TopWork: A Laptop Stand, Wireless Charger, and Hub All in One
Last year, a lot of people accustomed to professional office environments suddenly found themselves working from home, making do without perks like adjustable desks, multi-monitor setups, and well-organized workspaces. All at once, people were balancing laptops on their knees, struggling to find a flattering angle for their Zoom calls, and dealing with toddlers screaming in the background. Nothing you can order off the internet will solve all of those problems, of course, but a more robust and adaptable workstation can definitely help.
TopWork combines a ton of features you need into one compact product, including an adjustable laptop stand, 11-port USB hub, and Qi wireless charger. Acting as a hub for all your gadgets, this work-from-home workstation aims to enhance productivity and comfort, wrangle cords and accessories, and elevate your built-in webcam so your colleagues aren’t staring at the underside of your chin. Plus, it’s portable, so you can move it from one room to another, use it on public transit, and bring it into the office when it’s safe to go back.
Anyone working on a MacBook is familiar with the frustrating lack of ports on recent models, necessitating external docks and dongles. Needless to say, it’s annoying to have a bunch of accessories dangling off your laptop when you need to use media and peripherals like USB drives, HDMI cables, and SD cards. Even PCs don’t necessarily have enough ports for everything included in a professional work computer setup, but this workstation builds virtually everything you require right into the laptop stand, plugging them all into your computer via a single USB-C cable. That makes it easy to disconnect and move into the living room at the end of the work day, or switch computers.
Those ports include one 100W USB-C charging port, an HDMI port for 4K video, a VGA port at 1080 resolution, an RJ45 Ethernet port supporting 1,000 Mbps network speed, two USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, SB/TF card slots, and a 3.5mm audio jack (Seriously Apple, have you realized yet that many people really want their headphone jacks back?) You can also use the HDMI and VGA ports simultaneously to add two additional display screens to your workstation, which is especially helpful for graphic designers, video editors, and programmers.
The ergonomic laptop stand adjusts to four different angles optimal for various uses like drawing on tablets, typing, reading and working with peripherals, and keeping the screen at a comfortable eye level. It’s capable of supporting any model of type-C laptop measuring up to 17 inches. Plus, the 10-watt wireless charging pad on the right side is great for keeping your phone or AirPod case juiced up while you work.
The TopWork workstation is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, having already blasted through its initial goal with hundreds of eager pledges. You can snag one of your own for $89 and up during the campaign, or buy one retail at $129 later this year. Considering that it would cost more (and be less convenient) to buy all those components separately, it seems like a pretty good deal.
