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The Road Warrior Review : COOLdock Laptop Stand With Fan Forced Cooling System

Modern Apple 'Books, from roughly the 1 GHz PowerPCs on up, and especially the Intel-based MacBook Pros and MacBooks offer great performance but at a price - heat. The speedy G4, Core Duo, Core 2 Duo and Santa Rosa processors and powerful video accelerator cards that give our 'Books near-desktop power these days create lots of heat, and have spawned a booming market in third-party solutions to help keep your laptop's torrid underside from singing your thighs or damaging furniture. Heat also shortens the life of electronic components, and can degrade performance of high bandwidth devices.

Most notebook auxiliary cooling solutions work on a passive convection principle by elevating the computer from the work surface, allowing air to circulate underneath carrying away heat and letting the machine cool more efficiently. However, a few products take a more proactive approach to cooling, using powered cooling fans to suck heat away from the computer's underside.

The COOLdock Laptop Stand is one such device, with two cooling fans built into the computer support tray to suck heat away from your computer. The fans draw their power from a USB port on the computer, but no worries about using up a precious USB port - the COOLdock unit also includes a four=port USB 2 hub in its base.

The COOLdock is also a full-featured adjustable height Laptop Stand to get that display up to an ergonomically sound elevation to help reduce back, neck and wrist strain, by improving user body English. The COOLdock Laptop Stand has eight levels of adjustable screen height tilt, so you should be able to find a comfortable height for you,

The COOLdock stand is made of ABS-type black plastic, in a fairly conventional front-hinged tilt-tray configuration measuring 12.75" x 11.5" x 1.75" (lowest elevation setting), with the two horizontal axis cooling fans embedded in the tray, exhausting downwards.

The computer is held in place by two vertical tabs at the front/lower edge of the support tray, and are generously-sized for secure support, but do block the optical drive slot on 15" and 17" MacBook Pros and PowerBooks, although are no problem for side-loaders like the MacBook, iBook, 12" PowerBook, or my Pismos. This is an issue with a wide variety of notebook stands.

As noted, there are eight levels of elevation adjustment, and the unit should be able to accommodate all sizes of Apple notebooks. My Pismo fit just fine.

The USB hub is located in the base of the unit at the back, and connects to the computer to draw power via a supplied USB cable. There is a blue indicator light to confirm that power is being supplied, although it can't be seen from the front of the rig when in use.

I would prefer the USB ports to be located at the side for easier access, but rear facing ports are quite conventional. And happily, there is an AC power adapter jack socket so you can also power the fans and USB hub from a 5 volt power brick, although the latter is not supplied with the unit. I tried is with a power adapter from another product and it worked fine in this mode, freeing up the USB port on the computer for other things.

There is an on/off switch for the cooling fans, which turn at a fairly energetic 3,500 RPM, and can circulate 30 cubic feet per minute according to the specs., which is a fair volume. The downside is that the fans are not particularly quiet (advertised less than 23 dBA), although not as noisy as the high-RPM internal banshees in Apple 'Books, but not nearly as quiet as the low-RPM fans in the Targus Chillmat product for instance. On the other hand, they presumably move a lot more air than the Chillmat's unobtrusive fans.

One other note about the COOLdock's fans that could be a concern for persons with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities is that at least on the brand new unit I tested the fans emitted a moderately strong plastic odor when running. Hopefully this will gas off and diminish after the unit has been used for a while, but it was not an issue with the Targus Chillmat I reviewed here a while back, which is also made from hard plastic and has two fans, so given that chemical sensitivity seems to be in the rise, the COOLdock's manufacturers might consider reformulating their plastic material.

However, if you're looking for a laptop stand that can make your 'Book run significantly cooler, the COOLdock will do the trick, and the USB hub is a major bonus.

Specifications
• Product Dimension : 327x281x46mm
• 4 USB 2.0 ports
• ON/OFF power switch
• Fan Dimension: 60 x 60 x 10 mm
• Rated Voltage: 5V DC
• Power Current: 0.18 A
• Rated Consumption: 0.9 W
• Rated Speed: 3500 ± 10%RPM
• Airflow: 30 CFM
• Static Pressure: 2.01 mm H2O
• Noise Level: < 26 dBA

Some additional tips to help improve posture when working with a notebook and stand include:
• Use an external mouse and keyboard and keep them at the edge of your desk.
• Adjust your chair so your desk is just a little below your sitting elbow height.
• Raise the laptop so the top of the screen is just below eye level.
• Don't lean on your desk while typing and keep your elbows in line with your shoulders, hanging loosely at your sides.
• When using the laptop keyboard, try not to drop your wrists onto the "wristrest". Instead, move your hands freely across the keyboard and keep your hands in line with your elbows.

The COOLdock Laptop Stand sells for $74.00 is offered in the U.S exclusively by The Bad Back Store:
http://www.badbackstore.com

Product page:
http://www.badbackstore.com/COOLdock_Notebook_Stand_p/u-11114.htm

With increasing numbers of people suffering chronic back pain and seeking solutions, badbackstore.com is committed to providing information and resources to help ensure sufferers receive informative data enabling them to make informed decisions.

Laptop Laidback Revisited

Also offered by the Bad Back Store is the LapTop Laidback, which is my all-time favorite solution for computing while reclined on a bed or sofa. I don't know what I would do without mine.

The Laptop Laidback, which is actually made about 50 miles as the crow flies from where I live here in eastern Nova Scotia, is designed for use in relaxed postures, such as lying on a bed, sofa, the floor, or whatever. One of the things that's different about the Laptop Laidback compared with all other laptop stands I've tested is that it's made mostly of wood - good, honest, Nova Scotia maple, lovely to look at in a natural finish, and immensely strong. It's literally a fine, hand-crafted piece of furniture.

The Laptop Laidback consists of a 1/2" thick solid maple tray platform for
the computer supported by four articulated wooden arms, is quite ingenious and disarmingly simple. The angle of the arms in relation to each other is quickly and infinitely adjustable by way of knurled bushings that allow "knee-style" angle adjustments in five degree increments and are secured with large thumbscrews.

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The tray elevation is also adjustable via two angled slots at the back containing captive sliding anchors for the robust, user friendly, strong and attractive thumb screws that fasten the legs to the tray. The whole rig folds flat for storage and convenient portability. When disassembled, the Laptop Laidback's legs store neatly and securely fastened with Velcro patches to the Velcro strips on the unit's tray module.

In addition to satisfying comfort-seeking computer users, Laptop Laidback can enable individuals with certain long term disabilities as well as those recuperating from surgery or undergoing rehabilitation.

Once assembled an adjusted to the user's preference, Laptop Laidback is a solid and stable platform. It easily accommodates my WallStreet and Pismo PowerBooks, which are relatively heavy portable computers by today's standards. Included with the Laptop Laidback kit are self-adhesive Velcro strips that can be affixed to the bottom of the computer to secure it to corresponding Velcro strips on the tray's facing surface, however, I have found these unnecessary.

I find it very easy to set the Laptop Laidback to provide a comfortable typing angle with wrists flat, and the inclined support tray actually places the PowerBook's display at a much more ideal elevation relative to the keyboard than when using the machine on a table or on your lap. I've had no problems with neck, eye, or wrist strain when using the Laptop Laidback daily for over a year. Using a Laptop Laidback lying down is much more ergonomically friendly than laptopping in a sitting position.

Price: $99.00

For more information, visit:
http://www.badbackstore.com/LapTop_LaidBack_p/u-11000.htm

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cmoore@macopinion.com

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