Titan G4T Magic Pad Notebook Cooler

Introduction

Notebook coolers are a vital part of a notebook these days if you plan to use it on your lap for extensive periods of time. I cannot recall the last time I used my laptop without a notebook cooler since the heat it generates just after about half an hour of use is quite significant that it’s simply not possible to keep it on your lap anymore. This is why a lot of cooler manufactures out there are coming out with new designs to combat this problem. With newer and faster laptops reaching end users on a monthly basis, keeping them cool should be a top priority if you want to prolong the life of your laptop as well as get work done without burning yourself. Today we look at one of the newest offerings by Titan, the “G4T Magic Pad” notebook cooler.

Titan has been around for almost 2 decades now, starting operations in 1989. They have a good range of coolers on offer so head down to their site if you wish to have a peek at what they offer.

The main components that generate the most amount of heat on a laptop are the CPU, graphics card and hard drive. If you play a lot of games on your laptop, it’ll take only a few minutes before the laptop has heated up to the point where you no longer can bear to keep it on your lap. I hardly use my laptop for gaming, yet I cannot afford to use it without a cooler since after an hours use the heat generated is quite significant.

The G4T Magic pad comes in a clear hard plastic sleeve case which is a bit of a pain to take off since the sides are sealed. The pad has a dimension of 280 x 280 x 20 mm and weighs in around 800g as per the specifications. This does add some bulk into laptop bag if you carry it around a lot, yet something I have grown accustomed to.

Specifications:

Opening up the package you’re offered with four rubber feet that needs to be attached to the cooler along with a re-tractable USB cable to power the cooler. (Note pic was taken after rubber feet were attached) It’s a really good decision to include a retractable USB cable as previous notebook coolers I owned came with longer than required USB cable which just kept dangling on the side of the notebook which wasn’t good when taking looks into consideration.

The G4T Magic Pad is quite a unique cooler in the sense that it can accommodate laptops from 12” to 17” thanks to the extendible base. So even if you upgrade your notebook this cooler can still be used. There are 4 cooling fans on this cooler, each rated at 2200rpm. The noise level generated is under 30dBA (26.2) so it was well within acceptable levels however we do wish Titan decides to include some kind of fan selection controller where by you can select only for a combination of fans to work rather than all at once, just so that the user has some control of the noise and power consumed.

The center section of G4T magic pad is made of an aluminum plate which is surrounded by a plastic shell. Another good after thought by Titan is that they made this cooler so that you can use it on either side. Simply by flipping it around you can decide if you want air blown directly onto the laptop or draw air from the laptop like an exhaust fan. The open grills on each black plastic section are air vents for faster air dissipation.

We tested the G4T Magic Pad on a 14” Compaq Presario laptop and as you can see it fit it perfectly.

Performance and Conclusion

To heat up the laptop we started playing some games until the point where you could feel the heat rising through the keyboard as well. (Don’t you just hate when that happens )

Next we placed the G4T Magic Pad and continued to play on. In no more than 5 minutes the whole laptop returned to its normal operating temperature and it was in fact cool to the touch. If you kept your hands near the air vents you actually could feel the hot air being blown out of the system. Needless to say the G4T Magic Pad is one of the most fast performing notebook coolers we have come across. We did expect good results from this cooler since there were 4 fans targeted towards the main components on a laptop, however we didn’t expect the laptop to cool down so quickly, which is truly impressive.

From our view there are a few improvements that are required on the G4T Magic Pad. Firstly as mentioned before the unit should have a fan controller and secondly the on/off switch should be more solid as it feels too flimsy. Other than that the G4T cooler is great and performs well above expectations.

For mobile users one of the main concerns will be battery life. While the cooler consumes only 3W of power if you’re concerned the G4T can be used in short intervals or can be used like a heat shield without the fans turned on. The cooler retails around US$50 which is acceptable for a cooler of this nature. Overall this is a very well developed cooler and if you’re looking out for a notebook cooler that works extremely well, look no further, the G4T Magic Pad will serve you well.