August 3, 2015

Laptops have two big usability problems:

Small displays - After using large desktop monitors, working on a laptop feels cramped and unproductive for anything beyond simple web browsing.

- After using large desktop monitors, working on a laptop feels cramped and unproductive for anything beyond simple web browsing. Terrible ergonomics - Your head is tilted down to view the screen, which can lead to back problems after long periods. A common solution is to use a separate keyboard and mouse and raise the entire laptop using a stand (I haven’t tried it but The Roost looks like a good one).

With the release of decent USB powered monitors there’s now a simple solution to both these problems. Place a second display above the built in one:

Since this isn’t a common use case, I had to improvise… The stand is a clumsy combination of laptop stand and tablet stand, with a little bit of rubber wedged in to tilt the monitor.

This setup has the following advantages:

Productive - Tons more screen space using the 1920 x 1080 ASUS 168B+ display in addition to a Retina MacBook Pro 13 set to 1440 x 900.

- Tons more screen space using the 1920 x 1080 ASUS 168B+ display in addition to a Retina MacBook Pro 13 set to 1440 x 900. Ergonomic - More time is spent looking straight ahead to the external monitor, which is closer to eye level. Less frequently viewed content is placed on the laptop screen.

- More time is spent looking straight ahead to the external monitor, which is closer to eye level. Less frequently viewed content is placed on the laptop screen. Portable - The monitor weighs only 800g (1.76 pounds) and draws power via the USB cable. No external keyboard or mouse is required.

There’s still room for improvement however…

The ideal stand should hold the monitor closer to the laptop. A lightweight stand designed for this purpose would be awesome. The colors on the monitor are horrible compared to the MacBook. It’s OK for text, but not for color sensitive work. There’s a slight lag and jerkiness when large changes happen on screen, probably due to the bandwidth limitation of USB 3. Again, this isn’t a problem for manipulating text but could be annoying for graphically intensive tasks.

I’ve been using this only a short while, but so far it’s a huge improvement over the laptop on its own, and allows me to work away from home without affecting productivity too much.

UPDATE: After forgetting to pack my laptop stand one day, I decided to scour the flat for something that could permanently live in my backpack. I found this which works surprisingly well, it’s lighter, keeps the montior closer to the laptop, and doubles as a container for cables :-)



