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Lapworks Futura Laptop Desk review: Lapworks Futura Laptop Desk

Lapworks Futura Laptop Desk

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
Dan Ackerman
2 min read

Laptops are designed, theoretically, to sit comfortably on a lap, a desk, a coffee table, or any place we need easy access to a computer. In reality, we're often at the mercy of overheated systems, non-ergonomic angles, and wobbly knees. This leads people to use a variety of methods to get their laptops propped up the way they like them, from laptop desks, to pillows and pads, to little rubber feet.

7.0

Lapworks Futura Laptop Desk

The Good

Lightweight; works as both a lapdesk and a laptop stand.

The Bad

Custom colors cost too much; no room for mousing.

The Bottom Line

The latest from Lapworks, the Futura Laptop Desk, does effective double duty on the lap or desk, but we miss the room for mousing that earlier versions had.

One option is the $29.99 LapWorks Futura Laptop Desk (ours added an optional paint job for a total of $49). We've previously looked at--and liked--the LapWorks UltraLite and Laptop Desk 2.0 models. This new model is substantially similar, made of plastic and hinged in the middle.

Measuring 20.5 inches wide by 11 inches long by 0.25 inch thick, the Futura has room for most 15-inch or smaller laptops, and has small rubber feet on both the top and bottom for stability. Besides acting as a laptop desk, the Futura can be folded in the middle and propped open with a tiny kickstand inside, allowing for greater airflow and a better typing angle when using your laptop on a desk or table. You can raise the back of your laptop by about 3.75 inches, with the rubber feet holding it in place.

One of the selling points is the selection of custom colors, which unfortunately nearly doubles the price. We can appreciate the complicated painting process, described by Lapworks as requiring a specialized UV printer, a clear acrylic coat, and hand-painted touchups via airbrush. It's a labor of love, but unless one of the custom schemes (camouflage, leopard print, and so forth) especially appeals, we'd stick with the default gray.

We liked the available solid mousing surface on the earlier Laptop Desk 2.0, but this model has too many slats to work as a mousepad, too. Lapworks, however, offers a snap-on mousepad that covers the end of one side of the Futura, for an additional $5.

7.0

Lapworks Futura Laptop Desk

Score Breakdown

Design 7Features 7Performance 0