(Image credit: Future)
Budget Win or Recycle Bin?
Andy Edser is a man with a mission. It's a mission he didn't sign up for, or even want, but I'm his boss so he has to do what I say. And I'm making him test a ton of different cheap tech I might find on Amazon, AliExpress, TikTok Shop, or down the back of my sofa. Out of nowhere it will appear on his doorstep with no warning, and he has no choice but to use whatever it is like his life depends on it. Because it does.
I find myself charmed (and perhaps a little perturbed) by the little black envelope included with this Klim Everest laptop cooling pad. Inside you get a set of shiny stickers, a warranty card, and, err.. a comic strip depicting the fictional process that begins when you order one.
"Your product was carefully retrieved from our inventory with sterilized anti-bacterial gloves and placed on a silk cushion," the first panel explains. "The party we organized to celebrate your order lasted three days."
Okay, that's something I've never seen before. And I'll be honest, the sarcastic comic endears me to the product more than it should. I could do without the last panel, though, which says: "If you feel like it, send us a photo of you (or your pet) and we'll send you a printable version of this comic strip with your photo on it."
A step too far, I feel. Anyway, the pad itself is a very sizable unit, designed to cool laptops from 14 to 17.3-inches in size and powered by a USB Type-A port. Atop its silver plastic frame sits a foam gasket, designed to create a seal between the bottom of your lappy and the outside air. Two 60 mm fans pull cool air from the rear of the pad and fire it at the bottom of your machine, into any awaiting vents.
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The full MSRP of the Klim Everest is listed as $60, but it's currently down to $50 at Amazon. There are cheaper options on the market, but this one is much more wallet-friendly than, say, this Razer unit for a mahoosive $150.
Speaking of which, I have an ageing Razer Blade 15 that likes to get toasty under full load. So, I booted up the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark, ran it on repeat, and gathered my temperature readings—before placing the lappy atop the Everest (making sure not to block any vents) to see if it made much difference.
Klin Everest laptop cooling pad testing
Results recorded on a Razer Blade 15 (2020) gaming laptop with an Intel Core i7 10875H and an RTX 3080 mobile GPU
Razer Blade 15 | No cooling pad
Razer Blade 15 | Cooling pad set to maximum
| Razer Blade 15 | No cooling pad | 51 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS |
| Razer Blade 15 | Cooling pad set to maximum | 51 Avg FPS, 40 1% Low FPS |
In terms of noise? Yes, very much so. The Everest makes an irritating whirring sound whenever it moves a meaningful amount of air, and the extra cooling doesn't convince the Blade 15's fans to shut up under heavy load, either. The two combine together to create quite the racket, particularly at higher settings.
And in terms of temps? The Blade 15's RTX 3080 mobile still jumps to the same thermal peak, even with the cooler set to maximum, although I did record a single degree difference in the average GPU temps. However, the clockspeed and performance figures remain well within margins of error. In fact, the average GPU frequency is slightly higher without the pad, as are the 1% lows. Excellent.
The bargain-basement screen is rubbish, as is the RGB lighting—and quite a few user reviews note reliability issues
That being said, it did manage to drop the peak CPU temperature by a whole two degrees, which seems to have resulted in ever-so-slightly higher clockspeeds. Not that it made any difference to actual gaming performance, but hey. A tiny win's still a win.
What my editor has sent me, then, is a large and noisy plinth to rest my laptop on—and little else. The Everest would likely make more of a difference when used with badly overheating machines, perhaps within hotter ambient temperatures, but it certainly hasn't made any major improvements to my gaming laptop on a sunny October day.
I think a simple laptop stand, enough to raise your machine off a desk to free up airflow beneath the bottom vents, would be a more cost-effective buy. I've found a decent-looking one for $18. It doesn't come with a comic, though. Shame.
So, is the Klim Everest a "Recycle Bin" candidate? Well, it's loud, largely ineffectual, still pricier than you might expect, and quite the desk dominator. Oh, and the bargain-basement screen is rubbish, as is the RGB lighting—and quite a few user reviews note reliability issues.
Ah, screw it. Put it in the bin and be done with it.
The Klim Everest is distractingly noisy when it's pushing any meaningful amount of air, and although it's capable of shaving off the odd degree, I still think it isn't worth the $50 asking price. Nice comic, though.
