I’ve been using another laptop stand provided by my employer for my work laptop and I decided I wanted to purchase a second laptop stand for a Macbook Air I just ordered for personal use. This has allowed me to compare this laptop stand with a competitor’s stand that costs about twice as much as this one (at the time I wrote this review).
I am very happy with this laptop stand. It is a simple, yet reasonably sturdy stand. I like the fact that the horizontal cross brace is fastened to the ‘u-braces’ that hold the laptop. All 3 of the pieces included in the kit are, as far as I can tell, made of aluminum. The whole kit feels pretty solid.
Assembly was quick and simple and the kit comes with the screws (with hex head) and the hex key (allen wrench) needed to assemble the stand.
Once assembled, I put my work Macbook Pro (15″) on the stand and I found the fit to be perfect; there is a bit of room at the back part of the stand, so the laptop feels very secure once on the stand. When I push the display portion of the laptop back, the front of the laptop and the front portion of the stand feet do lift up off my desk a bit, but it still feels very secure. Note, I normally always hold the front of my laptop down when adjusting the screen, so this was more of a test to see if the laptop would rock back off the stand (it does not do that).
With the laptop on the stand, while I am sitting at my desk, I find that the 15-inch screen of my Macbook Pro sits at a good height, though it is a bit lower than I would consider ideal (for me). The laptop keyboard has a slight tilt forward and if I were typing on my laptop while on the stand, I would find the angle to be well suited for that purpose; however, there is a bit of bounce when typing on the laptop keyboard while on the stand. I normally use a Bluetooth keyboard and I suspect many who would purchase this stand would do the same, thus making the slight bounce a non-issue.
Comparing this stand to a competitor’s stand, I can say that the competitor’s stand does feel a bit more solid, which makes sense because it is, in fact, made of a solid piece of shaped (bent?) aluminum. The downward tilt of the competitor’s stand is at a more extreme angle making it more difficult to type on the laptop keyboard while on the stand (which, again, I don’t normally do); the more extreme angle also allows the laptop screen to sit just a bit higher on the desk, but it doesn’t make much difference.
I like the fact that the SOQOOL stand’s design is open underneath. This allows for better airflow beneath the laptop and it allows me to tuck a few things, such as a spare USB cable and my wireless numeric pad, under the laptop.
I could have paid about twice as much to purchase the same competitor’s stand that my employer provided to me for work, but I see no compelling reason to so. I am very happy with this product and I highly recommend it.