The Product

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Packaged in the worst kind of box, the G-Pad is in a hea- sealed clamshell. It’s the kind of plastic that shatters when you are trying to cut it and makes an unnecessary mess.

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After clearing up the glass-like shards of plastic, I was left with the cooler itself and it’s carry bag.

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The carry bag is made of nylon with lots of packaging preventing the cooler from damaging your laptop when you carry it around. The front of the bag has a white Gigabyte logo that looks quite stylish.

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Speaking of stylish, the product itself isn’t the usual metal plate with some blower fans. Instead, it’s an extruded piece of aluminium with two parts. These two parts fold together – like a book - so that it’s easily transported and stored. The top of the cooler is flat allowing for optimum contact with your laptops base, while the other side features the usual heatsink style blades.

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Not only does the body absorb heat and provide a larger area for it to escape from, but raises your laptop every so slightly to allow air to pass easily into the underside fans. To make sure that the laptop isn’t heightened by a large amount affecting posture when typing etc. the cooler is a mere 5.6mm high.

I have the 12/13” version although Gigabyte has released two others in this range for 10/11” (320g) and 14/15” (580g) laptops. The pads can come in either black or virgin aluminium silver.

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The weight of the cooler is far from excessive, and comes in at just over half a kilo (520g), which should mean carrying it won’t be too arduous. When you fold the cooler together, the height is only 7.8mm and it’s about the size of an A5 piece of paper (at least this; the 12/13” version). The cooler is held together with magnets which seems like a silly plan when this cooler is going to right next to your magnetic storage (read: HDD).