You know the experience: Set your laptop on a tabletop or standing desk, and youre in for an ergonomic nightmare. The screen is too low, forcing you to angle your neck and slump your shoulders at an uncomfortable angle. If you plan to use a full-sized keyboard, there’s nowhere to place it because the laptop itself is in the way and forget about trying to use the laptop in bed or on the sofa.Thats why theres an entire industry of laptop stands designed to raise, angle, and support your laptop in a variety of situations. If you spend much of your time working from home, some sort of laptop stand is virtually essential. If you use your laptop in a variety of locations, you might even need more than one type of stand, since some work best on the kitchen table, others can help you work in bed, and yet others are designed specifically to turn your desk into a standing desk or help musicians follow music while performing on stage.Whatever you are looking for, Ive rounded up the best laptop stands to choose from. Be sure to check out the end of the article, where Ive put together a buying guide that highlights what you should keep in mind when you shop for your laptop stand.
TL;DR These are the Best Laptops Stand Trays:
1. Rain Design mStand
Best Minimalist Laptop Stand
Laptop size: Up to 17-inches Construction: Aluminum Tray dimensions: 10″ x 9.3″ Height: 6-inches Weight: 3 pounds
Designed to match your MacBook, the mStand has a sleek Apple-like physique and is machined from a single piece of aluminum with a silver-anodized finish. But while it looks best paired with an Apple laptop, you’ll be happy to learn Windows PCs and Chromebooks dont burst into flames if you set them on top, so you can use any portable PC with this stand.The mStand makes some compromises for style. Its obviously not adjustable, so your laptop will be elevated six inches and set at a fixed angle. But it has grippy rubber bumpers to keep your laptop from sliding around, and has a large two-inch hole in the back for cable management.
Lets be clear: Youre not going to travel with this stand. Its not even a little portable. But this is a great option for your desk, either at work or at home, where you know exactly how you want to arrange your workspace and position a mouse and keyboard for your laptop.
2. Griffin Elevator Laptop Stand
Best Budget Laptop Stand
Laptop size: Up to 17-inches Construction: Aluminum and plastic Tray dimensions: 7.5″ x 5.5″ Height: 5.5-inches Weight: 14 ounces
The Griffin Elevator Laptop Stand is a curious hybrid. It looks like what youd get if you asked an early 20th century Minimalist painter to create a laptop stand based on the Rain Design mStand. Its a fixed-height and fixed-angle stand machined from aluminum, but formed from two angled metal strips held together with a bar of plastic.Its construction means this stand is surprisingly portable. In fact, it comes flat packed, requiring you to assemble it out of the box, so theres no reason you couldnt take it apart and toss it into a laptop bag any time you needed to. The design is completely open, which Griffin says is great for cooling. Theyre not wrong. Cable management is of the let it all hang out variety. Rubberized strips keep the laptop fairly secure, and the whole thing is light and easy to move when needed.
3. Roost Laptop Stand
Best Portable Laptop Stand
Laptop size: Up to 17-inches Construction: Plastic Tray dimensions: 9.4″ x 10.2″ Height: 6 11 inches Weight: 5.8 ounces
Roost got its start as a crowd-funded Kickstarter project, and this newer version of the Roost stand benefits from lessons learned making the original. The key takeaway: Roost is ideal for mobile users who need a small, compact stand that can go on the road and be used in a variety of locations. Opened up, it looks like a simpler version of the Sofia + Sam stand, but without an actual tray for the laptop to sit on, or any articulating legs. When its time to pack up, it collapses down to 13 inches long and 1.25 inches square, which effortlessly slips into a backpack or briefcase.While the Roost is adjustable, it’s not quite as adjustable as some other stands. Your laptop can sit as low as 6-inches off the table or as high as 11-inches. It also has a few preset angles for positioning the keyboard and screen. The Roost is made of lightweight plastic, but is rock-solid in use, and thanks to clever “pivot clips:” when you slide your laptop into place, the stand grips it solidly. Theres no way the computer can slide around. The pivot clip design, though, limits you to laptops that are .75 inches thick or less (not including the lid) but its a rare laptop thats bigger than that.
4. Avantree Neetto Height Adjustable Laptop Bed Tray
Best Bedstand Laptop Stand
Laptop size: Up to 17-inches Construction: Wood tray with aluminum legs Tray dimensions: 20.5″ x 11.8″ Height: 9.5 12.6 inches Weight: 3.4 pounds
This stand looks sort of like a tray youd use to deliver breakfast in bed, and if you want, you could use it for exactly that purpose. The Avantree Neetto Height Adjustable Laptop Bed Tray is made to support your laptop, but after youve finished editing the TPS reports, set your laptop aside and use this stand for a bedtime snack, to read a book, or any other task requiring a tray that can sit comfortably around your torso. You can even set it on the floor and use it as a TV serving tray for your kid.Calling it a tray is a bit of a misnomer: Its really more of a miniature table, with legs that hold flat for storage (the same way a folding table closes up). The legs extend vertically, allowing you to adjust the height of the laptop from sitting at a height of 9.5-inches to 12.6-inches. The miniature table also angles to a maximum pitch of 30-degrees. The tray itself is 20.5 x 11.8 inches big enough for even large gaming laptops and still give you space for a mouse on the side.
Unlike most stands, which are made from aluminum or plastic, the Avantree Neettos tray is oak (and available in several different finishes). And while you can travel with this laptop stand it packs flat and weighs about 3.4 pounds its probably more convenient to leave at home for all the non-laptop jobs it can do when youre not working.
5. Ergotron WorkFit-T Standing Desk Converter
Best Standing Desk Workstation Laptop Stand
Laptop size: Up to 17-inches Construction: Particle board trays Tray dimensions: 35″ x 23″ Height: 5 20 inches Weight: 49 pounds
In the last few years, weve heard a lot from ergonomic and health experts that sitting at a desk might not be the healthiest way to spend eight hours a day. Some workplaces are happy to provide standing desks for workers who want them, but for everyone else and for folks who spend a lot of time working from home — theres the Ergotron WorkFit-T Standing Desk Converter. This oversized laptop stand actually supports a laptop and a second monitor, with a two-tier design that lets you place a full-size keyboard and mouse underneath.Folded flat, the top tier is five inches high and the keyboard sits at desk level. When you are ready to work standing up, it elevates easily its spring-loaded and can be operated by one person. The stand locks in place with a “handbrake,” and can be positioned anywhere up to 20-inches high more than enough to simulate a standing desk.
6. VIVO Single Laptop Notebook Desk Mount Stand
Best Clamping Laptop Stand
Laptop size: No limit Construction: Steel and aluminum Tray dimensions: 14″ x 12″ Height: 0 17 inches Weight: 11.6 pounds
Need to keep your desk completely clear? Mount your laptop on a pole-and-clamp that hangs off the corner of your desk. This set-up is a common solution in industrial and lab environments, where you need access to a laptop but cant keep it on the work surface. VIVOs desk mount stand is a steel pole with a rigid clamp that attaches to an arm that holds the laptop tray. (The package also includes a monitor bracket, so you can hang a display from it instead.)The arm can be mounted at whatever height you need, from desk height to about 17 inches high, and once configured, you can swing the arm around the pole and adjust the angle of the laptop. But to adjust the height of the arm, youll need to keep an Allen wrench handy, since that gets securely locked down during assembly. And dont worry you dont need to drill holes or otherwise damage the desk. The pole clamps onto the desk, and includes pads to avoid scratching the surface.
The laptop tray is enormous 14 x 12 inches and can accommodate any laptop in existence. Its also “ventilated” with a Swiss cheese arrangement of holes, to keep your laptop cool. It also comes with integrated cable clips to help you manage your wires by securing them to the pole.
7. Samson LTS50 Laptop Stand
Best Musicians Laptop Stand
Laptop size: Up to 17-inches Construction: Steel Tray dimensions: 15″ x 11″ Height: 30 47 inches Weight: 11 pounds
Not everyone works at a desk. Musicians and DJs, for example, frequently need to set up a laptop somewhere where there’s no traditional surface to set it on. Thats where the Samson LTS50 Laptop Stand comes in: its a tall pole-stand with tripod legs and a laptop stand on top.The stand collapses down to a very compact 32 inches for travel and opens up like any ordinary music stand. The laptop tray can be positioned at any height from 30 to 47 inches, and the tray can be set to any angle as well. The tray itself measures 15 x 11 inches, and has a lip at the top as well as the bottom, which serves as a hard limit for how large of a laptop it can hold. It also has a silicone mat to help hold the laptop in place.
8. Kantek MS520
Best Laptop Stand with Storage
Laptop size: Up to 17-inches Construction: Plastic Tray dimensions: 12″ x 23″ Height: 7-inches Weight: 4.4 pounds
Perhaps youre shopping for a laptop tray and youre not looking for features like height or angle adjustments or portability instead, what you need is storage. If thats the case, look no further than the Kantek Extra Wide Height-Adjustable Monitor/Laptop Stand with Drawer.This laptop stand (which is also designed to accommodate a monitor) stands a maximum seven inches off the desk but can be adjusted from three inches to seven inches in approximately one-inch increments. The angle isnt adjustable, though: it sits level because it has a storage drawer under the laptop tray. The drawer is high enough it doesnt interfere with the placement of a full-size keyboard.
The stand is a simple affair, made entirely of plastic with a spacious 13 x 23-inch surface for positioning your laptop, and has cable ties for cord-management.
9. Razer Laptop Stand Chroma
Best RGB Laptop Stand
Laptop size: Up to 17-inches Construction: Anodized Aluminum Tray dimensions: 9.51 x 8.36 inches Height: 2.77 inches Weight: 1.16 pounds
You don’t want to prop up your beastly gaming laptop on some shabby, plastic stand that makes it look like it lives in a museum. Razer has you covered with the Razer Laptop Stand Chroma. The stand is low profile, so it won’t take up a bunch of extra space on your desk, nor will it call attention away from the stylings of your laptop. And, naturally for a Razer product, there’s a healthy dose of RGB lighting that will shine out from underneath the front of your laptop, so you can add some extra flair to your setup.This stand is going to do several favors for your setup. For one, the open design creates plenty of room for airflow to your laptop’s fans, which can really help keep up performance while gaming. The heightened screen will also help with your posture, as laptops low displays are less ideal for lengthy gaming sessions. And, the stand doubles as a USB hub, with three USB 3.0 ports to let you easily hook up a keyboard, mouse, and perhaps a pair of wireless gaming headphones.
10. MOFT Laptop Stand
Best Portable Laptop Stand
Laptop size: Up to 15.6-inches Construction: PU and Fiberglass Tray dimensions: 6.7″ x 8.8″ x 0.1″ Height: 2-3 inches Weight: 0.19 pounds
While many laptop stands can be handy for making your laptop more usable at home, not all of them are as ready to travel as your laptop. That can mean you’re left without a stand when you’re on the go. Luckily, the MOFT laptop stand is made to travel with you.This ultra-thin, ultra-light laptop stand is essentially a sheet of sturdy material that sticks onto the base of your laptop. From there, it has a series of special folds that let it lift up the rear of your laptop, hoisting it up two or three inches to elevate your display. While the stand weighs less than a fifth of a pound and is only 3mm thick, it can hold 15.6-inch laptops and support up to 18 pounds. You won’t find many laptop stands that add this little bulk to your carry-on.
What to Look for in a Laptop Stand
A laptop stand doesnt need to be expensive. Its usually just something designed to raise the laptop screen to a more ergonomic viewing height and clear the path for a full-size keyboard and mouse. Need a stop-gap? A stack of books could do that (albeit poorly) for free.Perhaps the most important criteria for an effective laptop stand is that it should position the laptop to work best for your sitting or standing height. A common ergonomic recommendation is to put the top of the monitor at eye level. While even a fixed-height laptop stand is an improvement over staring down at a portable PC on the tabletop, it can be well worth investing in one that gives you the flexibility of an adjustable height.
But your eyeline isnt the only thing a laptop stand can help: laptop angle is also critical to your typing ergonomics (unless youre using a full-size external keyboard). Again, a stand’s adjustability is a useful feature.
As you can see from the models on this list, there is a lot of variety in laptop stands. Decide whether you need one you can permanently set on your desk at home or in the office, or if your laptop stand needs to be portable. A stand youll want to toss in your laptop case should fold up or collapse for convenience when traveling, and be lightweight as well, or itll end up getting left behind. At the same time, though, look for a sturdy design that is strong enough to support your laptop and has some way to keep your expensive computer from accidentally falling, even if thats just rubberized or silicone pads to grip the bottom of the laptop.
You should take your own laptop into consideration as well. Will it physically fit on the stand youre eyeing? Most laptop stands can accommodate even the largest laptops, but some have design features limiting the footprint or thickness of laptop it can hold. Another consideration when picking a laptop stand is how your laptop circulates air. If the fans flow down through the bottom of the laptop, your laptop stand should have a way to let that air escape, otherwise you risk overheating and unexpected shut-downs.
Dave Johnson has been writing about gaming and tech since the days of the Palm Pilot. See him shout into the Twitter void @davejoh