Lapvantage Loft is a gorgeous object to behold, let alone the most visually stunning latpop stand I've ever seen. I have a thing for plexiglass, so I may be a bit biased here, but I really think see-through acrylic shelving is the bee's knees when it comes to modern design. Griffin's iCurve was the first clear acrylic laptop stand I'd ever seen, and the Loft stand goes iCurve one better by combining a "floating" plastic shelf with a sleek, steel pedestal that nicely contrasts the see-through plexiglass with a matte silver or black finish. The corners of the shelf are rounded, and the 3/8" tall edges are available in clear, white, or blue finish. The Plasticsmith sent us the clear-edged, silver-pedestal version, and like I said, it's gorgeous. Even better, the pedestal rotates lazy susan style to provide easy access to side and back peripheral ports.

The acrylic shelf measures 13-5/8" wide by 11-5/8" deep and accomodates my 12" iBook with room to spare on all sides. The stand should take a 14" iBook or 15" PowerBook without problems, and while 17" PowerBooks will hang noticeably off the sides of the shelf, they'll still be more than adequately supported under the computer's center. The ABS turntable attached to the bottom of the metal pedestal rests on six silicon feet, and additional adhesive-backed rubber dots are included to affix to the acrylic shelf, providing some space for airflow between the shelf and the bottom of your laptop. The shelf provides about six inches of lift between its base and the underside of your laptop. In my case, when I opened my iBook's screen to a 90-degree angle it was at a very nice height relative to my seated eye level.

A functional advantage Lapvantage Loft provides over stands like iCurve and folding designs such as Contour Design's NoteRiser is that the flat shelf design allows you to tuck your keyboard, external hard drive, or other goodies underneath your laptop, effectively doubling the surface area of your desk. When you've got a cluttered desk like mine, that's a nice treat. When you've got a keyboard that fits under your raised MIDI controller, and both of those can fit under your laptop stand, that's even better.

Pretty ... But Problematic?

As much as I love the look of the Loft stand -- particularly since my iBook is small enough to leave some of the shelf showing around all four sides -- I had some problems using it. Under normal usage conditions with an external keyboard and mouse, the shelf shakes more than I'd like it to. The stand doesn't render my computer unusable in anyway, but the whole unit jiggles (from front to back) a bit with each keystroke and as such my laptop's screen vibrates in an annoying way.

I talked to a representative from The Plasticsmith about this problem and she asked me to double-check the sturdiness of my desk. I tried the stand on a few different tables and even tried a 15" PowerBook and 14" IBM ThinkPad on it and got the same results. I said it seemed to me that the pedestal flexes too much and she assured me that the Loft stand's design was engineered, tested, and re-engineered time and time again to achieve the optimum balance of aesthetic design and stability. The stand feels sturdy in the hand, even weighting a bit more than one might expect a mostly transparent object to. However, when I pushed down on the shelf with an index finger, the stand did seem to flex and bounce an awful lot.

Admittedly, I don't always have the best typing posture and tend to let the heels of my palms and wrists rest on my desktop (especially when I'm getting screen-weary). However, I regularly use my computer with Contour's NoteRiser stand and hardly notice any screen-shake at all. After the problem I had with the Loft stand, I switched back to the NoteRiser and also tried MacAlly's IceStation stand. Neither of these stands yielded nearly so much screen-shake under similar working conditions.

Perhaps I'm a heavier typist than I realize. Or maybe The Plasticsmith let a slightly-too-bendy Loft stand slip away from their quality control department. Either way, I found the Lapvantage Loft stand too shaky to use on a day-to-day basis and sadly took it off of my desk in favor of my trusty NoteRiser stand. Too bad, because -- and I'll say it again -- Lapvantage Loft looked so darn good sitting there under my iBook. A $79.95 laptop stand has to do more than simply look good, however, and at least in my case it didn't. For the record, The Plasticsmith says they've experienced no similar problems in their own product testing, nor have they had any Loft stands returned, and that they, "Stand by our stand."

Lapvantage Loft, and the rest of Plasticsmith's line of computer and iPod accessories, are available direct from The Lapvantage Online Store. Or compare prices at PCPrices.

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