When the SmartFit EQ Adjustable Multi-Angle Laptop Stand landed on my desk to review, I was actually pretty excited, as I did need a laptop stand to improve my posture. Then I wondered how I was actually going to cover this thing for a gaming website. But! Much as with the keyboard I recently covered, most people who game also have work… and I figured out how to make it a gaming thing anyway.
For such a long name, the SmartFit is an exceedingly simple device. It features two rotating hinges which allow you to adjust the stand’s height and tilt to a very high degree. The stand is made of sturdy plastic (much of it recycled, no less), which will give you confidence in its ability to support even a heavier gaming laptop (though the specs say “up to 3kg,” that feels like its more a guide than an absolute). There’s also a large shelf on the stand, which helps to lock the laptop in without getting in the way.
Most of the rest of what I could repeat here would be the marketing messaging you can find on the website. The stand has been approved by the German IGR Institute for Health and Ergonomics. I have no idea how legitimate that certification is, but I can say that my neck, shoulders, and back muscles appreciate the position I’ve got my laptop in now.
Kensington’s site also argues that raising the laptop off the table helps keep it cooler. The science behind that is pretty simple – the fans are on the base of the laptop, which, when on a table, means there isn’t much space to expel hot air, and the table itself gets hot as well, further heating the air around the laptop. The stand meanwhile, has an open back, and that means that the laptop’s fans can make use of much more ambient air.
This is another useful bonus for gaming since gaming tends to be one of the things that really wear out a laptop’s fans. That, in turn, means the laptop will run for longer, more safely, and components will wear out more slowly.
See? A simple stand is actually a pretty neat gaming accessory.
But I also ended up using it for gaming, too. The stand also happens to be a far better stand for, say, the Nintendo Switch than the Switch’s built-in stand. And if you’ve got any of those handheld PC devices, you can set it up on a stand and use a Bluetooth controller instead. Again, I’ve found this enormously useful for my posture because, as someone who predominantly plays handheld consoles, there’s a lot of hunching over the screen that I would rather get out of the habit of.
I don’t have much else to say about this. The SmartFi EtQ Adjustable Multi-Angle Laptop Stand does what it promises to do on the box; it’s robust and sturdy, and versatile in what you can actually use it for. It might also be the kind of thing you can convince your boss to buy for you. Just don’t let them know that it’s actually a useful accessory for games, too.
