Moshi Zefyr
Posted 09/10/2008 at 12:22am
| by Susie Ochs

The Zefyr’s aluminum material draws heat from your laptop, and the USB-powered fan provides extra cooling.
What’s on your lap? If you said, “Why, my Mac, of course,” aren’t your thighs getting a little warm? Or perhaps your neck hurts from hunching over to better see the screen. Well, sit up straight, Hot-Thighs McSlouchy, because the Zefyr can help.
If your MacBook or MacBook Air feels as hot as a frying pan, Moshi’s Zefyr can help. This external notebook cooler features a rubbery patch of “thermal interface compound,” which pulls the heat from the bottom of your ‘Book to the aluminum heat-sink material. A short USB cable powers the Zefyr’s virtually silent fan, but don’t worry about losing a precious USB port, because the Zefyr’s USB plug has a pass-through port. When not in use, the USB cable stows away, and the Zefyr collapses to just 7.8 by 3.9 inches. It’s a mere 0.5 inches thick and only weighs 10.8 ounces. And since the Zefyr elevates the back of your laptop by half an inch, the keyboard’s slightly angled position leads to more comfortable typing. In our tests, playing a DVD for an hour raised the CPU temperature of our Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook from 98.6 to 123.8 degrees Fahrenheit. But using the Zefyr, the temperature topped out at just 114.8 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Zefyr can help cut down on how much your ‘Book’s noisier internal fans need to run to stay cool.
COMPANY: Moshi
CONTACT: www.moshimonde.com PRICE: $75
REQUIREMENTS: MacBook or MacBook Air (Zefyr Pro coming soon for the MacBook Pro, $86)

Ultra-silent fan. USB powered, but with a pass-through port. Compact and lightweight.

We weren’t blown away by the test results, but it does work.