectively. I started off by letting the uncooled laptop idle for 10 minutes while noting the temperature readings on the bottom and top surfaces of the laptop at regular intervals. This was followed by another 10 minutes of stress-testing sans the cooler, after which I installed the N200 and set it to full blast, then noted the temperature variations over the next 15 minutes.

A quick gander at the line graph shows that the N200 does its job well, managing to cool the laptop's bottom surface down considerably. The rise in CPU temperature was brought down by 6 degrees, but the topside continued to rise steadily. However, that's more a laptop design flaw than one in the N200. It not only does a fine job of arresting thermal instability, but also brings the chassis and CPU temperatures down significantly.

The test setup.

Conclusion
Subjective testing validated the numbers observed above. The combination of soft cushioning and a breathable mesh pattern provides excellent thermal insulation, while delivering a comfortable and sweat-free mobile computing experience. The N200 could have employed better quality materials, while a second fan would have brought the temperatures down a wee-bit further. Nevertheless, it performs on par with any single fan cooler in this price range. A discreet fan ensures that it cools like a ninja, but is a lot more comfortable.

It's important to note that our stress test shows the worst case scenario. While CPU temps of 80 degrees C aren't desirable, the N200 will keep your laptop safely under the threshold, when it would otherwise have faced a thermal shutdown. During normal operating conditions, I found the cooling pad quite a pleasure to use. Considering Logitech's haphazard pricing logic (oh, the irony!) as evidenced earlier, the N200 is the laptop cooler to go for in this price range.


Performance: 3.5/5
Design And Build Quality: 3/5
Features: 3.5/5
Value: 3/5
Mojo: 4/5