Reviews

iGo Week: iGo Notebook Stand

October 5, 2005

I absolutely love my Fujitsu LifeBook, but from an ergonomic point of view it isn’t the greatest. It’s small and light to carry, but when I’m at my desk I tend to get rather hunched over from trying to reach the keyboard and see the screen at the same time. This computer also runs much hotter than my old IBM ThinkPad, and I sometimes worry about the effect of all that heat on the delicate components of my laptop. My entire *life* is on this machine (and sometime it feels as though I spend my entire life looking at its screen!) so it’s important for it to stay “healthy” and be as comfortable to use as possible.

Thankfully I found a wonderful gem that helps me do just that—the iGo Notebook Stand. This little accessory is designed to add a little extra height to your laptop and hold it at a slight angle, so the screen is easier to see. The product is simple and easy to use, since it’s just one piece, primarily plastic. No adjustments to make; just slip it under your laptop and get right back to work. The “X” design limits the amount of contact area on the surface, for enhanced heat dissipation. Black rubber inset panels on each corner provide slip resistance, so that I don’t have to worry about my laptop slipping off of the stand. There isn’t any rubber between the stand and the desk, which is either a positive or a negative, depending on how you look at it.For me it’s a positive, since it means that the whole unit (laptop/stand) is easy to move if I want to turn it around for access to a port on the back. But for someone who is an aggressive typist, say, they might find their laptop at the back end of the desk after composing a long memo!

I’ve seen a lot of laptop stands, but I’ve never actually used one before I got the iGo Notebook Stand. They were always too bulky and way too expensive for what they offered. This version though is well-designed, sturdy, and slip-resistant. It should work with a large variety of machines, since I have one of the smaller laptops out there and it fits perfectly. The stand measures 9.75 inches wide and 8 inches deep, while my Fujitsu LifeBook is 10.25 inches wide and 7.75 inches deep. With a larger laptop, you would simply center the stand underneath, and I expect that this would certainly work with machines that have 14 or 15 inch screens, and probably with 17 inch monsters, if you set it down right. Even better, this stand is so thin that if you’re a true road warrior, you won’t have any problems taking it with you; it should easily slip down into the side pocket on traditional laptop cases, or even inside the main compartment with your laptop, if you have one that is particularly thin.

I’ve been using this stand for several weeks now, and I now wonder how I lived without it for so long. I can type more comfortably for longer periods of time, and both the laptop and my desk are much cooler. Before, when I packed up my LifeBook after an extended usage session, my desk was actually hot to the touch! At only $9.95, you can’t go wrong. You can purchase the iGo Notebook Stand at the SkyMall online store.

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