Customer Reviews

Ergotron Lx Desk Mount Notebook Arm - Black

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The kit is effectively the same as the LCD mount. The laptop support mounts to the arm with a standard VESA 75mm mount. It comes with thumbscrews to mount the thing (just like the LCD mount), making it extremely simple. Unfortunately, since it's just like the LCD mount, the end of the arm can rotate (for portrait or landscape viewing on an LCD monitor) making it dangerous for a laptop that's effectively unsecured.

The articulation is superb and the reach is just right (for me). And it comes with non-slip strips for just a laptop, and stick-on velcro strips with some clips for a port replicator.

I bought this Ergotron LX Desk Mount Notebook Arm for my wife's Acer TravelMate 8104 laptop. It works very well. I do have a few minor problems with it, though:

- It came with three bags of parts. All three bags had holes in them and pieces had fallen out into the box. Most of the pieces were still there, but I'm missing 1 M4x10mm thumbscrew, 1 M4x10mm Philips head screw and the one washer that's supposed to go with the "Portrait/Landscape Rotation Stop Screw." Those M4x10mm screws are used to attach the laptop tray to the arm. Luckily, the thumbscrew version is interchangeable with the Philips head version and I could use one of the Philips head screws in place of a thumbscrew (apparently, you're supposed to use one set or the other). Also, the mere existence of the "Portrait/Landscape Rotation Stop Screw" must be new since other reviewers have commented that their units had no such part. The M4x10mm screw I'm using to stop inadvertent rotation works OK, but the missing washer means there's still some rotational play in the arm. Nothing serious, and once I find a suitable washer it should be fine. But, still, the part is missing.
- The big "key" which is supposed to adjust the 4mm "Lift" tensioning screw does NOT fit the screw head. I have a 4mm Allen wrench of my own and it DOES fit that screw (barely). Either the that key or the screw (or both) is out of tolerance. I have an Ergotron monitor arm which is practically identical to this and its key fits its adjusting screw just fine. So, this could be a fluke.
- The "Tilt - Forward and Backward" adjustment is barely adequate for this laptop (6.6 lbs, while the arm is rated to 12 lbs). I've got it fully tensioned, but it's still a bit too easy to tilt for my taste. The problem is probably the center of gravity of the laptop. The instructions say to move the laptop higher up on the mounting tray to help this. But, if I do that, I won't be able to use the provided clips to help keep the top of the laptop on the tray. Again, it's not a big problem. Just sort of irritating.

Also, a couple of things to be aware of:

- AFAIK, this arm isn't designed so you can input directly into the laptop while it's mounted. As another reviewer noted, you'll get all kinds of vibration from that. Instead, I'm pretty sure it's designed to be used with an external keyboard/mouse. Its purpose is merely to position the screen for better reading and to clear your desktop.
- The biggest risk in buying this is that you might not be able to position the arm LOW ENOUGH for proper viewing. For my wife, its lowest position is right at the proper height. If she were shorter, she'd have to look upward to see the screen.
- Make no assumptions about where you will mount this arm. For both this and my monitor arm, I glanced at the desks where they'd be used, saw they had edges, and assumed all was well. Well, I was wrong. There were supporting panels below the desk that interfered with proper mounting. With some finagling, I managed to get both arms mounted. But, I highly recommend you crawl under your desk and make some measurements before buying this. If you intend to clamp it to an edge, it looks like you'll need (optimally) about 3-1/2" of lip (the desktop should be between 1/2" and 1-7/8" thick). If you intend to mount it through a hole on the desk, make sure you have access to the underside of the desk where that hole is.
- You WILL have to adjust the various tensioning screws. If you don't, the thing will probably droop down to your desktop at the first opportunity.

I've written mostly negative things here. But, I'm still very happy with this arm. Outside of what I noted, it works well and looks good. I rate it a Very Good 4 stars out of 5.

I love the arm. I love it so much I bought another one for the office.

This little guy lets me sit on the sofa with my laptop suspended in space. I can easily spin it around to show my cats pictures of birds.

The multiple degrees of freedom of movement mean I can lie down and have the screen located with an easy viewing angle, or can be sitting with an external keyboard without hunching over because the screen is located 15º below eye height! Awesome.

I'm very pleased with this; it lets me us my laptop at my standing desk without having to bend my neck down to look at ath screen.

I can highly recommend a good wireless keyboard and mouse setup to go along with this, as though it does have facilities to guide the cords down the arm, in practice I find that if I'm planning to move the laptop on and off the stand, it's more trouble than it's worth.

I've used this with everything from a 12" iBook to a 17" MacBook Pro, and it's worked perfectly for all of them. When I purchase a second monitor, I'll probably also get a second Ergotron arm for optimal positioning as well. It really is a major improvement in comfort for standing desks.

I've been working on cleaning up my home office for the past year (yeah, it hasn't been going very quickly) but I finally got to the point of cleaning up my desktop which is a pretty large 6'x3' pedestal desk bought at Price Club (pre-Costco) many years ago.

Between my 24" Dell monitor, my HP docking station and laptop, there wasn't much room left on the desk. So I wanted to get both the docking station and monitor off the desk. I poked around at a number of options from different vendors (including looking at some printer stands for the docking station).

I ended up going with the Ergotron LX because of the functionality and the great feedback that I've seen pretty much everywhere.

Since my monitor is pretty large (24" and 15 lbs), I decided to go with two individual arms rather than using one of the dual arm setups.

Ordered my stuff from Amazon and got it the next day (Amazon Prime rocks!). Setup my monitor in the middle of the computer and got it all hooked up. Had to tighten the tension on both the arm (raise/lower) and the head (tilt) so that the monitor would stay where I wanted it to while still alowing easy movement. Took about 15 minutes to get it all setup. My only complaint would be that the cable management system is OK for one or two cables, but with my DVI and power cable in there, it was hard to squeeze in a usb cable up to the built-in USB hub. Very minor nit.

The laptop setup was a bit more complicated. The combined depth of my docking station & laptop (when docked) is a tad over 17" -- which is too long to completely fit on the notebook pad, so I ended up positioning the dock such that the rear hung about 1.5" over the edge of the pad. I used the included three heavy duty velcro strips (male & female) to mount the docking station and this seemed to hold it pretty well, even with the 1.5" overhang. I added some fishing line around the pad/dock under where the computer will sit to add some leverage to holding the dock to the pad -- I don't think that was really necessary, but I don't mind a bit of over engineering.

With the laptop mounted, it took a whole lot of tightening of the tension to get the laptop to stay where I wanted it to. In fact the tilt tension screw had to be pretty much locked down (very tightly) before the laptop would stop tilting.

Now I have a nice organized desk with lots of space where I can move the monitor back/forth as necessary (if I want to lay back and relax while watching a webcast, I can pull the monitor out over the keyboard, pop my feet up on the side of the desk and relax). The one thing
to watch out is that if you've recovered space where your old monitor stand used to sit (like I did) you should be careful to raise the monitor up before you move it backwards or you may end up pushing lots of stuff off the back of the desk.

Very happy customer.

exceeded expectations. I mounted it to my coffee table and now my 10
lb 17" lappy hovers wherever I want it to! Adjustable spring for diffent
weight lappy's. Impressively designed and constucted, to last. This is NOT like
those flimsy lamps from the past, lol. My only complaint
is that with wieght on it, the middle elbow tried to bind a bit and doenst bend as easily as it should. They should put in maybe at least a teflon sleeve as a bearing or even
ball bearings. I tried some dry-lube bike wax but it didnt really help. Arm assembly is surprisingly heavy but in the end it seems justified and very impressive.

Very good product for ergonomic arrangement of desktop computers or just for being lazy on your couch. *Ensure the area will accept its clamp. It will require 3 inches of clearance below the desk/table to which you plan to attach it. The undersurface of the desk/table must also be smooth for 2 inches from the edge. It requires some minor assembly. I recommend this product.

This is my second Ergotron product, and while it does it's function well, the company needs to do a better job on quality control. The unit I received had too tight a clearance between the post of one arm and the sleeve of the other arm - no amount of adjustment would allow for easy mating of the parts. I had to use a vise to get them to fit together. Once I got the two arms fitted the unit worked well with a six pound laptop.

I havn't had any of the problems listed in other reviews, right out of the box I had it set up (on my coffee table, so I can surf, etc., from the couch) in less than three minutes. No more hunching over my laptop -It makes using my laptop easy. My laptop weighs six pounds, but its had no stability issues, I can type easily (although I do have a light touch), and tap the mouse pad without moving the the laptop arm at all.

Mine came with all the screws already installed (with exception of the pad you put the laptop on (mine had hand twist screws to attach it (although the kit had extra screws included)), and different sizes of clips that clip on to the back of the laptop to hold it firmly in place (I didn't need the the double sided tape or velco that were included). The arm is easily adjustable, and can be tightened easily with tools included with the arm. I can sit with the laptop at eye level, or pull out the arm and kik back on the couch and comfortably use the laptop.

I love this gizmo, and wonder how I live without it. One of the few accessories I've bought that's worth every penny.

The arm meets my needs well. It holds my laptop quite securely and allows me to let it "float" above my (musical instrument) keyboard so that I can get the screen in my face and reposition it at will.

It was quite simple to install. I clamped it to a keyboard rack, and have moved it several times without difficulty to position it best for my use. It is quite rugged in construction, and has a fairly ingenious and undocumented way to tuck cables into the arm without having to thread them through.

I will note that it will "bounce" somewhat, especially at full extension. So this kind of product would not be a good choice for someone who plans to type extensively and constantly on the laptop keyboard. This is not a fault, I think, with this particular product; the arm would have to be extraordinarily rigid for this not to happen.

In most applications where the user is trying to position the laptop above some other work surface, or get the screen in a good position and use an external keyboard, I think it will work quite well.