Below every great laptop is a great lap. What happens when things get too hot?

13 Oct 06

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Tonight I have a short, sweet review for you. It's a hardware review of the Lapinator lap board.

As you may recall, I got a new laptop this year. It's not a hardcore gaming machine, but it did turn out to be more powerful than I expected. Part of the price of that power was heat. Put simply it wasn't comfortable to use as its name implied for more than a minute. Needing a table to use it kills some of the functionality of a portable computer. I needed a good lap board. I solicited recommendations. The only one that got more than lukewarm responses was the Lapinator.

I purchased one through Amazon. I got the Lapinator Plus. I had a 15.4 in laptop and needed the surface area. My wife's work laptop would have fit nicely on the original Lapinator. With the plus model, she has room to use a mouse on the surface as well.

The first thing you notice is how light the board is. It's so light, I mistook it as flimsy. It's not. You have the flat textured work surface on top. There's a border around the edge which is handy for keeping things like a pen or mouse from sliding off. The border and bottom are cloth. The bottom has two padded rails that cushion you legs from the surface and keep it elevated to avoid trapping heat. The board also comes with three stick on rubber feet that can be used to raise the back of your laptop off the surface if your unit uses any downward cooling fans.

The work surface feels only lightly textured, but provided a surprising firm grip with the rubber feet on my laptop. Even tilting at somewhat extreme angles failed to result in any slipping. My laptop does have a downward exhaust for the video card so I used the rubber feet. They installed easily and didn't hurt the grip on the laptop at all.

The cushions below the board were quite comfortable using in a chair, car and recliner. Even without the heat issue, it was far more comfortable than just holding the laptop. The padding is firm enough that normal usage of the laptop didn't result in any movement. In short, it's a stable, comfortable work surface.

So how did the heat do? The Lapinator uses a thinsulate layer to stop the heat from the laptop from getting to your legs. For my wife's work computer, she can use it all day without getting hot. For my laptop in battery conservation mode, I can do pretty much the same. I use battery conservation most of the time when I want to use a lap board. I'm usually just doing some typing or surfing. When I crank the system up to full power for gaming or something, it gets really hot. I can get about an hour in that mode before the heat starts to seep through the board. It never got very hot on my legs, but it wasn't an absolute barrier either.

The other side of the equation is the release of body heat. The padded rails on the bottom are supposed to allow air flow. They do a good job most of the time. Obviously if I sit deep down in a comfy chair with it, there's no air flow and my legs get hot. That's not a problem with the board. The other thing to keep in mind is that the Lapinator is just a heat barrier. It's not an active cooling solution. It won't fix problems you have with laptop overheating.

In summary, the Lapinator Plus is light, comfortable and effective. It helps me use my laptop more. Definitely recommended. 4.5/5 Stars.

Jason