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Spending hours every day hunched over a laptop is a literal pain in the neck—and shoulders and back. A laptop stand is a simple solution for raising the screen to eye level, a little tweak that can help you maintain much better posture at your desk. Just do it: Your body will thank you. After testing 13 laptop stands, we found that the Rain Design iLevel 2 offers the best combination of stability, adjustability, and sleek style. Paired with an external keyboard and mouse, the iLevel 2 is the ideal centerpiece of an ergonomic workstation.
The best Laptop Starnd
The Rain Design iLevel 2 is made of anodized aluminum, so it’s exceptionally sturdy and stylish. It’s also the easiest to adjust of all the laptop stands we’ve tested.
The exceptional build quality and easy adjustability of the Rain Design iLevel 2 are worth paying for if you need a laptop stand. In our tests, it held 11-inch to 15-inch laptops with a sturdy grip, and it has a simple, straightforward design that looks stylish. It’s easier to adjust than every other adjustable laptop stand we tested, too: Its platform tilts upward when you slide a knob from left to right.
Lifelong Upryze Ergonomic Laptop Stand
A taller laptop stand that works for sitting and standing
The Upryze has a greater height range than the iLevel 2, but it’s not as easy to adjust.
The Lifelong Upryze Ergonomic Laptop Stand can raise a laptop as high as 17 inches, so it can accommodate a wider range of people’s heights than the Rain Design iLevel 2 can. It also works well for most people when they’re standing. It’s the sturdiest of the tall laptop stands we tested (models with over 9 inches of vertical adjustment), able to hold a 7-pound laptop steady whereas rivals would sink under the weight. The bluish-gray finish also helps it stand out from typical silver and black laptop stands. Just keep in mind that adjusting the height of the Upryze can be a workout because of its stiff hinges, and at its tallest heights the stand can topple backward if you type on the laptop keyboard or accidentally bump into the stand. As with other laptop stands, we recommend using it only with an external keyboard; you’ll have better ergonomics and avoid a wobbly screen.
A cheaper, fixed stand
The sturdy mStand has a handy cable-management hole in the back and costs less than our top pick. But it’s the only stand we recommend that isn’t adjustable.
If you want a more affordable laptop stand that looks nicer than a stack of books and provides heat dissipation, the best option is the Rain Design mStand. Like the company’s iLevel 2, the sturdy, aluminum mStand comfortably held 15-inch laptops weighing up to 7 pounds in our tests, plus it has a hole for cable management and a nook to store your keyboard. Its solid one-piece design makes it less wobbly than cheaper laptop stands, which typically require assembly. But unlike our other picks, it isn’t adjustable.
A portable laptop stand
This model is sturdy enough for laptops up to 15 inches, easy to set up and collapse, and relatively inexpensive.
If you need a laptop stand to take between home and the office or to use when traveling, the Nexstand Laptop Stand is the best sturdy, compact, and portable option. The plastic stand is simple to set up and collapse, yet it doesn’t sacrifice stability (although it’s easier to push over than our other picks, which are made of aluminum). Switching between the Nexstand’s six height settings is a bit tricky—you need to double-check that the stand is fully locked before placing a laptop on it. But what matters most is that you can fold the lightweight stand into a thick stick that fits easily in most backpacks or laptop bags