Page 5: Use, Conclusion
Use
One thing that cannot be emphasized enough is how nice the Royal feels to the touch. Everything has a smooth feel. Even the fan intakes, being cut out top of the cooler, have nice smooth edges. In fact, there isn't a sharp edge to be found anywhere. The plastic portions of the cooler are also nice to the touch and sturdy in build.
With the fans running, the cooler does get a little loud. However, it was still quieter than the internal fans on the test system. It shouldn't be that noticeable after a while.
There are a couple little niggling problems that we found in our use of the cooler, though. The first one was the angle that the cooler was set at. Not only is the Evercool Royal quite low to the ground in height, but it also doesn't have much of an angle in its design. Excessive angle can be bad for your wrists, but we were still longing for a little bit more than the nearly-horizontal slope that the Royal had.
Another issue that we had is with the storage bins. While they worked fine and the springs showed no sign of weakness at the end of our testing, we found that if you remove the bins from the storage tray entirely it can be quite difficult to get them back in place without physically moving the cooler to see what you are doing. The tolerances for the trays the bins slot into are too tight and located in an inconvenient area to reinsert them easily by feel alone.
As far as the overall quality goes, there is little that can be done to make the Royal feel better. Even the weight of the cooler started feeling like an asset after a little while, because it gives off a feel of durability in the design. In fact, the only thing we really didn't like about the cooler is the DIP switch that controlled the fan. Compared to the plastic used in the rest of the cooler, the DIP switch feels kind of cheap and rough, and we think something like a push-button design for controlling the fan would be nicer. Still, when the only thing you can find wrong with the build quality of something is in the DIP switches, you know you have a winner on your hands.
Conclusion
The Evercool Royal really is a fantastic entry into the increasingly crowded notebook cooler market. It contains a level of build quality almost honed to perfection, and the performance is pretty good as well. For those reasons, ASE Labs can easily recommend the Evercool Royal NP-901 notebook cooler. The $40 asking price (Newegg Link) may seem a bit steep to the casual observer, but the old adage of "you get what you pay for" certainly rings true in this case, and the build quality and design make the Royal well worth the money.
ASE Labs would like to thank Evercool for making this review possible.
One thing that cannot be emphasized enough is how nice the Royal feels to the touch. Everything has a smooth feel. Even the fan intakes, being cut out top of the cooler, have nice smooth edges. In fact, there isn't a sharp edge to be found anywhere. The plastic portions of the cooler are also nice to the touch and sturdy in build.
With the fans running, the cooler does get a little loud. However, it was still quieter than the internal fans on the test system. It shouldn't be that noticeable after a while.
There are a couple little niggling problems that we found in our use of the cooler, though. The first one was the angle that the cooler was set at. Not only is the Evercool Royal quite low to the ground in height, but it also doesn't have much of an angle in its design. Excessive angle can be bad for your wrists, but we were still longing for a little bit more than the nearly-horizontal slope that the Royal had.
Another issue that we had is with the storage bins. While they worked fine and the springs showed no sign of weakness at the end of our testing, we found that if you remove the bins from the storage tray entirely it can be quite difficult to get them back in place without physically moving the cooler to see what you are doing. The tolerances for the trays the bins slot into are too tight and located in an inconvenient area to reinsert them easily by feel alone.
As far as the overall quality goes, there is little that can be done to make the Royal feel better. Even the weight of the cooler started feeling like an asset after a little while, because it gives off a feel of durability in the design. In fact, the only thing we really didn't like about the cooler is the DIP switch that controlled the fan. Compared to the plastic used in the rest of the cooler, the DIP switch feels kind of cheap and rough, and we think something like a push-button design for controlling the fan would be nicer. Still, when the only thing you can find wrong with the build quality of something is in the DIP switches, you know you have a winner on your hands.
Conclusion
The Evercool Royal really is a fantastic entry into the increasingly crowded notebook cooler market. It contains a level of build quality almost honed to perfection, and the performance is pretty good as well. For those reasons, ASE Labs can easily recommend the Evercool Royal NP-901 notebook cooler. The $40 asking price (Newegg Link) may seem a bit steep to the casual observer, but the old adage of "you get what you pay for" certainly rings true in this case, and the build quality and design make the Royal well worth the money.
ASE Labs would like to thank Evercool for making this review possible.