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The best lap desk
By Sarah Witman This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full guide to lap desks. Lap desks are like the athleisure of workspaces: not the most elegant option but generally comfortable and functional. After spending 10 hours researching and 25 hours testing lap desks, we're confident that the LapGear Designer is the best for most people. It reigns supreme in terms of comfort and build quality, has one of the widest and sturdiest surfaces of any lap desk we tested, and offers extra storage options for your phone and other supplies. The LapGear Designer has a clean, simple design and comes in a variety of colors and patterns. It's sturdy and well made, and feels comfortable and cool in your lap. It measures 17¾ inches across—wide enough to fit a 13-inch laptop and mouse—and weighs about 2 pounds. It has a slot to perch your phone, a handle to carry it around or hang it up, and an elastic strap for storing index cards or a pen. Plus, it has a short and unobtrusive plastic laptop rest toward the front edge to keep your stuff from sliding off of the top and it works equally well for left- and right-handed people. The Avantree Multifunctional is the best option if you want a lap desk with built-in legs. Because it's basically a mini desk, it raises your laptop and other supplies off of your lap, making it a much better choice in terms of heat management and ergonomics. It's just as well constructed as the LapGear Designer and has many of the same features—a laptop rest, left- and right-hander accessibility, a sizable work surface—plus a few more. Its legs extend to almost 13 inches, and you can adjust the desk's angle as well, making it more customizable to your desired posture—just make sure you have an even surface underneath you so the legs aren't off-kilter. Plus, if you set the Avantree Multifunctional on a desk or table, you can also use it as a DIY standing desk or laptop stand. The LapGear eDesk isn't quite as comfortable, stable, or well built as the brand's Designer but it's your best bet if you want something that feels more lightweight and portable. It has a padded laptop rest that protects your wrists from chafing, and a cushy underside. You can use the tablet slot to prop up a book or iPad, or you can cover it up with your laptop. At nearly 18 inches across, the eDesk is plenty wide enough to fit a 13-inch laptop, yet it weighs only 1.4 pounds. By comparison the 2-pound Designer feels noticeably bulkier in your lap. Like the Designer, the eDesk has a fabric handle and raises your laptop about 3 inches off the top of your lap. The eDesk's aesthetic is simple and utilitarian, and it's available in a variety of colors. It's also one of the least expensive models we tested.
Engadget's back to school guide 2011: accessories
Welcome to Engadget's Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we're here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today, we've got a slew of accessories -- and you can head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back -- at the end of the month we'll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides -- and hit up the hub page right here! Fall's slowly, but surely creeping back in, and we bet you've already started to gather up the necessary gear for your return to the residence hall. Sure, you've got the basics covered, with a computer, smartphone, MP3 player and even a tablet at the ready. But wouldn't it be nice to start the school year off in style with some handy accoutrements to trick out those digital crutches? Let's face it, you're going to need a lapdesk buffer zone between you and your laptop's scorching heat for those countless hours spent churning out term papers. Or, an external hard drive, so you can store those full seasons of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and bring the late night funny to your stressed-out friends. However you manage to make it through the year and snag that 4.0 GPA, we've got a selection of accessorized aids to match your collegiate budget. Oh, and don't forget, we're giving away $3,000 worth of essential back to school gear to 15 readers, and you can be among the chosen few simply by dropping a comment below! Click on past the break to start browsing.
Logitech's Touch Lapdesk holds your notebook, provides a pull-out multitouch surface
After relieving our wrists, buffeting our ears and cooling our notebook down, there was only one likely way for Logitech would update its Lapdock lineup -- add a finger-friendly digitizer to the equation. Yes, the Touch Lapdesk N600 we saw at the FCC in April has become a reality today, and it's actually a pretty simple slab of plastic all told. The hollow, fairly cheap-feeling frame houses a slide-out surface with a nice big three-finger multitouch panel measuring five inches across, a pair of giant left and right mouse buttons, and some multimedia keys as well. You pop open a panel on the rear of the unit to insert 4 AA batteries good for up to six months of use, pull out Logitech's tiny Unifying Receiver, insert it into your laptop, power on the desk, and you're good to go. Unlike its immediate predecessors, however, there's no fan or speakers to be had here -- just the extra input scheme -- for those who prefer gestures to lugging around a good old-fashioned mouse. Yours for $70 later this month, wherever such things are sold. PR after the break. %Gallery-125754%
Logitech's wireless Touch Lapdesk hits the FCC
There's not exactly a lot of details on this one, but it looks like Logitech may be getting set to introduce some new company for its speaker / lapdesk contraption, the Speaker Lapdesk. A device known as the Touch Lapdesk N600 has now turned up at the FCC, which apparently not only adds some "touch" to the equation, but some 2.4GHz wireless connectivity as well. Unfortunately, that's about all that the FCC's willing to share at the moment, but there's a handsome label after the break, and a couple of dozen pages of test reports at the source link below if you're looking for a bit more evidence that this thing actually exists.
Logitech Speaker Lapdesk N550 wants to protect you from netbook heat, tinny audio
Look at this thing, now scope out Logitech's Speaker Lapdesk N700 and come back to tell us the difference between the two. Not that we'd ever dare question the sanity of having two Speaker Lapdesk SKUs, but you've got to admit Logitech hasn't really differentiated its new N550 -- a two-speaker, heat-shielded pad for treating your thighs with more kindness and less calefaction -- from its admittedly pricier predecessor. After doing some fine investigative journalism (i.e. reading the press release after the break), we've discovered that the N550 is designed for laptops with screens sizes up to 14.1 inches, and it also omits the USB-powered fan of the bigger N700. Good to know. Now if someone can explain to us why Logitech is announcing this game changer a whole three months ahead of its January 2011 release for £50 ($80), we'd be all set. Update: Looks like Americans will see it in October for $59.99.
Logitech Speaker Lapdesk N700 comfily enters the burgeoning speaker-lapdesk market
This is where we've come as a society. No longer are external speakers, pillows or even laptop cooling apparatuses enough to satisfy us. Instead it takes a conglomeration of all three to prop up our hapless "portable" computers as we wallow in our Snuggies and fat free comfort foods. The new Logitech Speaker Lapdesk is one such $80 conglomeration, with two-inch stereo speakers, a built-in fan and a nice bit of padding to keep the whole assembly from frying your lap. It all plugs in over USB, both for audio and for fan power, and there are hardware buttons for switching the fan on and off and changing volume. We gave it a quick trial run, and can certainly vouch for its comfort and protective qualities, though at the same time we're not quite sure why it's so enormous. The speakers are decently loud and clear, and the fan noise wasn't loud enough to be heard over the general din of the tradeshow, so there's really not much to complain about if you can stomach the price. But for anything smaller than a 17-inch laptop this is probably overly large for no apparent reason. There's a quick demo video after the break. %Gallery-81584%
Logitech's Portable Lapdesk N315 takes a stand against carpal tunnel syndrome
It's no CushionSpeaker, but Logitech's $30 Portable Lapdesk N315 is just as curious and probably as useful. Designed to help those sick and tired of mousing about on the built-in trackpad, this laptop table is engineered to grip tightly to machines 15-inches and smaller and provide a pull-out tray that doubles as a mousepad. It's like having a desk, but on your couch. Get it? Get it?%Gallery-72925%
