Pros: Quiet large, cooling fan; Good sound from speakers

Cons: Speakers are not controlled from notebook volume controls when cooler is connected to laptop. Cooler volume is only controlled with knobs on the cooler. Notebook speakers do not work when cooler is attached...

Pros: Fan pretty quiet on high, nearly silent on low and still seems to move enough air to keep a laptop cool and should use very little power. Can be turned all the way off if not needed. We mainly needed it for the speakers anyway, were not having laptop overheating problems.

The price seemed reasonable with the rebate being offered at the time when we bought this one, paying back half of the total cost (if/when we get it)

Cons: Volume controls (and fan) on back (you can just use the volume adjustment in whatever player your using).

Speakers point out and away from the side, not directly to person using / watching the laptop.

Rebate said it can take 10 weeks (2 and a half months) unless you pay $2 for rush processing.

Other Thoughts: I can't comment on durability yet, we just recently got it. If treated well it looks like it should hold up.

The sound is much better than the laptop speakers. My wife watches movies and shows on her laptop and as these laptops get thinner and lighter, each new model is quieter and sounds worse than the last. That has apparently opened a market for products like this, a new product to solve a problem that didn't use to exist.

The first time you plug it in, give Windows a minute to install it as a usb audio device. This dosent have an aux input or blue tooth, so it wont work with a tablet, Ipod, mp3 player, etc..You may need to goto the audio settings in windows and set the output to usb audio. Also, if you using a player like XBMC, you may have to goto it's settings and change the audio output from your default audio device (like speakers, hd audio, realtek audio) to the usb audio device too.

Pros: Good combination of a cooling fan + speakers. I almost gave it a 4 egg, but I thought to rate this appropriate for the price your paying for it. Obviously your not going to get a Mercedes for the price of a Civic, so that would be unrealistic/unfair to rate it that way.

Cons: A bit thicker than a stand alone cooling pad. This item falls into the category of jack of all trades (well 2 things in this case), but master of none. It cools well, and the speakers are an upgrade in quality and volume from the standard laptop ones.

Just don't expect Bose level quality or to be overly impressed by the speakers.

Pros: The sound and build quality is good. It is somewhat thicker and larger than I expected, but its still within acceptable parameters.

Cons: It would be a five star, but for one deal breaker. When I first got it I thought the mini usb power port connection was looser than I liked and now part of the connector inside the pad has broken off.. it still gets power, but only if you are very careful about it. Its the only place where it looked like the build quaility slipped.