Enlarge / Although the stand is very light, it's stable once constructed. In this shot, we tried it out with the laptop on sideways.Jim Salter
Standing desks are great, but even the add-on variety are normally far too big and heavy to travel with you. In the long, long ago—prior to COVID-19 isolation—I did a lot of traveling, a lot of working from hotel rooms, and a lot of grouching about hours of sitting on dubious chairs wrecking my back.
In January 2019, Moft released its first folding laptop stand—a relatively unambitious design that just angled the laptop for potentially more ergonomic typing. The construction should appear immediately familiar to nearly anyone with a tablet—it's the same lightweight, soft-clad fiberglass core you'll find in countless tablet cases with built-in stands.
The company's new design, Moft Z, is a bit more ambitious—it can provide a 25° or 45° angle for seated laptop use, a 60° angle for propping up a tablet, or a full 10-inch lift for a standing laptop experience. Moft Z isn't shipping yet—the preorders it is taking now are scheduled to ship in June—but the company provided us with a review sample of the final product.
Unboxing
Moft Z comes in an unassuming little cardboard box with front and back labels. Jim Salter
There's no documentation included with Moft Z—the top and bottom box labels are all you get. Jim Salter
The only thing in the box is Moft Z itself.—Victorinox (not included) provided for scale. Jim Salter
We didn't have any trouble figuring out the simple angled configurations. This is the lowest, a 25-degree lift. Jim Salter
The 25-degree raised configuration is surprisingly comfortable for typing. Jim Salter
It was considerably more difficult to figure out the fully lifted configuration—but I got there. Jim Salter
The Moft Z comes in an unassuming little cardboard box with nothing much in the way of documentation. The top-side product label on the box shows the stand in each of its four positions but doesn't give you any idea how to actually unfold it into each.
As always, we were pretty determined to get through this without resorting to online documentation. The 60° tablet position was immediately obvious, and the 30° and 45° seated laptop positions weren't too much harder to figure out.
The ten-inch lifted stand configuration was considerably more challenging and took some determined, close scrutiny of the picture on the front of the box—but we got there, after a minute or two.
Folding Moft Z into standing position
Start out with the folded Moft Z, logo side up… Jim Salter
Pick up the flap, and lift. The stand will unfold into a Z, which can then be laid flat. Jim Salter
With the Moft Z laid out flat, pale inside face up, work your finger under the inside flap… Jim Salter
… and lift the internal center flap. The other internal flap will separate and lift on its own when you do. Jim Salter
As you lift the internal flap, just pull it over to the right, and presto—you've got a 10-inch lifted stand for your laptop. Jim Salter
This 14" Asus ROG Zephyrus laptop is perfectly at home on top of the lifted Moft Z. Jim Salter
The biggest challenge in figuring out the Moft Z is figuring out the center panels. They're flaps that can unfold in opposite direction to the rest of the stand—but the whole thing is stiff enough that you may question if you're really supposed to.
Once you figure that out, there are a lot of different ways to start unfolding things and end up with a 10-inch stand. The most effective way to unfold it that we found amounts to just unfolding it flat and lifting out the big center panel—once you separate the center panel and lift, the whole stand pretty much just falls into place.
You don't need to be Vince Offer to make using this thing look easy. I puzzled and frowned my way through getting the Moft Z into its standing position the first time—but it only took a couple of times before I could unfold and refold it rapidly and smoothly.
Usability as a standing desk
The ten inch lift provided a good height for me to type while standing. Jim Salter
Typing on the Moft Z in standing position was comfortable and felt stable. Jim Salter
We do not actually recommend using Moft Z as a dot matrix printer stand. But, you know, if you gotta… Jim Salter
