…And On the Notebook Side
As you could see in the “parts” picture earlier in this review, the portion that holds your notebook in place is essentially a plastic slate that attaches to the horizontal arm. It’s not the fanciest thing in the world, but I do appreciate that it is on a slight downward angle. You won’t be typing on that keyboard, but this makes sure that the lower half of your laptop does not obscure your view of the notebook’s display.
The front bracket that prevents your laptop from sliding onto the table can also be adjusted, in case you want your notebook a little closer to you for some reason. This is done by undoing the hand screw on the underside (wow that sounds really dirty) and sliding it into position (even dirtier).
As I have grown accustomed to laptop cooler stands, I was quite disappointed with the lack of a cooling solution integrated into the Neo-Flex Combo Lift Stand. There are a couple of slots cut into the laptop holder, but they’re not sufficient. I wonder if it would be possible to cut in a few more slots and maybe, just maybe, including a couple of small USB-powered fans too.
Final Thoughts
I’m not entirely sure how much space you’d save by going with kind of solution, but it helps when you only have a small amount of space on your desk. The footprint of the base on the Ergotron Neo-Flex Combo Lift Stand is certainly smaller than the combined footprint of a notebook and an LCD monitor.
The overall construction and design of this stand is quite good. I like being able to enjoy a dual monitor configuration using my notebook, because it really is like having a “real desktop PC” at home, while still having the option to pack up my laptop if I want to pick up and go. Since it’s likely that my laptop would be sitting on the stand for a while, I would have liked to have seen some sort of active cooling solution.
Although the instructions were a bit lacking in some areas, the stand eventually went up with only a couple minor hitches as noted earlier. A couple extra descriptive pictures would do the trick. Overall, you won’t have to worry about this stand falling apart on you and based on their pedigree of creating industrial mounts, you can be assured that Ergotron knows what they’re doing.
Pros
- Very solid build quality, materials, and design
- Easy height adjustment
- Surprisingly stable despite relatively small footprint
- Excellent laptop dual-display configuration solution
- Reasonably easy to put together
Cons
- Somewhat pricey for “just a stand” (MSRP $179)
- Inadequate documentation and instructions
- Needs better venting on the notebook holder
- Must remove existing stand on LCD to install on this
- Insufficient cable management system
Overall Rating: 8.5/10.0
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