Best Digital Nomad Laptop Stand

The next item we review in our digital nomad tech kit is the laptop stand. A laptop stand will ideally allow bringing your laptop screen to eye level, which will have a very positive impact on your posture. This will both improve your day to day productivity, and your long term health, as a bad posture can really hurt your back. Trying one will really change your way of working! Digital nomad laptop stands have appeared those last few years, with some very compact and light models. This makes them a very reasonable item to carry around.

Digital Nomad Laptop Stand Roost

The key criteria to choose your laptop stand are the following:

  • The elevation, which ideally needs to bring the top of your laptop screen to your eyes level, so as to naturally create a good posture.
  • The weigh and compactness, of course.
  • And finally a discreet look, to be able to use it in various settings such as coffee shops, and not only in co-working spaces or libraries (a bulky stand looks feels a bit like you are moving to their place :-))

High elevation, low weight, discreet. This is what we are looking for.

Roost Laptop Stand

Roost Laptop Stand Riser - Portable - Lightweight - Adjustable Travel

The Roost laptop stand is the reference of the laptop stands, from my perspective. It is very light, super compact, and very versatile. It is also quite discreet, and you can use it in coffee shops without bringing too many looks on you. With a weight of only 165g for up to 32cm elevation, it has a very good balance between weight and functionality. You can adjust it to different heights, and it fits almost all laptops. Only the thickness of a laptop is actually a limitation, which would not be a problem with the ones we mentioned on the digital nomad laptop guide (they all fit with the Roost).

It’s great features and robustness make it the reference despite it’s high price: overall, we really recommend the Roost laptop stand.

Nexstand laptop stand and other Roost copies

nexstand laptop stand

You can actually find cheap copies of the Roost laptop stand, on Amazon like the Nexstand laptop stand, or on Ebay. I actually have one of those that I bought after my own Roost, to test it. I must say that the quality is not comparable with the Roost:  you can see that cheaper materials have been used; the mechanism is not so smooth and grips a bit; and after less than a year some of the rubber parts are already starting to peel off.

In comparison, the Roost offers a very high user experience, with no wear and tear after more than two years of use. The price of the Roost is high, but the quality and the user experience you get is definitely much higher that the cheap products.

The cheaper versions might be a way to try if a laptop stand can be your thing, but I would still recommend going with the original if you can, as the user experience will be much better.

Jubor laptop stand and Rolodex laptop stand

jubor laptop stand rolodex laptop stand

Other options are available, such as the Jubor laptop stand or the Rolodex laptop stand.

However, they do not present the same qualities of high elevation, reasonable weigh, and compactness as the Roost. They are however more discreet, with is why we mention them here, as this could be a key criteria for some of you.

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