The guys at Just Mobile have managed to design some rather awesome looking and interesting accessories recently. From multi-functional, gravity controlled pens to aluminum mouse pads and from iPhone stands, to full size MacBook holders, their designs are striking, intriguing and classy.
My appreciation for their design technique and craftsmanship was made even stronger when GearZap kindly sent the Aluminum Cooling Bar to try out.
The concept is quite simple. A laptop or Macbook can get a tad hot when in use, right? So, the cooling bar provides not just elevation to help the computer stay cool, but elevation coupled with style!
The cooling bar is a beautifully machined, 15″ length of aluminum, with both stylish and modern looks. It has a silky smooth brushed finish and with its precision diamond-cut edging it really goes hand-in-hand with a Mac. Although, you can use it with any laptop really. It certainly wouldn’t look out-of-place in any modern office.
It features protective rubber rings (three on each side of the bar) that provide scratch protection for your laptop/Macbook when it’s resting on the bar itself. These also work alongside the rubber padding on the underside of the bar, which prevent movement during use, so your kit remains secure on the desk at all times.
On the left side of the bar you’ll find a groove, which you can use for ‘cable management’. You can either slot your laptop’s power cable, mouse cable or your MagSafe connector when you’re not using it. Actually, you can use the groove for pretty much any cable you like. Although, the downside is there is only one groove provided. It would’ve been a bonus had the other side been given the same treatment.
I’ve been using a small docking station for the past couple of years at home, but now it’s been replaced with the cooling bar. It not only looks simply awesome, but it fits easily into my gear bag with tremendous ease. So, wherever I may be, my laptop can stay cool and look stylish at the same time!
As mentioned, it’s 15″ in length, so will comfortably accommodate a laptop up to this size, without it spilling over the sides of the bar. Bear in mind though, if your laptop is 15″ or more, you may not be able to utilise the cable management groove.
It costs £27.97 (Approx $40) from GearZap and although the concept of it is quite basic, you need to take into consideration the design, feel and craftsmanship, then and you’ll really appreciate it.
Product Information
| Price: | £27.97 ($40) |
| Manufacturer: | JustMobile |
| Retailer: | GearZap |
| Pros: |
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| Cons: |
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James, were you able to do any performance tests (i.e., CPU/HDD/internal ambient temp) via something like iStat to determine whether or not there is actually any performance advantage to using the cooling bar?
@Andy Great question Andy.
The long and short answer… no. I didn’t do any ‘specific’ testing with the bar itself during the review. However, I do have an application called CPU-Z (Basically a better looking task manager performance list) which I sometimes run when I’m running certain applications at work, for testing purposes normally. I’ve been running it now for the last 20 minutes, with a handful of applications running (Autodesk, Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Access with a few documents open, Internet running with approx 15 pages open & I’m also connected to my VPN at work) and the CPU is running high, but the warm air is being wafted along the channel created by the bar. So, using the bar does help massively and is certainly better than if the laptop was lying flat on the desk on it’s own.
As far as the amount of heat is concerned, it’s dissapating more than it normally does when it’s dropped onto the docking station, as I’ve also ran a program called SpeedFan, which is a great little app and the processor went from 49 degrees C to a peak of around 56 degrees C when using the apps. I then docked it and used it in the same manner for around 10 minutes, and the CPU temp peaked to 61 degrees C. The HDD temp sat at around 44 degrees C on the dock and dropped to 40 degrees C on the bar.
So, even though these tests are simple to say the least, the bar does seem to provide a sightly better cooling effect overall.
Seems like it might work great with the iPad on landscape mode giving it a nice angle to type on.
@Jackie – Yes indeed…. my laptop certainly isn’t the biggest so I think it would work quite well. If I ever get one, I’ll test it! 🙂
OK, let me get this straight.
It’s a hunk of metal with some grooves and rubber ridges.
It props the computer up.
There is no special use for it being metal. The metal doesn’t provide any sort of conduction of heat out of the base of the computer.
It has a nifty cable-management groove but that only works with laptops under 15 inches.
It doesn’t fold down or compact into anything smaller than it’s original size.
There’s a chance that it’s actually cooling the machine, but we can’t rely on it.
And for this we get to spend over $40 (with shipping).
Remember how back in February Julie posted how I used some rubber stoppers to hold CDs off my desk instead of spending a lot of money.
I think I have some leftover stoppers that could easily be glued together to create a much cheaper version of this product.
It’s a very good looking product that is totally non-needed.
@Sandee – I can see your points. The bar is a great looking product, maybe not a ‘gadget’ as such as all it does (like you say) is prop the laptop up to a better level so it provides a channel to allow warm air from the laptop to escape. It doesn’t cool the laptop as such, not like a laptop cooling table is designed to do for instance, it just helps to channel air, so overall heat levels are reduced.
Like i said in the review, it looks good and it’s beautifully made, which is why a lot of these would be bought by owners of offices, or people who just want to add that touch of ‘wow’ to the home/office desk. Or, as Jackie mentioned, it’ll look awesome when it’s used with the iPad.
I’m using it, simply because it looks so much better than my docking station 🙂
The only downside is the cable groove – there’s only one. If they did the same on the other side, it would be even better.
James,
Actually, if I didn’t prop up my laptop with the BookArc from 12 South, I would be a prime sucker… err… purchaser of this product.
Even though few people visit my office, I love things with a “cool” factor. (Pun intended.)
How much does this thing weigh? I imagine it would add unwanted heft to an already packed full gear bag. Unless you want to pack a bludgeon for self defense.
Just think, if someone tries to run off with your laptop, you can beat them to death with a $40 bar of aluminum!
@Ed – It’s weighs just less than 13oz (0.8lb) so it’s not heavy at all. Once it’s in your gear bag you’ll forget that it’s there! It slides into the zip area on the back of my gear bag with tremendous ease.
My extended battery does the same thing AND provides more then this thing.