Logitech Speaker Lapdesk N700

We don’t actually expect too many features from your average lapdesk, but Logitech’s N700 is not your average lapdesk by any means. It connects to your laptop via USB so it can also act as a speaker system, as well as an external cooling fan.

Laptops have a tendency toward sub-par speakers, and the speakers on this lapdesk are therefore a nice touch. Don’t confuse them with a replacement for the speakers you bought for your expensive home theatre system – they’re not in that league at all. What they are good at, though, is amplifying sound when you’re watching video or listening to music, if your laptop’s tinny little speakers aren’t loud enough or the sound quality isn’t great.

We tested the external fan on an Alienware M15x which, like most laptops, vents mostly out the back. Because the cool air from the lapdesk wasn’t getting into the vent – as it wouldn’t with most laptops – we noticed no change in core temperature at all. To be fair, the M15x is exceptionally good at cooling itself – while running our most intensive gaming benchmark, it got to a max temperature of 64°C– but fans that blow air onto or pull air from the bottom of a laptop rarely make a huge difference. The vast majority of laptop manufacturers have had rear or side-venting models for a very long time now.

We could perhaps forgive this issue if the lapdesk was comfortable to use, but it’s not. The N700 is just too heavy – when you’ve got a laptop that’s already quite heavy sitting in your lap, you don’t want the lapdesk to add much weight. We could comfortably sit with the M15x in our laps – it weighs just over 4kg – but the additional weight of the lapdesk meant that we couldn’t stand more than a few minutesof use, let alone hours.

If you’re looking for a lapdesk you can actually use in your lap, then frankly the N700 is not a great choice. As a desk stand, though, the speakers make it a solid option – although you could always just invest in, you know, plain old speakers.