- Alright, we're gonna be taking a look
at two portable laptop stands:
the Roost stand and the Nexstand.
Coming up.
(upbeat music)
At the time of creating this video,
I've been a "digital nomad" on the road
for about a year and a half,
and that means I've been hunching over my laptop
for most of that time, working.
These have been really great to elevate the laptop
and kinda giving me a better workspace altogether.
Sitting up straight helps a ton with back and neck pain,
and I've found that I can work
for longer periods of time without needing to adjust.
However, it is a bit of a pain
to carry one of these around with you
and a keyboard and a mouse.
Especially if you're space-constrained in your pack already.
The Roost started as a Kickstarter campaign
a couple years ago, and since then,
a couple other imitators have cropped up.
So one of the imitators being the Nexstand
which is actually quite a bit cheaper
so this is the Roost 2.0, so their updated version
and this Nexstand came a bit later.
It's kind of a bummer that Nexstand
ripped Roost off a little bit and a couple other companies,
but it's such a good design that it's been
emulated by a bunch of different companies.
Since PackHacker is primarily focused on travel,
we're gonna with the portability of these two units.
Roost claims that their unit weighs 5.5 ounces,
however when we clocked it in on our end, it's 6.05 ounces.
Now that's still quite a bit lighter
than the Nexstand, which is 8.2 ounces in total.
The difference between those two is very minor,
but again, when you're traveling, every ounce counts.
The Roost is gonna measure at 1.3 by 1.3 by 13 inches,
and the Nexstand is gonna come in a little larger at
1.5 by 1.5 by 14 inches.
Again, this might not seem like that big of a difference,
but when they're side by side and you're looking at them,
the Roost stand feels quite a bit more compact.
And they do each come with their own carrying case.
So the Nexstand case is a little bit stretchier.
It feels kinda like a sock or a stocking.
It's got a stretchier feel.
And then the Roost itself has a bit of a more
heavy-duty, harder case that kinda reminds us of
maybe likethe outside of a windbreaker.
Little bit stronger here with the drawstring
and I don't think this is gonna rip.
So the winner for portability is gonna be the Roost Stand.
It's smaller, it's lighter, and packs way better,
and it has a better case.
Now when you hold both of these in your hand,
the Roost feels a lot more solid.
It feels like the construction is better on it.
The rubber that they used throughout is of higher quality.
It's gonna keep that laptop stayin sturdy.
The Nexstand feels a bit looser,
and the rubber that they do use here is a bit harder.
It's almost like a hard plastic.
For some reason, Nexstand loves putting gym weights
on theirs which makes it appear very durable.
So for the winner in durability, again, the Roost.
Now we will keep the durability updated
as we use these longer on our usage timeline
at PackHacker.com.
Both of these laptop stands are designed to hold
any size laptop, so anything from
your brand new shiny Macbook Pro
to maybe an older computer from, say,
2006 that's gonna lot thicker.
Both can hold either of these sizes
in a couple different ways.
So the Roost stand has this pivot grip on the front of it,
which is sort of a rubbery moving mechanism
that will hold laptops of different thicknesses
inside of it, and it will kind of lock in.
The Nexstand mechanism has a similar pivot to it.
When we have the laptop in the Nexstand,
it doesn't seem to grip as well,
and is a little less secure and slides around.
Now with the Nexstand, the rubber is going to be
a little bit harder, and there's also these weird
spacer clips that go on there.
So if you have a thinner laptop,
you have this spacer clip that you pop in there,
and then if you have a thicker one, you take it out.
A bit of a concern with this is that
if you lose one of these, it's not gonna be
as tight of a fit.
Once you get this set, it's not like
your gonna be switching it out that often,
unless you have multiple laptops,
but when we're traveling, we mainly just have one.
So not that big of an issue, but if you do lose it,
it can be a bit of a pain.
The Roost offers three height adjustments
based on how high you want your laptop to be,
so if you're tall or maybe in a bit of a higher seat.
If not, you use these white clips on the sides
to fully adjust the height to where you want it to be.
The Nexstand, however, offers a whopping
eight different height adjustments, which is amazing,
especially if you're sitting around
different coffee shops, you need different configurations
based on how high the tables are,
this is definitely gonna be versatile.
We also wanted to make sure these went up
high enough for users, so with both stands
we have a 15 inch MacBook Pro
and the top of the screen to the base of the table
is gonna measure 20.5 inches
on both of these things so
at the maximum height, they're exactly the same.
So for versatility and height, it's gonna be a tie.
The Roost stand will hold
different laptop sizes a bit sturdier.
It doesn't require that extra clip.
It works super well with the pivot grips
right out of the box.
However, with the Nexstand, you have
many more options to adjust the height
based on exactly how you want it.
One other thing to note here is that
the Roost makes the angle of the laptop
a little bit sharper, so it's gonna push more on the back
than you'll see with the Nexstand.
So what's that gonna do is that's gonna bring the screen
a little bit closer to your face as you're working.
The Roost has the advantage there.
Next, let's take a look at the price.
At the time of posting this review,
the Roost stand is gonna come in
at $79.95 and the Nexstand is going
to be $29.95 US.
Now that is a huge disparity in price
considering these two things basically do the same thing.
So to wrap up, it's no doubt that
the Roost stand is of higher quality,
but you're gonna pay for it with the price tag.
So the Roost stand definitely wins in that category.
However, if you're a little bit more budget-conscious
and you don't wanna spend as much on a laptop stand,
the Nexstand will probably be good for you,
and it's worth noting that you can get three of these
by the time you spend for one Roost stand.
So again, it kinda depend on your use-case
which one you wanna go with.
Most of the time, they be in a locked position
up on a desk or something of that nature,
so the durability maybe doesn't matter
quite as much as it would with, say, a backpack.
Alright, thanks for taking a look at the laptop stand
Roost and Nexstand comparison video.
Be sure to head over to packhacker.com/newsletter,
and never miss an update.
We'll see you in the next one.
The Roost came first, but the Nexstand came next.
(upbeat music)