Summary: The Nexus TDD-9000 is a bold and innovative product that promises great advantages compared to traditional coolers for portable computers.

We’ve tested many cooling systems for laptops. In general, they all depend on active cooling from fans. Although they’re generally quiet, they also consume a large amount of electricity. Nexus has given us a very innovative cooler for portables. We’re sure it will impress you as much as it impressed us.

INTRODUCTION

The Nexus TDD-9000 is more than just a cooler. We’d call it an advanced cooling system, which uses gel to do its work.

Let’s start by looking at the TDD-9000′s features:

• Cools by using a patented liquid
• Finished in black velvet
• Completely silent: 0 dB!
• Doesn’t use electricity
• Universally compatible
• Light, foldable, and easy to carry, weighing only 500 grams (17.6 ounces)
• Dimensions: 400 x 290 mm (15.7 x 11.4″)

As a cooling system, the TDD-9000 is certainly a bit strange. But we also recognize that it’s truly innovative and is definitely worth a look.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The Nexus TDD-9000 cooling pad comes in a large, but very practical bag, which lets you see the product. The packaging briefly describes the TDD-9000 and promises to lower your portable computer’s temperature by up to 17ºC (62.6ºF).

The back of the package explains some of the product’s features in detail. It includes two graphics with the results that an independent lab obtained in its performance testing. The graphics say it all — if we could get only half the promised improvement, we’d celebrate!

A DETAILED LOOK AT THE NEXUS TDD-9000

It’s time to take a close look at the TDD-9000, so we’ll take it out of its protective plastic shell. The first thing we noticed (you can’t help it!) is the very pleasant feel of the pad’s 100% velvet cover.

When we heard that the TDD-9000 was filled with gel, we thought it would be pretty rigid. But it’s totally moldable, as you’ll see in the images above and below, where we bend and fold it. If you’re short on space, no problem — you can fold it and put it in a small box, or even fold it into a ball.

The TDD-9000 is made of excellent material. You can see that in the Nexus logo in the lower left corner. We were afraid of tearing the pad, which could cause a serious problem if the gel leaked out. But the materials are very good, and the pad as a whole should be very resistant.

TESTING THE NEXUS TDD-9000

To test the TDD-9000 we used tools based on Intel’s Santa Rosa platform: a Core 2 Duo T7300 with a 965GM chipset, X3100 graphics, and a Toshiba MK1637GSX hard disk. Our laptop has a 15.4″ screen. When we put it on top of the TDD-9000, we saw that the pad is large enough to accommodate even larger laptops. I’d venture to say that you wouldn’t have problems even with a 17″ screen.

For our temperature tests, we used the CINEBENCH R10 benchmark, which let us simultaneously exercise the processor, chipset, and graphics card. Here are the results:

Our results were far from the improvements certified by the Taiwanese test lab. But they were appreciable. Even a reduction of 2ºC (3.6ºF) is welcome in a portable computer. We also noticed that we didn’t get any noise reduction benefit, as we did when we tested cooling units that used fans.

I was pleased that I had no problem keeping the computer on my lap when I used the TDD-9000, even for long periods of time. The bottom of the pad was always cold. It seems that by using the TDD-9000, we can finally use a laptop in bed to watch movies or to work in a relaxed state, with nothing to bother us.

CONCLUSIONS

The Nexus TDD-9000 is definitely a novel and impressive, even bold product. That’s the only way to make a name for itself in the market.

As a cooling pad, the TDD-9000 has many virtues, such as its excellent materials, good feel, lightness, and easy storage (even in pant pockets). At first, we had great hopes for its ability to lower temperatures. While those benefits ended up being much smaller, we think they may be adequate.

Something else that caught our attention was that the TDD-9000 doesn’t reduce a laptop’s fan noise, something that does improve with active coolers. But we also realized that when we used this pad, we could put the computer on our lap without being bothered by the heat.

In short, Nexus has done a good job with its TDD-9000. If it can somehow improve the pad’s performance, it will have an excellent product. It’s available at several places for as low as $25.

The final score is 75 out of 90 owls, which is 83.3 out of 100. We give the “Nexus TDD-9000 Laptop Cooling Pad” our Recommended Award.

Thanks to Nexus and ThunderIT Ibérica for letting us test the TDD-9000.

Author: Manuel González Fernández

Translator: Ed Winograd