One of the first products that I ever
reviewed for Dragonsteelmods was a laptop stand. For today’s
review I have come full circle as I am going to discuss a novel
product from a company called lightlaptopstands.com called the
Latosta Portable Laptop Stand.
It is designed to passive cool your machine while providing an
ergonomic angle to work at in a truly portable form. This is a
simple product that falls under the “why didn’t I think of that”
category.
Basically the
product is comprised of two simple metal brackets that slide onto
each side of the laptop and elevates the back of the machine off the
work surface. Imagine the flip down tabs on the back of desktop
keyboards; that is the mechanism at work with this product.
According to its
creator – Alan Starner his impetus for designing this product was
the lack of truly portability in portable laptop stands. Well the Latosta Portable Laptop
Stand couldn’t be any more portable! Let’s take a closer look.
Reviewed by:
Tomas Ratas
Sponsor: Starlight
Creations
Tech Specs,Features or the
Basic Info:
Latosta Portable Laptop Stand: Better Laptop Ergonomics,
Improved Laptop Cooling, small enough to take anywhere.
The Latosta portable laptop stand is made of 304 stainless
steel and is almost indestructible. Simply place one stand on each
side of the keyboard, and slide the stand up or down to adjust to the
desire angle: The lift at the back of the keyboard will vary based on
the keyboard thickness and length. The adjustment range on an Apple
MacBook (keyboard thickness 0.690″) is approx 1 1/4″ in the
low position to 2 1/8″ in the high position. Your laptop will be
very stable on the Latosta stand.
Why use a portable laptop stand for your notebook computer?
Better Laptop Ergonomics, Improved laptop
cooling and small enough to take with you anywhere . . .
Better Laptop Ergonomics: As you can see from the pictures
below, by lifting the screen and tiling the keyboard, it is easier on
the neck and wrists, keeping the body in a more natural position. In
the picture on the left, the wrists are more bent, even though the
shoulders are drawn up toward the ears. The neck is tilted forward,
requiring more effort to hold that position. Using a portable laptop
stand can alleviate all of these problems. Better Laptop Ergonomics
means less stress on your body, making long hours on the computer
easier to deal with.
Improved laptop cooling: When a laptop is on a table, the heat
gets conducted into the table and has no easy way to dissipate. Using
a portable laptop stand will lift up the keyboard allowing air to
circulate freely underneath, resulting in the heat dissipating into
the air. Improved laptop cooling may increase battery life.
The Latosta portable laptop stand promotes laptop cooling
passively instead of using fans. This puts less load on the
batteries, is completely quiet and provides a much cooler laptop for
most users compared to using the laptop on a table.
Small enough to take with you: For those that use their laptop
in multiple locations, a stand must be easily transportable, and we
offer the smallest, lightest, most portable laptop stand on the
market today. Our stand is only 2 oz. and fit easily into a shirt
pocket.
Compare our size, weight, strength, good looks & price to
any other portable laptop stand. Add the improved laptop ergonomics
making it easier on your body, and improved laptop cooling and we
think you’ll see why the Latosta portable laptop stand is the best
choice!
A Better Look at Things
:
The packaging for the Latosta
Portable Laptop Stand is minimalistic and involves a Ziploc bag
containing the two leg stands, two spare black rubber tips and an
instruction card.
The
main part of the stand is composed of two 304 stainless steel S
shaped brackets with a thick black rubber tip at one end and a short
red tip at the other. The spare set of tips can replace the smaller
red ones in case the red ones clash with your laptop’s color
scheme.
Composed
of a thick stainless steel, these brackets are very difficult to bend
and should hold even the heaviest laptop machines. They weigh a mere
2 oz, so weight is not an issue and are definitely portable as they
can even fit in the back pocket of ones jeans.
Installation, Testing and
Comparison:
The beauty of this product is its
simplicity. Installation involves sliding the shorter ends of the
bracket on each side of the keyboard and sliding them forward or
backward to adjust the angle of the keyboard. According to the specs
in the instructions the adjustment range on an average keyboard with
a thickness of 0.7” is approximately 1 ¼” to 2 1/8”.
The Latosta
Portable Laptop Stand is compatible with many keyboards as long as
the keyboard thickness excluding the display is 1 1/8” thick. Also
it is not suitable for keyboards whose keys are within ½” of the
edge of the machine. They specifically mention that the Apple
MacBook Air as being incompatible with the device as well as any
laptops with beveled edges on the bottom of their keyboards.
For my testing I used my MacBook Pro
and Dell Mini 9. As you can see the Latosta
Portable Laptop Stand provides a nice elevation for both machines.
The elevation and angle of the machine can be adjusted by sliding the
brackets forward or backward along the sides of ones machine.
Depending on the laptop, the brackets
may block access to various ports on the side of the laptop.
However, since the device can be easily re-positioned that should not
be an issue.
While resting on the Latosta
Portable Laptop Stand my Macbook Pro was balanced and there was
little chance of it falling over unless something would hit the
stands directly.
The
purpose of the Latosta Portable Laptop Stand is to provide air flow
around the machine allowing it to run cooler thus using less power
for temperature regulation and more for processing tasks. The
MacBook Pro is notorious for its heat output and using it in
conjunction with the Latosta Portable Laptop Stand I did see a drop
temperatures by 1-2 degrees. The Dell Mini 9 was about one degree
cooler with it in place.
Since
this device is a passive cooling solution, temperature drops should
not be dramatic, but the improved air flow at the rear of the laptop
should require less use of the laptop fans during intense usage thus
providing cooling benefits.
An
added benefit of the Latosta Portable Laptop Stand is that it angles
the keyboard downward providing a more comfortable typing experience.
Obviously this angle can be adjusted by sliding the brackets along
the side of the machine.
Summary:
The Latosta
Portable Laptop Stand is a simple yet effective concept to keep ones
laptop running cooler and more efficient. With the warmer months
upon us, it behooves the laptop user to keep their machines running
cooler and this product makes it simple to do just that. By raising
the back edge of the laptop off the work surface, the Latosta
Portable Laptop Stand is able to keep the machine cooler while also
providing an ergonomic angle to type on the keyboard.
The
Latosta Portable Laptop Stand is portable and inexpensive; it is
worthy of the small investment and truly provides one of the most
portable laptop stand solutions around.
DragonSteelMods gives the Latosta
Portable Laptop Stand a 5 out of 5 score.
Pros:
+Well constructed
+Simple installation and use
+Works with large variety of laptops
Cons:
-Can’t be used on one’s lap
I would like to thank Starlight
Creations for the chance to review the Latosta
Portable Laptop Stand and for their support of
DSM.
review# 577