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Ten of the Best… laptop stands

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Round-up You’ve bought a shiny new laptop PC, MacBook or netbook. Pound to a penny, within a day you’ll puzzling over one, two or maybe even three things: how can you use it on your knees while watching telly and not get warm lap syndrome? How can you set it at a better typing angle on your desk? And how can you stop the blasted fan from firing up every five minutes?

A decent deskstand or lap rest is what you’ll be wanting, so we’ve has rounded up ten of the best and planted a 15.4in Dell Inspiron, an Acer Aspire One, a 17in MacBook Pro and a four-year-old 15in Advent that runs as hot as Hades and fires up its fan at the drop of a hat on each to see which is the comfiest, most versatile and coolest – both literally and metaphorically.
1. Rain Design iLap

The iLap scores high in the comfort stakes due to its two felt-covered supports. The rear one is articulated, while the front one slides off to let the unit sit more securely on a Desktop at a well-judged typing angle. The main part is made from aluminium, so it’s light, sturdy and rather attractive. The tear-drop ventilation hole seemed unnecessarily small to us, but Rain bundles four self-adhesive rubber feet if the ones on our laptop have come adrift or you want to make some more airflow space. That big lower cushion also ensures your laptop will stay in place even when propped up at the most extreme angle in slob-out-on-the-sofa-with-knees-up mode. It’s not cheap – while the smallest 12/13in version will set you back £45, the 15in costs £55 and the 17in model comes in at a whopping £60.

Reg Rating 75%
Price £45-60
2. Allsop Cool Channel

This cheap, simple and one-size-fits all laptop stand from Allsop has a slightly raised and padded mesh base that provides cooling without requiring holes. It doesn’t look like it works but in use it proved rather effective at keeping our old Advent cool. The Allsop’s party trick is that you can flip it over and slide your laptop into the S-curve for transport and storage. This doesn’t really work with anything bigger than a 15in machine but it does have an elastic retaining cord that was ideal for keeping our Aspire One in place, so we reckon this is the best netbook – rather than notebook – stand. Downsides? The front lip obscured the audio jacks and memory card slot of our Inspiron.

Reg Rating 80%
Price £25

3. Speed-Link Plexus Desktop notebook Cooling Stand

While the Desktop Plexus is unlikely to win any beauty parades, it does a more than decent job of keeping your laptop cool and at the right angle. The stand can be elevated to one of six positions, has a swivel base and clever little sliding spacers in the top of the stand that further improve air-flow. Cooling provided by a 2000rpm USB-powered fan. Speed-Link says the Plexus is only good for laptops up to 15.4in but our 17in MacBook Pro balanced on it with aplomb. It’s a little on the plastic side, and prone to the odd creak and groan, but as a functional and versatile office deskstand it’s not at all bad.

Reg Rating 80%
Price £29

4. Griffin Elevator Lap Top Stand

Simplicity is the name of the game with Griffin. Its nicely finished aluminium and perspex Elevator will support your laptop 5.5in off the deck and pitch it forward at a slight angle. The simple, solid and rather attractive U-bracket design provides a degree of passive air circulation. Like the Logitech Alto Connect, the Elevator is a device best suited for use with a separate keyboard but it doesn’t half free up some space on the desk. The distance between the rubberised supports pretty much rules out netbook use though, unless you want to get all MacGyver on it with some string and elastic bands. Its only flaw: you can’t adjust the angle or the height.

Reg Rating 80%
Price £25

5. Pringle of Scotland

Port’s Ergo Station is an all-plastic Desktop stand complete with four powered USB ports. It needs to be plugged into the mains to operate properly, though ours managed to drive a mouse and printer – though not a USB memory stick – using just the power drawn from a laptop‘s USB connecting cable. The stand itself has three lockable positions ranging from almost flat to near vertical, though we suspect most users will use it in the middle position which cants the keyboard forward at around 45° and raises it about 6in off the deck, making typing a touch tricky without a separate keyboard. Though the sculpted platter of the Ergo allows plenty of room for air to circulate it’s also available with a powered fan for more serious cooling. The gloss-surface plastics give the Ergo a nice feeling of quality while the cut-out front support bar didn’t obscure any of the audio sockets on our Dell.

Reg Rating 80%
Price €70 without fan, €80 with fan

6. Logitech Alto Connect

Solid, stable and altogether a cracking bit of design, Logitech’s Alto is the must-have stand for the style conscious. Like Port’s Ergo, the Alto also doubles up as a powered four-port USB hub, but Logitech place one of the ports at the front – handily labelled “Media” for the hard of thinking – for easy memory stick access. The Alto lacks anything in the way of angle adjustment which means it makes more sense with a remote keyboard and mouse, examples of which Logitech also makes. If it bundled the Alto with its entry-level EX100 wireless keyboard and mouse combo for £60, it would be a very compelling purchase indeed. Like the Port Ergo the Alto has to be plugged into the mains for the USB hub to work, though unlike the Ergo mains power is required to drive even a simple cable mouse.

Reg Rating 80%
Price £40
7. Belkin CushTop

Belkin has come at the lap rest from a whole different direction with its Sponge Bob SquareTop offering. Basically a big, stiff 37.5 x 30 x 10cm foam cushion with a very grippy cover and a hollow centre into which you can stuff your power brick – as long as it’s a small one – cables or indeed an entire Acer Aspire One. Of all the lap rests here, the CushTop raises your laptop closest to your natural line of sight when sitting down which may appeal to the more elderly customer. Not only does it work a treat as a laptop rest it also doubles up has a handy pillow/foot rest/general-padded-thing-a-me-jig about the lounge. Available in four colour schemes, we like the CushTop not least because it doesn’t look like a laptop stand though the flip side of that is it’s almost useless as a Desktop stand.

Reg Rating 85%
Price £20
8. Port Design Lap Desk

Port Design’s Lap Desk has a trick up its sleeve that gives it an edge over the other lap rests on review: a fold-out mouse pad. This is something we like a lot, not least because most of our on-lap laptop usage is done with an Acer Aspire One, a device that doesn’t exactly have the best track pad/button combo around so we always have a travel mouse plugged in. Now we have a place to use the mouse. Excellent! The Lap Desk is also compact and light enough to be truly portable. Downsides? It doesn’t raise the angle of your laptop one iota when set on a desk and the mouse pad could do with a higher-friction surface. Like the Logitech, this is a one size fits all gadget that worked just fine with anything from an AA1 to a 17in MacBook Pro.

Reg Rating 85%
Price €30

9. Cooler Master NotePal Infinite laptop Cooler

Cooler Master makes serious high-end computer cooling kit and its expertise in the field shows in the NotePal. To start with, it has a USB-powered fan that can be set to run at either 1000, 1500 or 2000rpm. Secondly, the fan itself sits in a recessed housing that forces air into sculpted channels in the surface with the result that the airflow is forced up through the aluminium grille right across the area of the stand. Thirdly, the fan draws in air at the back of the stand, so using it on a soft surface doesn’t impair performance. It’s not the most stylish bit of kit in the world, but it does the job well and represents great value for money.

Reg Rating 90%
Price £20
10. Targus Chill Mat for Mac

The lap rest or deskstand of choice for the Mac-o-phile with not just one but two fans. A development of the regular Targus Chill Mat, but looking a whole lot better in its new Mac-white party frock, the Chill Mat really is a great looking bit of kit. Those fans draw their power from a USB port, so there’s no messing about with a separate power supply and they do a great job of keeping your laptop cool. They aren’t too noisy, either. Whether you actually want two sets of blades whizzing about in such close proximity to your Gentleman’s Accoutrements is another matter, so it’s good to know the Chill also has a handy on/off switch for the fans. It also comes complete with a set of high-grip rubber supports that slot into the perforated plastic deck to keep your laptop doubly secure.

Reg Rating 90%
Price £25

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