Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have to say that I wasn't expecting to be that impressed by this pad, but I'm pleasantly surprised. I ordered it because my previous cooling pad died, my (too old) laptop was heating up to the point of malfunction, and I was in a hurry. So I just picked the "Best Seller" in the category, despite how it looked and its non-essential features. IOW, the edgy looks and added bling on this cooling pad are (for me), if anything, negatives, not positives. That said, I'm very happy with how it performs. My previous one was the Cooler Master NotePal X-Slim, which gave comparable cooling to this one, but with a single, large fan. Although I'm comparing them when my old one has died and this one is new, I honestly believe that the four fans on this one are actually quieter than the single fan on the other. Otherwise, they're of comparable size, weight, build quality, and usability. There is one positive of this one that you may not consider in comparing it to coolers that have a single large fan. Inevitably, you're going to be in a situation where you need to pick up the pad and laptop together with one hand. Which means that you'll likely put your hand under the bottom center of the pad, and your thumb on top of your laptop. In order to save on cost and weight, most of these are built with a very thin gauge metal grille and a thin plastic body. Which means that, when you press on the center bottom or top of the pad, the flexibility of the materials will cause them to contact the fan and slow or stop it (and possibly damage it over time). With a single fan on my Cooler Master, that happened to me almost every time I picked it up that way. But with the four fans on this one, it happens far less and less severely. My Cooler Master died because one of the fan blades broke and continued breaking after several attempted repairs. Perhaps it would have broken anyway, regardless, and the body contacting the fan blades had nothing to do with it, but I think it had at least some effect. There are a couple of things that bother me about this pad, although neither is significant enough to take a star off. First, as you might guess, is the lights. They aren't really that annoying or distracting, even when I'm typing in the dark. And being LEDs, they draw so little power as to not make any practical difference in battery use. But I'd nonetheless like to turn them off, and there's no way to do this without turning off the fans as well. Which brings me to the second. There are two dials that variably control the speed of the fans, one controlling the rear two fans, and the other controlling the front. When the dials reach the on/off position, they turn off the lights along with the fans. I guess separating the controls in this way might be valuable to someone who wants to save battery and just keep the fans nearest the laptop's hot spot on. But why bother having variable fan controls at all? Has anyone's laptop cooling pad ever cooled their laptop TOO much? Wouldn't those pennies have been better spent on one switch (or set of switches) that controls the fans, and another that controls the lights? So, given those small issues, my real review might be 4 1/2 or 4 3/4 stars, but that's still very good.