I’ve used and reviewed laptops for decades and can tell you that you’ll want one of the best laptop stands if you’re using one more than 20-30 minutes a day.
Despite their versatility, laptops are generally unergonomic devices that force you to crane your neck down, hunch your shoulders and pull your hands in like a T-Rex in order to type. That’s all well and good for short bursts, but if you use a laptop for hours like I do, it can be murder on your body.
Because of that, I try to tell anyone who regularly uses a laptop to invest in a great laptop stand like the Lamicall, which is portable, adjustable and fairly sturdy. For something less expensive, I suggest the iVoler laptop stand. If you’re on the taller side, you might like the extra height and adjustability of the Lifelong UpRize stand.
Whichever you choose, I recommend you invest in at least one good laptop stand because it will do wonders for your comfort. For instance, this $45 laptop stand can revolutionize how you work, and you can enjoy similar benefits for as much or less.
Here are the best laptop stands you can buy right now, along with our detailed hands-on reviews.
The quick list
In a hurry? Here’s a brief overview of the laptop stands on this list, along with quick links that let you jump down the page directly to a review of whichever arm catches your eye.
1. Lamicall Adjustable Laptop Stand
Lamicall’s laptop stand is the best overall because it offers plenty of height and angle adjustments, a built-in heat vent design that’ll work for most laptops and large rubber grips with plenty of friction to keep your laptop steady while typing. Plus, it’s foldable.
The iVoler laptop stand is a great budget-friendly option that can fit snugly in a backpack pocket, making it a great portable option. It’s friendly to your wallet, has a well-ventilated design, and only requires a few seconds to set up and break down.
3. Rain Design iLevel2 Laptop Stand
The Rain Design iLevel2 stand is stylish and features a unique spring-loaded design that uses the weight of your laptop to activate the height- and angle-adjusting mechanism. As an aesthetic bonus, its anodized aluminum look matches perfectly with Apple’s MacBooks.
The Brocoon laptop stand won’t take up much space in your backpack or suitcase when folded. The thin design paired with its wide range of height and angle adjustments and comfortable typing experience makes it the perfect portable option for frequent travelers.
5. Twelve South Curve Flex Laptop Stand
The Twelve South Curve Flex laptop stand is a minimalist laptop stand that’s portable and sturdy, when set up correctly. Plus, it comes with a padded travel case and tools to adjust the stand to your liking.
6. VIVO Laptop Desk Mount
The VIVO Laptop Desk Mount is perfect for anyone who wants to use their laptop while sitting or standing at their desk. This stand gives you more desk space, offers multiple height and angle adjustments, and features a perforated plate that’ll keep your laptop cool.
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7. LIFELONG UpRyze Laptop Stand
The LIFELONG UpRyze laptop stand is the best height-adjustable stand because it gets up to 20 inches high, while many laptop stands max out at 11 inches. If you want a taller laptop stand or you just want a cheap way to get a standing desk when you want it, this is a great choice.
The OMOTON laptop stand travels well, features a well-ventilated, attractive design, and offers multiple height and angle adjustments to put your laptop in the perfect spot. Its best feature, however, is a 360-degree rotating mechanism at the stand’s base that allows you to quickly swivel your laptop.
The Asltoy laptop tray is great if you want a stand for multiple locations because it’s designed to help you work from your bed, couch or car. You can adjust the angle of your laptop on the left side of the tray while the right side stays flat, allowing you to keep a drink in the cup holder or use a mouse.
10. SOUNDANCE Laptop Stand
The SOUNDANCE laptop stand is great for those who want a bit of color in their day-to-day, because in addition to the usual black and gray you can also get it in your choice of seven fun colors. Plus it’s durable, stable and well-ventilated.
The best laptop stands you can buy today
The best overall
For most people, the Lamicall laptop stand is the best because it offers plenty of height and angle adjustments, a built-in heat vent design that’ll work for most laptops, and large rubber grips with plenty of friction to keep your laptop steady while typing. Plus, it’s foldable and won’t take up too much space in your backpack if you want to travel with it.
The stand arrives folded, and all you need to do after unboxing it is to set your preferred height and angle before your first use. To adjust the stand’s overall height, you hold the base with one hand while pulling up on the middle plate. Then, repeat the process with the middle and top plates to set the stand’s angle. The hinges are sturdy, but the adjusting process is smooth, not jumpy.
Lamicall’s laptop stand is made with cool-to-the-touch aluminum alloy, and its biggest design praise goes to its top tray plate. This large, rectangular top plate makes it easy to adjust the stand with your laptop on it, whether you’re lowering or raising the stand. It features a unique, widespread ventilation design that ensures your laptop’s fans will sit over at least some of the vent holes.
There are two long rubber strips spanning the length of the tray, as well as two rubber grips on the metal lips to hold your laptop in place while typing or if you accidentally bump it. You’ll also find four circular rubber grips on the bottom of the stand to prevent it from sliding on your desk while working.
Aside from the metal lips that stick out a bit, the Lamicall laptop stand is fairly compact when folded, making it a great travel companion if you need to work from a coffee shop or a classroom. Typing directly on the stand at lower to medium heights is comfortable and pretty stable, so you don’t even need to bring a separate keyboard and mouse. It’s possible to create an ergonomic angle that’s kind to your wrists for long typing sessions.
The best budget laptop stand
This iVoler laptop stand can fit snugly in a backpack’s side pocket when folded, making it a perfect portable option. It’s friendly to your wallet, has a well-ventilated design, and only requires a few seconds to set up and break down.
There’s a sliding mechanism that allows the stand’s two main pieces to pull apart quickly, revealing an X-shaped support holding them together. From there, you separate the stand’s legs from the top portion your laptop will rest on to find the thin adjustor pieces. Although most of the aluminum alloy stand feels durable, the adjustor pieces don’t. They dangle loosely from the stand and just barely rest in each leg’s pre-drilled holes.
With six different sets of pre-drilled holes on the legs, you can adjust the height and angle of the laptop’s screen and keyboard simultaneously. The end of each leg is curved upwards and sports a rubber grip to hold your laptop in place. This fuss-free design is easy to adjust with a laptop on the stand, as you just need to lift the two adjustor pieces at the same time and move them forward or backward to another pre-drilled set of holes.
The only downside to this design is that the bottom of your laptop will always be at the same height, so the higher you set your screen, the higher and more angled your laptop’s keyboard will be. If you use this stand at one of its lower height/angle settings, typing on the laptop’s keyboard rather than an external keyboard is fairly comfortable, but as you raise your laptop screen higher, typing becomes increasingly uncomfortable for long periods.
I performed three typing tests on my laptop while it was on the iVoler stand at the third-lowest height/angle setting, and averaged 103 words per minute and 2 errors. When compared to the 103 wpm, 1 error average on the same laptop used flat on a desk, there’s practically no difference. My laptop didn’t bounce while typing, and my wrists weren’t forced into an awkward position.
Using the higher angle/height settings on iVoler’s stand still provides a stable typing experience, and your laptop won’t slide too much thanks to a few well-placed rubber grips. When typing at these heights, my laptop didn’t even bounce that much, but it put a ton of strain on my wrists. If you pair this with an external keyboard and mouse, or you don’t need to type a lot, it won’t be a big issue.
The best laptop stand for MacBooks
The iLevel2 stand from Rain Design features a unique spring-loaded design that uses the weight of your laptop to activate the height- and angle-adjusting mechanism. As an aesthetic bonus, its anodized aluminum look matches perfectly with Apple’s MacBooks.
Aside from being constructed with chilly anodized aluminum, the iLevel2 stand features a small raindrop cutout centered in the top piece. While this raindrop allows a little heat to escape, it’s mainly decorative. What keeps your laptop cool on this stand is the anodized aluminum material and the four circular rubber grips on top to lift your laptop.
These four grips also keep your laptop steady while typing, along with a long rubber strip that lines up with the bottom lip of your laptop. Underneath the stand, there are four more circular grips that practically cement the stand in place on your desk.
When it’s packaged, the top of the laptop stand is pushed down to prevent the spring-loaded mechanism from getting damaged during transit. It’s ready to be used right out of the box, but you’ll want to hold down the top of the stand when unboxing it to stop it from springing out unnecessarily.
Once it’s unboxed, you need to set your laptop gently on the stand to weigh it down and start perfecting your adjustments. There’s a handy metal slider at the stand’s front that lets you quickly raise or lower your laptop’s height and angle while it’s on the stand. To reach the stand’s max height/angle setting, you slide the metal dial all the way to the right; and to lower it, you’d slide the dial to the left.
Adjusting the height and angle up is smooth, but adjusting down can be quite bouncy if you’re not slow about it. It’s also worth noting that you can’t adjust the height and angle independently on this stand. If you want to raise the height of your laptop screen, you’ll also be raising the angle of your laptop’s keyboard.
When you’re using the stand anywhere between its lowest height/angle setting and somewhere in the middle, typing directly on your laptop feels fairly stable, albeit a little springy, and your wrists are tilted at a relatively comfortable angle. My normal typing average on my laptop is 103 words per minute with 1 error. When typing on Rain Design’s iLevel2 stand, my typing average decreases slightly to 96 wpm with 1 error.
Trying to type directly on my laptop while the stand is set to its highest setting is way too bouncy and puts my wrists at a pretty uncomfortable angle. If you think you’d frequently use this stand at its highest setting and you need to type a lot, I’d highly recommend investing in a separate keyboard if you don’t have one already.
The best portable laptop stand
When it’s folded, the Brocoon laptop won’t take up much space in your backpack or suitcase. This thin design paired with its wide range of height and angle adjustments and comfortable typing experience makes it the perfect portable option for frequent travelers.
This isn’t the smallest or most compact laptop stand on this list — that’s the iVoler stand — but it’s the thinnest option that offers more than enough adjustments, which will decrease strain in your neck, shoulders, and eyes more so than the budget-friendly iVoler stand will.
There’s no setup required before you can start using the stand, adjusting the height and angle to your liking. You can easily adjust the stand with your laptop on it, but adjusting can be jerky sometimes. Rather than a smooth adjustment to your preferred height and angle, this stand doesn’t move immediately and then suddenly jumps into place, which can be jarring when you’re not expecting it.
Brocoon’s laptop stand is equipped with a small oval-shaped heat vent, but depending on your laptop, this might not line up perfectly with your fan vents. Luckily, the stand is made with aluminum alloy to help absorb a lot of the heat your laptop emits. It’s a simple, attractive design that has “To live a good life” printed on the bottom plate, which some may like but others might not.
There are four circular rubber grips on top of the stand, along with two rubber grips covering the metal lip that holds your laptop in place. The grips are thin and not very strong, so my laptop could easily slide back and forth with only a gentle push, which doesn’t happen with many other stands on this list. When bumping a corner of my laptop rather than steadily pushing my laptop, it barely budges. The four rubber circles on the bottom of the stand to prevent it from sliding on your desk seem to be a bit stronger.
With the Brocoon stand’s rectangular design, typing feels incredibly stable and comfortable, great news for anyone who doesn’t want to bring along a separate keyboard and mouse. My typical typing average on my laptop with no stand is 103 words per minute with 1 error, and my typing average on the Brocoon stand at mid-height with a gentle angle was 102 wpm with 2 errors. It’s certainly a bouncier typing experience, resulting in more errors, but my overall speed was almost identical to my typical typing average.
The best minimalist laptop stand
Twelve South’s Curve Flex laptop stand is easily portable and fits the minimalist aesthetic very well. In addition to the adjustable stand, Twelve South includes a well-padded travel bag for the stand and a small allen key to loosen or tighten the stand’s hinges as needed.
No assembly is required before you can use this laptop stand, but you’ll probably need to tighten the hinges prior to your first use. Before tightening the hinges, resting my wrists gently while typing on my 3-pound laptop made the stand slowly sink to its lowest setting. Putting two laptops that collectively weighed 6.5 pounds made the stand instantly collapse. After using the included 4mm allen key, it could effortlessly support the two laptops and the weight of my wrists while typing.
There are four total hinges to tighten, and the whole process only took five minutes, including time to tighten, test the hinges, and tighten once more. There’s a small cutout at the top of the travel bag where you can store the allen key, so if you use the travel bag to carry the stand with you to work or college, you’ll always have the allen key on hand. With the hinges tightened, the stand can only support laptops weighing 7 pounds or less, so if you have an exceptionally heavy laptop, this stand won’t work for you.
Adjusting the height and angle on the Curve Flex stand is similar to other Z-shaped stands. Holding the base piece with one hand, you lift up on the middle plate to set the height. Unlike other stands that let you fully rotate the hinges, this stand’s hinges have a stopping point when you hit the stand’s max height. This prevents any accidental unbalanced situations that could cause the stand to fall over when you put your laptop on the top tray.
Then, the angle can be adjusted by holding the middle piece in place while you pull up on the top tray. Moving each stand piece into place to set your preferred angle and height is a smooth process, even after tightening the hinges.
The stand is equipped with a few silicone pieces throughout, but their main purpose is to prevent scratches to the stand and your laptop. Between each of the stand’s pieces, there are two silicone grips to keep the stand from scratching itself. Where your laptop sits on top, there’s a semi-circle strip of textured silicone, as well as two small silicone patches on the metal lips that hold your laptop in place.
These textured silicone pieces are slippery under your fingers and barely prevent your laptop from moving when pushing it from the side. I tried bumping my laptop from a corner while on the stand and it held its ground slightly better, but on the second bump, my laptop popped up over one of the metal lips. The silicone strips lining the base piece are a thinner, non-textured material, and they also lack enough friction to prevent the stand from sliding on a desk.
That said, unless you’re accident-prone, the chances of your laptop sliding off this stand are slim. Typing directly on this stand is pretty comfortable, so you can get away without needing to buy a separate keyboard and mouse. At mid-height and a gentle angle, my typing average on Twelve South’s Curve Flex stand was 96 words per minute with 2 errors, slightly lower than my typical average of 103 wpm with 1 error.
The best mounted laptop stand
VIVO’s Laptop Desk Mount is perfect for anyone who wants to use their laptop while sitting or standing at their desk. This stand gives you more desk space, offers multiple height and angle adjustments, and features a perforated plate that’ll keep your laptop cool. You do have to keep the included hex key nearby to manually adjust height, but the process is quick and easy.
Installing this VIVO stand via the clamp method only took about 15 minutes, and the instructions were easy to follow. You’ll need a flat desk underside between 10 and 85mm thick for best results with the clamp.
Like putting a puzzle together, you match up the parts with the images and screw them into place. After you attach the pole to the clamp piece, you tighten it into position on your desk. The rest of the installation process consists of adding pieces to the main pole and securing them with screws. Alternatively, you can use the grommet method for installation, which requires drilling a hole through your desk if there’s not an existing through-hole for mounting.
Once it’s installed at your preferred height, you can swivel the arm to bring your laptop closer to the desk or push it out of the way. The tray plate can be tilted at an angle, or you can use it at 180 degrees if you want to use it flat while standing. It’s possible to adjust the angle with your laptop on the stand, but there are no rubber grips on the perforated plate to hold your laptop in place while doing this.
The height-adjustability range of VIVO’s laptop tray is one of its best features. It can be raised up to 16.5 inches above your desk, the perfect height range for creating a standing workstation. Adjusting the height is a simple process, but you’ll need the included hex key (or another 5mm hex key) to loosen and tighten the connection between the pole and the tray arm. After you loosen the hex nut holding the tray arm in position, you can slide the tray arm up or down the pole to its new height, and then quickly tighten it in place.
VIVO’s stand is made with steel and aluminum, and the laptop tray plate is perforated to encourage airflow. This holey design is great for heat ventilation, but it’s not the most attractive look. Because the tray plate lacks rubber grips, it relies solely on your laptop’s built-in grips to keep it in place while swiveling the tray to and from your desk.
Typing on the VIVO laptop mount was bouncy enough to decrease my typical typing average, but with its wide range of height and angle adjustments, it provided a relatively comfortable typing experience for my wrists. My typical typing average on my laptop is 103 words per minute with 1 error, whereas typing on the VIVO mount resulted in an average of 92 wpm with 2 errors. It’s 11 less wpm, but that’s a decent tradeoff for all the pros this laptop stand has to offer.
The best height-adjustable laptop stand
Many laptop stands max out at 11 inches high, so if you have a longer torso or you just want a taller laptop stand, the LIFELONG UpRyze laptop stand will be a breath of fresh air. With its 20-inch max height for your screen, this laptop stand can even be used as a standing desk converter.
Like many laptop stands, it’s ready to be used as soon as you unbox it. The UpRyze stand is made with aluminum, and the top tray your laptop rests on is a large square with an oval-shaped heat vent. Depending on your laptop, the heat vent might not match up with your laptop’s fans, but the aluminum material will help absorb heat during demanding tasks.
There are four circular rubber grips on the main plate and two grips on the metal lips holding your laptop in place. While these grips don’t create as much friction as I’d like, they’re strong enough to keep your laptop steady while working. You’ll also find four rubber grips underneath the base that create more friction than those on the top plate. These bottom grips paired with the wide top plate and weighted base help larger, heavier laptops stay upright even at tall heights.
The hinges are incredibly sturdy, so adjustments need to be made with your laptop off the stand. To set the height, you have to hold the base piece and pull up on the middle plate. To use the stand at even taller heights, there’s a height-extender mechanism built into the connecting metal piece between the base and the middle plate. To fully extend the stand, you need to depress a button on the height-extender mechanism while pulling up on the middle plate. To bring it back down, you’d depress the button and push the middle plate toward the base.
In addition to adjusting the stand’s height in two different ways, you can also adjust its angle. With one hand holding the middle plate, you can pull up on the top plate to adjust the tilt of your laptop’s screen and keyboard. When I typed on my laptop on LIFELONG’s UpRyze stand at mid-height with a gentle angle, my average typing speed was 98 words per minute with 2 errors. This isn’t much worse than my typical typing average of 103 wpm with 1 error.
Because this stand can be used as a standing desk converter, I also tested out typing on the stand at max height. It’s less comfortable to use while standing, which is reflected in my typing average of 91 wpm with 2 errors. For reference, I’m 5’ 5” and the fully-extended stand wasn’t high enough to meet my eye level. It was relatively comfortable to use the UpRyze stand while I was standing, but anyone taller than probably 5’ 9” might find the stand’s max height to be too low while standing.
When you’re finished using the stand, it can be folded to easily store away. It’s not the most compact design, but it’s possible to pack this stand in your backpack if you don’t have much else to carry. If you like the idea of converting any desk to a standing desk, the UpRyze stand would be worth traveling with, despite its bulkier, heavier design. When it’s fully extended, this stand is best paired with a separate keyboard and mouse.
The best rotating laptop stand
OMOTON’s laptop stand is easy to travel with, features a well-ventilated, attractive design, and offers multiple height and angle adjustments to put your laptop in the perfect spot. Its best feature, however, is a 360-degree rotating mechanism at the stand’s base that allows you to quickly swivel your laptop and show someone else what you’re working on.
This stand was ready to go right out of the box. All you need to do is unfold it and adjust the angle and height to your liking. To adjust the stand’s height and angle, you’ll need two hands and a little bit of strength. There’s resistance when adjusting the stand, which is ideal, but it’s not too much.
First, one hand holds the stand’s base at the front while the other hand pulls up on the middle section to set the height. Then, one hand holds the back of the stand’s base in place while pulling up on the top piece to set the angle. You can tweak the height and angle levels downward while your laptop is on the stand, but if you need to adjust the stand upwards, you’ll need to take your laptop off to do so.
This is an attractive laptop stand with a circular design, cool-to-the-touch aluminum alloy material, and a 360-degree rotating mechanism built into the base. Six thin rubber circles underneath the base keep the stand from moving on a desk, and four slightly thicker rubber circles paired with two rubber grips on the stand’s curved metal lip hold your laptop in place.
It’s easy to rotate your laptop on the stand by using two hands to push down slightly, engage with the rubber grips, and move your laptop in the direction you want. Trying to swivel the laptop by pushing on the bottom corner of my laptop didn’t work. The laptop started sliding off rather than activating the rotating mechanism. Alternatively, you can rotate your laptop by grabbing the stand’s base and turning it in the desired direction.
If you want to type directly on your laptop’s keyboard while it’s on the OMOTON stand, you can, but only lower heights will provide a stable typing experience. Typing at mid- to max-height on this stand is too bouncy to be comfortable for long bouts of typing. My average typing speed on my laptop is 103 words per minute with 1 error, whereas typing on the OMOTON stand at mid-height with springy feedback resulted in a typing speed average of 98 wpm with 2 errors.
The best for multiple locations
This Asltoy laptop tray is a moveable workstation, so you can work from your bed, couch, or car, or even put it on your existing desk to use as a standing desk converter. You can adjust the angle of your laptop on the left side of the tray while the right side stays flat, where you can put a drink in the cup holder or use a mouse. There are a few design tweaks that would make this laptop tray better, but it serves its purpose as a flexible workspace well.
When the Asltoy laptop tray arrived, the shipping box looked a bit damaged around the edges, but the tray itself arrived in great shape. The tray is ready to go as soon as it’s out of the box. Two U-shaped legs fold out from underneath the tray top to prop it up, and then the surface that holds your laptop can be adjusted to one of the 5 preset angles.
To set your preferred angle, you lift the left tray top and pull a metal rectangle on a hinge away from the tray’s backside. Then, that metal rectangle gets nestled into one of the five notches built into the tray’s metal frame. You can adjust the angle with your laptop on the stand, but it’s difficult and could potentially pinch you depending on which notch you’re adjusting to.
Adjusting the angle of your laptop and its keyboard simultaneously adjusts the screen height, but you can’t adjust the overall height of the tray. For people with longer torsos or anyone who tends to hunch while working, not being able to adjust the overall tray height is an unfortunate design choice. Positioning your laptop at the highest setting slightly accommodates this issue, but then you have to type with your wrists angled sharply upwards — which isn’t comfortable or recommended for long periods — or use a separate keyboard below the tray.
The desktop is made of MDF, with curved corners and a multicolored stripe design. The left side is equipped with a thick bumper to secure your laptop when it’s angled, and the right side offers a little real estate for a mouse and a small drink, like a 16.9 fluid ounce water bottle or a can of soda. The company’s pictures show a mug in the cup holder, but none of my mugs, aluminum water bottles, or larger plastic water bottles would fit.
The frame is all metal, and each leg is covered with two plastic non-slip pieces to prevent it from moving on hard surfaces, but the legs don’t lock in place when the tray is set up. So if you accidentally bump the tray or slide it out of the way on your bed, it’s possible for the legs to fold back in. With a design that allows for open drinks on the tray next to a laptop, it’s puzzling that the legs don’t lock in place.
Another piece that seems like it should lock in place is the left side of the desktop. When you’re transporting the tray between two different spots, you have to be conscious of how you’re holding it or the top of the tray could swing out.
With the Asltoy tray flat, my typing average on my laptop was 97 words per minute with 2 errors, slightly lower than my typical average of 103 wpm with 1 error when typing flat on my regular desk. After I angled the tray to its third setting, my typing average lowered to 94 wpm with 3 errors.
I imagine this lower typing average with more errors was the result of me hunching a little while typing, but I loved the flexibility to work in my bed, on the couch, or transform my desk into a standing desk. By itself, this tray is great because of the flexibility in where you can work, but pairing it with another laptop stand to create a mini desk with extra screen-height boost would make it even better.
The best color options
This SOUNDANCE laptop stand is built with thick aluminum alloy pieces for durability, has an open design that dissipates heat more effectively, and is stable enough to type on if you don’t want to invest in an external keyboard. You can get it in typical laptop stand colors—black, silver, or gray—or opt for one of seven fun shades to match your desk aesthetic.
Though the SOUNDANCE stand does have an attractive design, it’s also built to last. The laptop stand ships deconstructed, with one flat base piece that two curved legs click into. Each leg is flat on bottom with two small oval-shaped rubber grips between the stand and your desk, and then sloped on top and covered with a long rubber grip to hold your laptop in place.
If you want to take the stand apart and travel with it, you can pinch and pull the connection between the base piece and each curved leg. Or, you can strategically flip the stand up in the bottom of your backpack, and slide any journals, books, or other accessories between the stand’s top and bottom pieces. That said, this stand is best used as a stationary desk accessory. If you’re after a portable laptop stand, there are better options on this list than this one.
This one-height, one-angle design may not be for everyone. Generally speaking, adjustable stands are favored because everyone has a different eye-level height. However, because this stand isn’t adjustable, it provides a more stable typing experience if you want to type directly on your laptop rather than an external keyboard.
When typing on my laptop like normal, my average typing speed was 103 words per minute with 1 error. Typing on my laptop while it was positioned atop the SOUNDANCE laptop stand resulted in an average typing speed of 95 wpm with 1 error.
Typing on this stand is a less shaky experience than on other stands, but needing to lift my arms for long periods of typing is likely what resulted in a lower typing speed average. Using a wireless keyboard and mouse with the stand would be more ergonomic, but it’s not necessary unless you plan on typing a lot.
How to choose the best laptop stand for you
When deciding which laptop stand you should buy, the biggest factor to consider is its height. Using some books or boxes, position your laptop at eye level or slightly above that, depending on your preferences, and record how high that is using a ruler or measuring tape.
Most laptop stands offer height- and angle-adjustability to accommodate people of different heights, but some stands have a set height. Even if you plan to adjust your laptop stand once and never customize its height or angle again, adjustable stands are generally preferable because of the flexibility to get the height and angle just right.
That said, a stand with a set height can provide a more stable typing experience. If you plan to type on your laptop keyboard rather than on an external keyboard, a fixed laptop stand might be the best way to go. Adjustable stands are best paired with an external keyboard and mouse so you don’t have to raise your arms and tense your shoulders while typing or using the trackpad.
There are a few other details to keep in mind when shopping for the best laptop stand for you. Note the size of your laptop, as some stands won’t support large, 17.3-inch laptops. If you want to take the stand with you to work or college classes, make sure it’s foldable and that the folded dimensions will fit nicely in your bag.
If you want to use the stand purely at home, a more permanent solution like a laptop mount might be more up your alley. Or, a laptop tray also gives you flexibility at home to move your work from your desk to the couch or the bed if you need a change of scenery.
And to make the most of a laptop stand, consider checking out the best wireless keyboards and best wireless mice to pair with your laptop.
How we tested these laptop stands
We chose ten laptop stands that stood out from the rest based on product reviews, from both everyday users and professional sites. Once we had our 10 stands selected, we tested each one thoroughly to assess its ease of use, sturdiness, and levels of adjustment.
First, we checked out how easy each stand was to set up and start using. When adjusting each laptop stand—if it could be adjusted—we paid attention to how much resistance was needed to adjust the height or angle of the stand. We also tested whether adjustments could easily be made without needing to remove the laptop from the stand.
Next, we looked at the build quality of each stand, including the material the stand is made of and the placement and effectiveness of its rubber grips, if applicable. We even gave each stand a little nudge with a laptop on it to see whether the stand would fall over with the extra weight of a laptop on top. Design isn’t as important as build quality, but we did consider it because a laptop stand is a prominent part of your desk setup, and it needs to look good.
While testing each stand, we carried out typical daily tasks on a laptop, like checking email, writing inside a Google doc, and online shopping and research. We noted how it felt to type on a laptop propped up on each stand at its lowest height, max height, and somewhere in the middle of the two.
A laptop stand is most effective when paired with a keyboard and a mouse, but many people intend to use their laptop’s keyboard and trackpad with a stand rather than buy extra peripherals. Because of this, we performed three typing tests with the same laptop propped up on each stand at roughly the same height and averaged them out. Each average was compared to the average of three typing tests performed on the laptop sitting on a desktop, without a stand under it.
For more information on our testing process, check out our guide to how we test.
Other productivity essentials
To complete your ideal productivity setup, be sure to check out our other guides:
Best standing desks | Best office chairs | Best desk lamps | Best keyboards | Best mouse | Best under-desk treadmills
