Spending hours every day hunched over a laptop is a literal pain in the neck—and shoulders and back. A laptop stand is a simple solution for raising the screen to eye level, a little tweak that can help you maintain much better posture at your desk. Once you get one, you might realize that sitting up straight actually is more comfortable than slouching.
After testing 20 laptop stands, we found that the Rain Design iLevel 2 offers the best combination of stability, adjustability, and sleek style. Paired with an external keyboard and mouse, the iLevel 2 is the ideal centerpiece of an ergonomic workstation.
Our pick
This laptop stand is made of anodized aluminum, so it’s exceptionally sturdy and stylish. It’s also the easiest to adjust of all the laptop stands we’ve tested.
The Rain Design iLevel 2 has exceptional build quality and a polished look. In our tests, it held 11-inch to 15-inch laptops with a sturdy grip.
It’s easier to adjust than every other adjustable laptop stand we tested, too. Its platform simply tilts upward when you slide a knob from left to right. The height lift from desk to bottom of the laptop screen is 6.5 to 8.5 inches, which should accommodate many people’s ergonomic needs.
Also great
This stand has a greater height range than the iLevel 2, but it’s not as easy to adjust.
The Lifelong Upryze Ergonomic Laptop Stand can raise a laptop as high as 17 inches, so it can be a better fit for taller people than the Rain Design iLevel 2. It also works well whether you’re sitting or standing at your desk.
It’s the sturdiest of the tall laptop stands we tested (models with over 9 inches of vertical adjustment), able to hold a 7-pound laptop steady whereas rivals would sink under the weight. Just keep in mind that adjusting the height of the Upryze can be a workout because of its stiff hinges.
Budget pick
This stand has a handy cable-management hole in the back and costs less than our top pick. But it’s the only model we recommend that isn’t adjustable.
If you want a more affordable laptop stand that looks nicer than a stack of books and provides heat dissipation, the best option is the Rain Design mStand.
Like the company’s iLevel 2, the aluminum mStand comfortably held heavy laptops in our tests, plus it has a hole for cable management and a nook to store your keyboard.
Its solid one-piece design makes it less wobbly than cheaper laptop stands, which typically require assembly. But unlike our other picks, it has a fixed height lift (5.9 inches), so it might not be the best ergonomic fit for all.
Also great
This model is sturdy enough for laptops up to 15 inches, easy to set up and collapse, and inexpensive.
If you need a laptop stand that you’ll carry back and forth between home and the office, or to use when traveling, the Tonmom Laptop Stand is the best sturdy, compact, and portable option.
The plastic stand is simple to set up and collapse, yet it doesn’t sacrifice much stability (although it’s easier to push over than our other picks, which are made of heavier aluminum).
Switching between the Tonmom’s seven height settings to raise a laptop from 4 to 7 inches is a bit tricky—you need to double-check that the stand is fully locked before placing a laptop on it. But what matters most is that you can fold the lightweight, 0.6-pound stand into a thick stick that fits easily in most backpacks or laptop bags.
