I find it tiring to work for more than a few hours on my macbook in the office. The chair is comfortable, the desk is at the right height, but leaning over the machine makes me feel stiff after a while. To change this I experimented using an external keyboard and mouse while lifting the macbook to the eye level on a bunch of books. That felt much more comfortable and confirmed that a getting macbook stand was a good way to go. If you are also looking for a stand, here’s what I found in my quick market research.
At first I looked at stands with adjustable height. I couldn’t find any that were aesthetically pleasing until I came across the Ergotron laptop stands. These are definitely the most impressive stands I have ever seen for ergonomic features. Unfortunately they are rather heavy and big for our setup so not a suitable option but they are definitely worth checking out!
Next, I came across this forum thread about Macbook Pro stands which brought to my attention two more choices, Griffin Technology’s Elevator and mstand by Rain Design. Also, while browsing around I came across Just Mobile’s Xtand Pro.
mstand, Copyright © Rain Design, Inc. 2007
All three are well designed and they match the aesthetics of the macbook pro. When it comes to height adjustment Xtand Pro has two positions, a low and a high, while mstand and the Elevator have fixed height as far as I understand. While I would like to have height adjustment as an option I was charmed by the simplicity and the looks of the mstand. Its features page says it elevates the screen by about 6 inches (about 15.3cm) (which I think will be about right for me so I ordered one). Griffin’s Elevator lifts the screen by 5.5 inches, and Xstand has a center height of 1.5 inches at the lower position and 4.5 inches at the high position which lifts the rear of the laptop at 6.5 inches according to the MacWorld Just Mobile Xtand Pro review.
I hope this helps you in your search for the perfect macbook stand, best of luck!