[Review] mStand 360 Laptop Stand
Thanks to Rain Design for sending me a mStand laptop stand. Designed for Apple MacBooks, the mStand attempts to make your work easier and more comfortable, by raising your laptop to the same ergonomic height. It’s made of a single piece of strong aluminium and also matches the MacBook’s colour, style and finish. Plot twist: I’m using it with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch ultrabook!
And it fits perfectly! The soft rubber feet and pads on the corners of the stand and the “lip” keep the laptop safe moving around and slipping, while also being tilted to allow you to easily type and to see the screen. The stand also increases the screen height by about 15cm, which is eye-level for me. Another benefit of this is that it also brings the height of my laptop screen in line with my external monitor too, which makes switching between looking at both screens more easy on the eyes.
There is also a hole at the back of the mStand supposedly for hiding and organizing your cables, but most ports on a laptop are on the side making it less than ideal, and it being rarely used.
My version of the mStand also has a 360-degree swivel base which is why it is called the mStand360. This means I can swivel the laptop stand around and around and around, until the cables get all tangled up! Or I can turn it around to show others what I am working on, if I am collaborating with other people around me. In fact, this stand does sound ideal for use in meetings, but it isn’t very portable. But then again, it wasn’t made to be moved around a lot.
The sizes can be found in the following diagram:
The structure of the mStand is actually pretty strong and sturdy thanks to its single piece aluminium design. There are no screws that hold the top, back and bottom together; it is molded into that shape. The only screws on it are for the swivel base.
Because it is fully aluminium, it can also help keep your laptop cool as it can act as a heat sink. But the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch rarely gets very hot anyway.
The gap in between lets you stash away your keyboard to help free up space on your desk. It just manages to fit my Logitech Wave keyboard in, with the kickstands down.
The mStand has definitely helped my posture, and prevented excess stress on my neck, back and eyes by raising the laptop to eye-level. Of course this also depends on what height and type of desk you work at, but I am talking about a regular work desk, and not a standing desk or a kid’s desk for example. Armed with a good ergonomic chair, desk and the mStand, working on the laptop has become a lot more comfortable. Plus, your body will thank you for it in the future!
You can purchase the mStand from the company’s website itself, or from Amazon.com. This is an affiliate link and the shipping rate to NZ is considerably cheaper at the time of writing than shipping directly from the company’s website.
