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Staying true to its name, Cooler Master has released their newest laptop cooling pad – The NotePal I300. Offering flavours across every conceivable notebook size, the I300 has a lot to live up to.
Taking a look at Cooler Master ‘s website, it is astounding the amount of laptop coolers on display; from less than 12 € and greater than 17 €, Cooler Master has no less than 15 per category. The primary point to take away is that there is a cooling option for virtually every type of consumer, and ergonomic to boot. Some are expensive, some are budget-friendly, and some are even fully universal.
This review will focus on one of the more cheaper solutions. The NotePal I300 goes for about $20, and I will compare it with the NotePal U Stand which goes for roughly double that – both support laptops up to 17 inches in size. As we will see, this is where the similarities end. Having used both, the two cooling pads are radically different in design and features, truly made for totally different users.
PACKAGING AND EXTERIOR
As usual, the NotePal I300 comes in the standard Cooler Master colours of purple and white. The front and back contain the essential product information:
The cooler comes well protected in a bag held with styrofoam inserts on the sides and the top. With it comes a user guide:
Unwrapping it, we see the smooth I300. The nice black finish surrounds the cooler and goes well with the mesh covering and silver Cooler Master logo on the bottom right of the frame.
The back reveals a single 160mm fan in the middle which also lights-up blue when powered:
The I300 does not have many height adjustment grooves – just two flaps on either side braced by rubber grips, typically found on keyboards:
Finally we get to the USB cable used to power the I300. There is a female header extension on the opposite side. Also note the fan grill on the top for extra airflow (from where the USB cable originates):
