Laptop Stands, and What Happens to the Keyboard

Raise the Screen and the Keyboard Goes With It

This is the best selling category on the desk and the one that explains worst what it does. A laptop has its screen and its keyboard joined, so anything that raises one raises the other.

The Stand Is Half a Purchase

Start with the consequence. The right screen height puts the top edge at eye level, about 44 to 47 inches from the floor, which is 15 to 18 inches above a 29 inch desk. Lift the laptop that far and the built in keyboard ends up at chest height, with the shoulders rising to meet it. The result is a worse posture than before, not a better one. None of the best selling listings in the category says so.

This table publishes, for every stand, the height at which the built in keyboard sits above the desk at the stand's recommended setting, calculated from its geometry, and a second column with a plain yes or no to the question "needs an external keyboard". That is the column this page has and no other table does.

• The hold: no listing declares the load it carries. A 16 inch MacBook Pro weighs 4.8 pounds, and the folding sheet metal stands at the cheap end open at the hinge with that weight on the top setting. The useful indicator is not the price but the joint: a simple friction hinge, a hinge with toothed stops, or a twin column. The table classifies it and publishes it.
• The size ranges do not match between listings: 10 to 16, 10 to 17, 10 to 15.6, 11 to 17, 10 to 14, 10 to 17.3. A buyer with a 17 inch laptop finds half the catalog out of reach, and learns it when the box is opened.

If you already work on a separate monitor and the laptop sits closed or to one side, the screen you need to raise is the monitor: the monitor stands sorted by the gap underneath do that and leave room for the keyboard.

Of the 76 stands with a lift we can measure, 50 leave the built in keyboard more than 3.5 inches above the desk at their recommended setting, which is chest height for most people. The median is 4.4". Where the keyboard ends up on the best selling stands:

Keyboard height = 0.55 x recommended lift + 0.6 inches.

Works with the built in keyboardNeeds an external keyboard

Two Honest Ways to Use a Laptop Stand

There are two ways to use a stand that hold up, and they organize this table:

• High lift, from 6 inches up. The screen reaches the right height and you need an external keyboard and mouse. The purchase is two pieces, not one.
• Moderate lift, 2 to 5 inches. The built in keyboard stays usable, the screen does not reach the ideal height but the neck angle improves, and the laptop gets air underneath. It is the reasonable compromise for anyone who does not want a separate keyboard.

2 to 5" moderate6 to 9" high

Lift Height, and How Much You Actually Need

The screen of a 14 to 16 inch laptop is 8 to 9 inches tall from the hinge. With the eyes 15 to 18 inches above the desk, the hinge has to sit about 6 to 9 inches up for the top of the screen to meet eye level: 6 for people under 5'6", 9 for people over 6'. That is why the table takes 7 inches as the recommended setting on adjustable stands and gives the maximum lift in its own column.

2 to 5"6 to 9"Over 9"

Angle Range and Where Your Wrists Land

Typing on a tilted laptop bends the wrists back, and the steeper the tray, the worse it gets. If you type on the built in keyboard, stay under about 15 degrees; above that the stand is for watching or for use with an external keyboard. Stands with toothed stops give 3 to 7 fixed positions; friction hinges stop anywhere, which is handy but depends on the hinge keeping its grip over time.

Fixed3 to 6 positionsOver 6 positionsContinuous

Fixed, Foldable, Z Type and Rotating Base

A fixed angle stand is one solid piece, stable and usually moderate in lift. Foldable stands collapse flat for a bag and adjust in steps. Z type stands have two hinges, so height and angle are set apart and they reach 10 inches or more. Rotating bases turn the laptop to show the screen across a desk. Vertical docks hold the laptop closed on its edge, for use with a monitor and an external keyboard.

Fixed angleFoldableZ typeRotating baseVertical dock

Will Your Laptop Fit, and Will It Hold

Check the size range against your laptop's screen size, then look at the joint. A 13 inch ultrabook weighs 2.5 to 3 pounds; a 16 inch workstation or gaming laptop 4.5 to 6. Twin columns and toothed stops hold the heavier ones at the top setting; a single friction hinge on thin sheet metal is the part that gives first.

Prices in this table run from $6.99 to $128.99, and none of the listings declares a load. Of the 79 stands that state a size range, 38 take a 17 inch laptop.

Up to 16"Up to 17.3"Twin column hinge

Heat Vents and Whether They Do Anything

Most laptops take air in from below. Any stand that lifts the back opens that gap, and an open or slotted tray helps a little more than a solid one. A stand is not a cooling pad: without a fan it only lets the laptop's own fans breathe, which is usually enough to lower fan noise under load. Cooling pads with fans are a different product and are not in this table.

72 of the 138 stands advertise an open or vented design.

Open back for airflow

Stand, Platform or Arm

A stand sits on the desk, costs little and folds away. A platform riser lifts a monitor and gives the desk space back underneath. An arm clamps to the desk edge and holds the laptop on a tray in the air, where it can sit next to a monitor at the same height: the monitor arms with a laptop tray are in their own table.

What We Exclude From This Table

Every listing is checked by its ASIN data, never by its title. The keyboard height is always calculated, never copied, and the formula is published under the table. Left out:

• Monitor risers and two tier platforms with a drawer, which go to /monitor-stand/. The catalog for this search brings them in: among the first 21 results there is a WALI monitor riser rated for 44 pounds and a two tier organizer.
• Projector tripods. One appears at position 17 for this search, with 5,000 units sold a month, and it is not a laptop stand.
• Laptop arms and trays with a clamp, which go to /monitor-arm/.
• Sit to stand converters, which go to /standing-desk-converter/.
• Bed trays, sofa tables and lap desks.
• Cooling pads with a fan, another product with another deciding figure.
• Tablet and phone stands.
• Any listing without a lift or angle we can work from, because without it the keyboard height, the main column, cannot be calculated.
• Lots of several units.

Vertical stands stay in, with their own filter, and the keyboard column marked as needing an external keyboard by definition, since they hold the laptop closed. The Vandroop is the typical case.