How do you use your laptop at home? If you do it, sitting upright at a desk, you are in a very small minority. You might as well use a desktop PC! No, the vast majority do their home computing with the laptop, where it’s meant to be, by definition – on the lap. You could be on a sofa watching TV  with the family ( or pretending to, while you polish up tomorrow’s presentation). Or you could be  huddled on the bed, as you check your mail  for the last, last time, before your spouse orders ‘ lights off’.

Whatever your pet posture, chances are your lap is getting hotter by the minute. Try propping the laptop on a pillow – and  you risk blocking the air vents on the bottom, making it even hotter, with a good chance you will damage some delicate inside part .

So we were delighted to learn about, two recent products from Logitech: the laptop  Comfort Lapdesk and the laptop Cooing Pad N100. 

The Lapdesk is nicely contoured to fit snugly on your lap, making contact with your legs at just four points --  and we are told it has four layers of a heat shielding design. We believe them – it  certainly takes away the heat. It is designed to allow air flow to the bottom of the laptop, which usually houses the primary heat-culprit, the battery and has a number of air vents. Logitech quotes a study which says heat generated by laptops can give rise to infertility in men. We happen to think such extreme cases belong in the same category of findings like saying holding a mobile phone to your ear for too long will give you cancer.. You may or may not buy such doomsday theories – but it is good enough that we can avoid singeing our laps through thin clothing ( one is lightly dressed while relaxing at home!). The Logitech  Comfort Lapdesk costs Rs 2995.

Also launched in India this month is Logitech’s N100 Cooling Pad. You place the laptop on the cooling pad before using it on couch, bed or dining table. It cools with a small fan that is powered through the USB port of your laptop. The cooling pad will make sense even for those who work on their laptops for extended periods at a desk – after all the less warm the battery gets, the longer it lasts.

The Logitech Cooling Pad N100 costs Rs 1995. 

Would you use both products at the same time? We don’t think so; they are two different ideas fo two different ‘scenarios’. The choice is yours and depends on your laptop style of use.   But one or the other might make sound sense for laptop-using lounge lizards ! Say goodbye to burning laps – and prematurely burnt out batteries!

-          Anand Parthasarathy / Aug 22 2009