I like the concept behind Logitech’s Casa Pop-Up Desk. As with all the very best concepts, it is a nifty resolution to a typical drawback – an answer you could’t imagine would not exist already. The ‘drawback’ is that many people who work on the transfer (on trains, in cafes) or in random rooms the place we stay (kitchen desk or low espresso desk), make do with working lengthy hours on laptops, typically craning our necks and hunching our shoulders for hours on finish. You do not must be an professional in ergonomic chairs, desks and stools to know that is lower than very best.
The answer, says Logitech, is to offer a transportable arrange that homes all you want to hold your eye-line forward of you, your again straight, chest open, and your neck upright. And the Casa Pop-Up nearly nails that transient completely. It is a cellular work resolution that elevates your laptop computer to an ergonomically-sound eye stage, gives a beautiful mini keyboard, and a… first rate monitor pad (extra on that later), and is available in a fantastically designed hardback book-styled case, that matches properly in a backpack.
Let’s dive into the main points…
01. Design
Logitech’s Casa Pop-Up Desk’s design is sensible. It gives a laptop computer stand that brings the highest of your lappy roughly to eye-level, and so encourages the consumer to alter their sitting place for the higher (and more healthy). With the keyboard and trackpad close to you, you do not have to be hunched or scrunched when tapping away.
And all this is available in an exquisite, hardback book-style package deal. The keyboard, trackpad and charging wire slots right into a tray, which has further room for pens (bear in mind these?), and which gives the bottom of the stand when getting used. A related piece of rubber binds the Casa Ebook collectively if you’re travelling.
Logitech’s website says this all weighs 1.2 kg / 2.65 lbs. All I can let you know is that it did not really feel that I used to be carrying something greater than my standard laptop computer, headphones, ebook and different bits. It is a compact, beautiful-looking workstation. 5 stars out of 5 for design.
02. Efficiency
I have been utilizing the Casa for round 10 hours as we speak, and I’ve observed a marked distinction in how I am sitting on my normal, picket cafe chair, and interacting with my laptop computer – all for the higher.
Do not get me incorrect, if it is a perfect ergonomic arrange you need, this isn’t that. You may need a devoted workplace, for one. And in that, you may need a standing desk, a chair with lumbar help, and throw in a monitor arm and fancy mouse to complete it off.
However we’re speaking ‘engaged on the go’ right here. And so far as that goes, no product has so positively effected my working day because the Casa. It is actually that good. I’ll have felt a little bit self-conscious when getting it out in my native cafe. It definitely shouts, ‘I am right here to do some work for some time,’ which might not be the vibe you wish to be sending out. However if you happen to’re working round your flat – or you might care much less what folks take into consideration you out and about – this simply transforms your arrange for the higher.
The product website tells us that the battery lifetime of the keyboard will last as long as 5 months and the touchpad will last as long as three weeks. I’ve had a number of Logitech keyboards and mice earlier than, and although I’ve not skilled these battery lives earlier than, Logitech is nice for lengthy battery life, so I can imagine it.
And now for the primary criticism of the Casa – the touchpad. I simply did not get on with it. It is OK. For those who’re used to, and even favour, trackpads I may think about that is it is even good. However there are some points with it that are not nearly choice.
From placing my my two fingers on the pad, to scrolling up or down, there is a lag – a second of hesitation that momentarily breaks the spell of the in any other case implausible expertise of utilizing the Casa. Now, if you happen to use one finger, there isn’t any such delay, however in order for you to have the ability to click on, drag and scroll from the second you contact the pad, like I do, this delay could also be a problem for you.
04. Value & verdict
‘Harsh’, I hear you cry: knocking off half a star for a millisecond of lag. Nicely, yeah! I feel the design of the Casa is bold and guarantees nice issues. Actually my disappointment of the delay on the trackpad is testomony to how a lot I price all the things else in regards to the Casa. I can actually see it altering folks’s expertise of engaged on the go for the higher. Get a mini mouse in to interchange the trackpad, and we have perfection! (Although the way you get a mouse right into a trackpad-shaped area is definitely above my pay grade).
The Casa Pop-Up Desk retails for $227/£179 (with no US launch date as but), and that is a severe cash dedication, particularly when you possibly can simply keep on working such as you at all times have – opening your laptop computer and getting on together with your day.
However I feel it is price it. It might probably remodel your transitory workspace from wherever you occurred to sit down down that day, right into a thought of, ergonomically sound area. It does that with minimal fuss, and most type, and it is design that must be lauded.
