The 10 Best Mobile Laptop Desks
Special Honors
Uline Wire Cart The Uline Wire Cart is certainly not the most stylish model out there, but for warehouses, hospitals, or any other place where cleanliness is key, it's a more than workable choice. Because it has open wire, just like the name suggests, it doesn't gather tons of dust, and you can clean it in a flash when need be. uline.com
National Business Furniture Locking Cart Created with medical professionals in mind, the National Business Furniture Locking Cart can be wheeled from room to room with ease. For security, it has a lockable laptop area, which keeps the computer — and all the data within — safe for your peace of mind. nationalbusinessfurniture.com
Stand Steady AV Cart It is perhaps too large for some applications, but the Stand Steady AV Cart holds a lot of gear, so it's useful for offices with heavy-duty tech needs. In fact, it can accommodate a large monitor as well as a laptop, and there's still plenty of room for your keyboard thanks to the pull-out tray. standsteady.com
Editor's Notes
May 04, 2021:
As the world becomes increasingly mobile with more freedom attached to the way we work, study and communicate, portable desks are growing in popularity, especially as more people earn a living from home where space may be limited, and we have more flexibility of movement in our day-to-day activities. Not only do mobile desks provide a versatile place for your laptop to sit, whether in your home office, living space, or anywhere else around the house; they can also improve posture by allowing users to stand at the computer, and vary their working position throughout the day.
For this most recent update to our ranking, we included the Siducal Adjustable and the AVLT 44-Inch Pneumatic, which join the Techni Mobili Sit-to-Stand and Mount-It! Standing as upright options, with the two new additions also serving as effective sitting desks when collapsed. These are also very good for use as podiums for your laptops, notes, and mobile devices when giving public seminars and conferences.
We also opted to include the Tatkraft Like and the Seville Classics Ergonomic as two seated options. The former has sideways-facing feet, which can slide underneath an easy chair or even a bed, further expanding your choice of working environment. The desk swivels 360 degrees and it has a wide tilting action, to help ensure you find the perfect working position, and it even incorporates a separate surface for a mousepad. Finally, the latter is a basic model which has good build quality, especially at this price point, and makes a solid choice for the occasional user, who would benefit from having a sturdy worktop and lockable wheels at their disposal.
March 24, 2020:
Even though we appreciate the portable design of the iSkelter Slate 2.0, it has become hard to find, so we've replaced it with the relatively similar LapGear BamBoard. The latter is something of an upgrade, however, as it boasts a wrist rest that keeps fatigue at bay. But when it comes to models on wheels, it's tough to top the Mount-It! Standing. With its 31-inch-wide platform, it can support a laptop as well as a tablet and mouse, while its handy lever allows you to raise and lower it without any hassles. There's also the Flash Furniture Mobile, which has a more traditional look than the former, which is very contemporary and sleek with its all-white design.
For an item that feels more like a desk than a rolling cart, we've kept the Techni Mobili Modus, although it is slightly frustrating with its non-adjustable height. Because it has a shelf that juts out, it isn't necessarily comfortable with all chairs, either. We've also kept the Office Star Multi-Purpose, which is big enough to function as a full portable desk. Conveniently, there's no assembly required, but it may be too big for those who only need a small laptop space.
October 18, 2018:
Removed discontinued items and added models with larger work surfaces and some designed to help improve posture.
Can You Take Me Higher? Like, To A Standing Position?
Everything from bad posture and unreasonably high temperatures around certain vital reproductive organs combine to make the prospect a dangerous one.
It's generally agreed upon that working with a laptop directly on your lap is, medically speaking, a bad idea. Everything from bad posture and unreasonably high temperatures around certain vital reproductive organs combine to make the prospect a dangerous one.
What these mobile carts offer, in addition to an ergonomic and space saving design, is an opportunity to improve your health. And they do so rather simply.
Most of these carts are mobile because they have little wheels at the bottom called casters. You're probably familiar with these things, as they've adorned the bottom of every rolling desk chair since desk chairs learned to roll.
From there, the carts can differ tremendously in materials and shape, but they all have a surface meant to hold a laptop or keyboard, and that surface can almost always be raised or lowered to give you the most comfortable position.
The mechanism for raising and lowering the surface is much like the one you'll see in those desk chairs: a simple metal tube that can absorb or release air, the pressure of which controls the extension of the bar. It's all reminiscent of the way a screen door opens and closes softly.
Be Kind To Your Butt
The reality is that a standing desk isn't a cure all. It isn't as though working from a standing position is going to solve all your bodily woes. In fact, standing too long has its own drawbacks.
The truth is that all of them are going to provide you with a great experience in stability and versatility.
Luckily, these desks are adjustable, so you can spend a few hours typing on your feet and a few more Facebooking from your favorite chair. I've been using our number one desk for the past few weeks now, and I've found a great rhythm that seems to optimize my creative energy.
It helps to have a standing mat and a chair behind you to plop down into when the mood strikes. Listen to your body as you begin. It takes time to work up the standing endurance you've lost over all those sedentary years.
Still, the question of which one of our desks is right for you remains outstanding. The truth is that all of them are going to provide you with a great experience in stability and versatility. Some might last a little longer than others, and some might be easier to assemble or fit your exact computer better than others.
But this is a style decision first. Which one of these strikes your fancy? Which one–or ones–would fit your setup the best? If there's a few, then you can start fussing over the details.
No idea what makes a room look good? There is a plethora of home decor shows on TV for you to study. Get to it!
The Desk Evolving
While the mobile computer workstation has come about only recently, trickling into private homes and offices from its popularity in hospitals, the older parts of its technology have grown to prominence steadily over the past 150 years or so.
It's amazing how such a simple piece of furniture can be born of so much change in our recent history.
I have a foggy memory in my brain of Scrooge McDuck hunched over a tall desk in the Disney animated telling of A Christmas Carol. In my mind's eye, the wealthy aquatic hoarder had a rather tall chair to get him up to his desk, but it was, by its build very similar to the standing desks of the period.
Of course, Bob Cratchet, the father of poor little Tiny Tim, had a regular desk, which created a great height comparison between the two of them, with the rich man up high and his poor employee down low.
It's only been recently that the standing desk has become something of a fad, albeit a fad with a lot of good science behind it. And with the growth of that fad, manufacturers have incorporated everything they've learned from the past 50 years of industrial office furniture design.
An air-driven piston for height control came over from modern desk chairs, as did the casters that provide mobility. The nuanced angling adjustments in the surface came over from advancements in drafting desks, and monitor mounting technology, well, that came to us along with the advent of flat screen HDTVs.
It's amazing how such a simple piece of furniture can be born of so much change in our recent history.