Here's my self-designed stand for more height.
It fits in the same bag space as the laptop. It puts the screen just below eye level at a standard height table. It adds about ten inches over the style of stand Kaj showed, and seems like the height you'd put an external monitor at.
Edit: it's pretty stable. It takes a very strong gust of wind or direct hit knock to put it at risk of falling. I've never had a fall (I take it off if I walk away and there's wind).
This is easily made with folded foam board, with two strips of tape across the bottom to hold the proper width. Materials cost about two dollars. That design will last six months or a year. This one is made with corrugated plastic reinforced with bamboo skewers at the edges and gaffer's tape. It's lasted more than a year with no damage or degradation. Position the slit to center the laptop's weight; I should've put this one a little toward the user. The bottom is cut at an angle for a more sculptural aesthetic.
I think this is probably pretty useful for spine health. Using it helps undo the tech worker laptop crouch. (I also recommend a lumbar support before or after you have a displaced disk).
If anyone wants to make and sell these, I'm asking a 0% share of the profits 🙂. I would love inventor credit. They can be handmade in a few minutes.
I've been iterating on designs for many years. I occasionally check to see if something this good is available commercially. It isn't yet.
I’m flabbergasted that I’d never seen anyone else use one of these (not even at their homes, where they wouldn’t need to carry external peripherals around), nor had I heard of them before my friend told me about their existence.
I see them once in a while when I work from coffee shops. It's a fun moment when I have my laptop stand, someone else has their laptop stand, and we make eye contact and acknowledge each other.
I recently complained to a friend that I would like to spend more time writing in cafés, but that I quickly get neck pain from staring down at my laptop.
My friend made me aware that laptop stands are a thing, and that I can just prop my laptop up so that the screen is at eye level.
This is amazing and - together with a separate keyboard and mouse - fixed many of my ergonomics issues. Though if my chair isn’t high enough, the screen might end up slightly above eye level, which isn’t totally comfortable either. But that’s usually easier to deal with.
I’m flabbergasted that I’d never seen anyone else use one of these (not even at their homes, where they wouldn’t need to carry external peripherals around), nor had I heard of them before my friend told me about their existence.
Mine is a Leitz Ergo one. When you don’t use it, you can fold it away and it goes into a nice flat pouch.
The only drawbacks are that one, you need a bit more space. And two, your laptop will (literally) stand out a bit more. This does sometimes make me feel a bit more self-conscious.
On the other hand, the way it stands up kind of makes it look like one of those Transformers robots, which is cool.
Well, kind of.
There’s also bookstands. They are slightly less convenient in that you need to frequently remove the book from the stand to turn the pages, but I’ve appreciated mine nonetheless.