Once upon a time, we received something so incredibly ridiculous—an office supply store package of adhesive rubber dots, repackaged with an i-Prefix name and marketed as a way to scratch-proof an iPod’s back at a big price premium—that we couldn’t quite believe how low some companies would sink to make a buck. Just Mobile’s oddly-named new Lazy Couch ($20) accessory for MacBook Pro users is not that product, nowhere near that bad, and surely much nicer-looking, but the concept is basically the same: elevate the computer a little above a flat surface.
MacBook Pro computers now have black rubber pads built into their bottoms, but they’re all the same height, so they essentially sit flat on desks. Lazy Couch is billed as a “portable laptop stand” that is placed at the back of these laptops, lifting them on an angle for easier typing. You get two pieces that are each 0.75” tall and around 1.6” in diameter, half of the thickness coming from silver aluminum tubes and the other half from black rubber pads on either side, grooved such that the pieces can be pressed together for storage.
The concept is almost silly: does anyone really need to pay for such a thing? Yet Lazy Couch works as well to elevate the MacBook Pro as Just Mobile’s earlier Aluminum Cooling Bar, consumes less space, and sells for less, thanks mostly to a reduction in the amount of metal and an increase in black rubber. Plus, there’s something about Lazy Couch that just makes us keep jiggling its two halves around like a stress ball, pushing them together and pulling them apart absentmindedly. That “something” is probably their surprisingly substantial feel, due more to the aluminum than the padding.
Is this Just Mobile’s best accessory design? No. Best name? Far from it. Best idea? Naw. But as a minimalist stand with minimal functionality, it’s better than a pack of stick-on rubber dots, and looks a lot nicer with Apple’s metal MacBooks. Whether you’re willing to pay for it is another question altogether.