ThermaPAK HeatShift Laptop Pad Cools via Organic Cooling Crystals

While researching the HeatShift Laptop Pad I noticed that my laptop is warmer than I expected. My Vaio spends most of its life sitting centered on my glass top desk so I only notice the warm air blowing from the fan. The fan blows heated air out of vents on the left side and any item that spends time near there warms up quickly.

I just checked the heat issue further – I lifted my laptop a few inches from the surface of my desk – wow – it is warm under there. The heat can even be felt on the underside of the glass. An overheated laptop is more likely to crash than one that is kept cooler so I am concerned.

Heat from a laptop is no surprise to me.  Lounging with a laptop is a misnomer - I have yet to find a comfortable position while surfing in my recliner. Sweaty legs and the feeling that I am sitting in a warming oven spoils the mood pretty fast.

Staying mobile is important to me so I am always looking for a better way to do what I do while away from my desk. Hard surfaces, pillows and bare skin seldom make computing on the go easier. Space in my gadget bag is minimal so bulky laptop cooling devices seldom find their way into it.

The HeatShift Laptop Cooling Pad seems to be different in so many ways. It is soft, it is pliable, quiet, requires no power and it fits easily into a bag with all of the other gadgets. There are two sizes available – one for up to 15 inch laptops and another for laptops up to 17 inches. Colors range from a conservative black to a girly pink. That pink one would look real good with my pink Vaio.

What makes the HeatShift by ThermaPAK so special? In addition to the previously mentioned reasons it works in a unique way. Beneath the pretty outside cover there are organic cooling crystals encased in a plastic cover. Channels designed to carry liquefied cooling crystals allow the flow of heat to escape from the bottom of a laptop.

Just looking at the HeatShift Pad it is difficult to understand how it works and why it would keep a laptop up to 10 degrees cooler than without it. It looks like a simple quilted pad. It is not simple and it is not a quilted pad.

You have probably noticed that a laptop heats up in a particular area – the heat is seldom evenly dispersed. The organic cooling crystals contained in the center of the Heatshift become a liquid as they are heated by the laptop. The liquid cooling crystals then absorb the heat. The heat is dispersed throughout the HeatShift Pad and is not transferred to your legs or to any other surface.