Digital Home Thoughts: The iCurve from Griffin Technology

It felt a little strange asking for a product that started with "i" (not having ever owned an Apple product), but when I saw the iCurve, I immediately thought of how useful it would be for my desk. I have two laptops: one big 17" widescreen and one little 10.6" widescreen. They look pretty amusing sitting next to each other. :lol: I had been using a Laptop Desk on the small laptop, and while it works great for sitting on the couch, it's less ideal for sitting on a desk because it doesn't raise the screen very much, resulting in me hunching over the laptop. I also have a PodiumPad that the big 17" laptop was on. It's cool in that it rotates, but it only raises the back of the laptop up perhaps an inch - again, some hunching (though less than on the other laptop). Enter the iCurve.


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They were surprisingly well-packaged in the boxes, having soft foam wrapped around the entire plastic surface to protect it from damage. As the photo shows above, I set up both laptops on an iCurve. The iCurve is designed to life a laptop up closer to eye level, with enough space below to comfortably use a keyboard and mouse. That's not what I used them for. :-) I've found that with both laptops, it's surprisingly comfortable to simply type on the keyboard while it's sitting on the iCurve. I'm 6 foot 2, taller than most, so this might not work for everyone.


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The iCurve is constructed of a hard, clear plastic - and it looks fantastic. The industrial design is superb - the iCurve looks more like a piece of modern art than a laptop stand, and I think they look great sitting on my desk. I initially had some concerns about how well the iCurve would support my 9.5 pound laptop, but it feels perfectly stable and neither laptop slides down at all. There are four soft rubber grips, two on each side, to secure the laptop in place. Each iCurve comes with extra grips for those of you with laptops made of Teflon. The space underneath the iCurve might also be useful for me to cram the USB TV tuner and IR remote - I'll have to do a little experimenting.

My only criticism for this product comes from my non-orthodox use: because I'm typing on it, there's a bit of bounce because the plastic support isn't 100% rigid. I think I can get used to it easily enough, and since most people won't use the iCurve in this way, I think it's a very minor complaint. You can purchase the iCurve directly from Griffin Technology for $39.99 USD.