Griffin Elevator laptop lift
Put your notebook screen on the right level
Review Griffin calls the Elevator a "space-saving laptop stand". I'm not sure about "space-saving", but it's unquestionably something you might very well want to sit your notebook on, particularly if your neck's giving you grief.
The elevator comprises a pair of U-shaped angular metal bars and a clear plastic base into which both bars slot. The fit's sufficiently snug to keep the Elevator together but not so tight that you can't disassemble it should you need to.
The base of the bars and the holder both have sturdy rubber feet to prevent the rig sliding around the desk, while the bars' upper surfaces have long, flat rubber pads to stop your notebook slipping off. There's certainly plenty of friction to be felt if you try and move either laptop or Elevator, and I had no concerns that my 15in MacBook Pro would drop onto the desk.
Incidentally, the bars are spaced far enough apart to allow you to hold them with your fingers as you grasp the sides of the notebook, allowing you to pick both up together if you want to move to another desk.
COMMENTS
Not getting one of these...
... not listed as being compatible with Vista. According to their website, it's only compatible with Mac OS X versions 10.3 and 10.4 and Windows XP.
Well that's saved me £30 then.
Perhaps Ergonomic?
".for 2 u-shaped bits of metal and a plastic bar, then? There's no height or angle adjustment, which makes it an ergonomic no-no as far as I'm concerned. Kensington do it better - for a few quid more, you get full height and angle adjustment, and a 4-port USB2 hub.
Nick"
Why would you need to adjust the angle? You should never be using the keyboard when you have a laptop on such a stand because that makes the keyboard too high. You need an external keyboard and mouse to use it properly.
That said, you should be able to adjust the height, as you definatly can't stack them.
IBM thinkpad users wont think much of it either, getting your thinkpad dock on the top of that won't work too well.
I do agree though, £30 is a bit steep.
The logitech Alto is cooler
The Logitech Alto elevates the laptop but also provides a full-size keyboard (which can fold out of the way) and a USB hub so you can have a mouse permanently plugged-in too. Sort of like a docking station with a convenient screen height.
We bought one to evaluate a few weeks back. Now we've got a dozen of them.
Improvements
I've been using my own two self-made ones, and I reckon they're even better: they tilt the base of the laptop to 45degrees, hence the alledged cooling effect should be much stronger as there's a better flow of air.
Also one of them consists more or less of two triangles with a hinge, making it easily transportable.
And both are wood painted with hammerite, THE choice for vanguard fashionistas --- coloured half-transparant plastic is out, white plastic is past, shiny black is passe...
iCurve Mk2?
Hmm .... this looks like a tarted up version of Griffin's old iCurve and it has inherited the same problems; looks great but is functionally useless. May be OK for fashionistas or people who use their laptop occasionally, but I wouldn't fancy sitting in front of it all day if my iCurve experiences were any indication (I went back to the stack of books approach)
The Kensington laptop stand mentioned by Nick Palmer (above) is far, far better in terms of functionality (does the whole tilt/swivel thing, and the 4-port hub is a godsend) and costs about a tenner more. Of course, it doesn't look as nice ...
