In Search of the Perfect iPad Stand

From time to time I like to feature well-written guest posts on topics that would be interesting for folks who might attend MILOfest.  Here is a great review from my friend, and MILOfest Speaker, Mark Metzger on his search for the perfect iPad stand.  Read on:

Finally – an iPad stand that meets every need

by Mark C. Metzger

My iPad gets a lot of use in a lot of different situations.  But it wasn’t until I started making regular, serious use of it for work that I discovered that none of the stand options out there offered total flexibility.

Until recently, commercially available iPad stand options fit one of two categories: large, heavy items best suited for use on (and left at) a desk and the stand elements incorporated into some iPad case designs.

The first group are akin to the laptop stands designed to hold a laptop next to a larger monitor.  The leading options include Stabile ($59.99 in black, $69.99 in silver) and elago’s P2 ($29.99).  Both are elegant, sturdy stands designed to echo the foot design of a newer iMac or Cinema Display — in fact, the Stabile is touted as providing 4 pounds of stability.  Both offer a pair of supports (you could call them “feet”) to hold the iPad in an easel fashion, regardless of orientation, so both landscape and portrait modes are possible, each with the iPad being held at a mostly upright angle.  Because the designs are easel-like, either can accommodate an iPad left in many kinds of cases.  Either of these stands would be a great desktop solution for the iPad, particularly if you wanted to make use of a Bluetooth keyboard with the iPad.  Their very stoutness, however, means you’re not going to put either one in a briefcase and take it with you anywhere.  And the extremely upright position of the iPad means that you’re not going to easily do any typing on the iPad.

The other major category of iPad stands are the huge variety of stands that are built into many case designs.  While the stand mechanism and design of these stands varies, they all have one element in common:  they are designed to tilt the top of the iPad up from the table or desk surface only when you’re using it in landscape orientation.

To be sure, browsing the web, using Twitter and watching video are most conveniently and most typically done with the iPad in a landscape configuration. Because of the more expansive layout, the software keyboard available on the iPad is more conveniently used in the landscape orientation as well, particularly when the top of the screen is tilted up a few inches. Cases designed to hold the iPad with top tilted in a landscape orientation therefore make a great deal of sense.

But what if you want to use the iPad to review and annotate documents away from the office?  What if you’re needing to do some text entry with an external keyboard?  What if you’re attending a meeting and you’ve loaded the meeting packet as a PDF into your iPad?  In all of those use situations, portrait orientation is far superior to landscape, but there’s no case option available that offers the ability to elevate the top of the screen when the iPad is in portrait orientation.  Leaving the iPad flat on a table or desk is an option, but it invites glare from omnipresent ceiling lights and forces your eyes to refocus dramatically as you make your way down the page.

The perfect iPad support, then, would accommodate all four use configurations.  What we need is something that permits us to have the iPad be either tilted or upright and permit use in both portrait or landscape orientation.  That way, every conceivable use is in play.

Until last week, my solution had been to use a package of approaches.  For typing in portrait mode with a keyboard, I’ve been using Apple’s dock.  Not the dock integrated into the keyboard, mind you — that’s a monstrosity and won’t easily fit in any briefcase.  I’m talking here about the standalone dock ($29) and a Bluetooth keyboard.  The iPad is held at a slightly too upright angle, but it’s still quite useable.

For light text entry involving the software keyboard, I used a case with an integrated stand offering the typical landscape tilt option.  But this also meant either needing to take the iPad out of its case to use it with the dock or surgically altering the case to permit both uses.

Neither of those options addressed my need to use the iPad in tilted portrait mode on a table top, such as during a meeting or in court, where I would either suffer with flatness and glare or prop it up with a book or some other object, only to see it try to slide off.

I thought I’d found the answer when Griffin offered its A-Frame ($49.99) last month. A-frame is a foldable easel that holds an iPad resting in either portrait or landscape mode.  Folded flat, it offers a small bit of tilt, regardless of the iPad’s orientation.  Andy Inhnatko is considering abandoning his stoppers for it.  On the downside, it’s rather heavy (1.2 pounds) and the metal edges border on being sharp.  I also wanted more tilt than it offered.

There are a variety of “wedge” options now emerging to try to meet this need, but they all seemed somewhat limiting.  Some offer only one angle that’s too upright.  Others offer more angles, but the tilt options were poor.  One of these, a machined piece of metal, is quite beautiful, but costs over $100.

After months of finding no other option, I was prepared to adopt Andy Ihnatko’s solution and buy a $5 pair of black rubber stoppers at my local Ace Hardware.  And then, while aimlessly browsing at my local Apple store (a dangerous two blocks from my office), I heard angels singing and found nirvana on the top peg of the display wall.

Say hello to the Compass from twelve south.

When you see this stand, think “geometry class” not “magnetic north” and you’ll understand it’s name.  Compass folds for travel into a package not much larger than a Livescribe Pulse pen, although its solid metal construction makes it a bit heavier than a pen.  It even comes with a nice sleeve.

Compass can be used as an easel or as a support for tilted iPad use in any orientation.  It has three legs, two that rotate apart from each other from an axis at the top, forming an “A” shape and a third that swings out to the rear.  

If you need the easel configuration, you deploy all three legs.  The front legs each house a rubber-coated “foot” that when swung out, provide support for the iPad in either orientation.

To use Compass for tilted support in either landscape or portrait mode, the front legs are deployed, but the back one is not.  Instead, you leave the back leg in place and deploy a large foot built into the back leg.  The result is that the top of the iPad, regardless of orientation, is elevated a couple of inches.  Using Compass in this configuration, you also realize that the front of the front legs and the leg pivot area at the top were wisely covered with rubber to prevent iPad slippage in this sort of use.

This very well-designed, well-built and sturdy stand meets every need.  Better yet, it easily slips into the back pocket of the truly excellent Waterfield Design’s Ultimate Sleevecase ($55).

Folds flat, plays big.  What else could you need?  At $39.99, it’s also a pretty good value.  A bit more than those rubber stoppers, to be sure, but elegance has its price.

Mark C. Metzger is an attorney in suburban Chicago who represents businesses, particularly in information technology-related matters.  He can be reached at mark@markmetzger.net.