Hasta La Gadget!

The 3Feet is an almost-indestructible, over-engineered plastic stand for pretty much any tablet or smartphone that needs a one. I tried one out, and found that maybe the best thing about it isn’t the capable range of tablet-cosseting features, but the fact that you can tinker and play with it for minutes on end.

The stand consists of five separate parts, all of which slot together with various deviously-conceived hingeing mechanisms. Thankfully, it comes pre-assembled, otherwise you’d likely mistake it for an impossible-to-solve puzzle and spend hours trying to put it together. In use, though, the 3Feet is very simple. You pull a tab on the back (marked “pull”) and it opens up into an A-frame, much like a tiny easel. Slots and rods molded into the plastic fit together to allow two angles, and a little lugged shelf folds down from the front to grab the bottom edge of the tablet.

This fold-open lip is oversized for the iPad, which means you can easily use it even whilst in a case (there is also a hole through which the charging cable can pass). It also means you’re not limited to the iPad: you can drop in pretty much anything, from a cellphone to a Kindle. The stand is sturdy enough to keep even the relatively heavy iPad safe in both portrait and landscape orientations.

The stability is helped by rubber bands made from silicone, which stop it sliding across the desk and also keep the happy tablet scratch-free (although the plastic stand probably wouldn’t damage much anyway).

The final trick is in a little kick-stand which flips out from the back when the main “leg” is folded flat. It is small, but somehow manages to both hold the stand at the right angle for on-screen typing, and also be sturdy enough to keep the iPad steady.

There’s not much to criticize about the 3Feet stand. It is light enough and compact enough that you can toss it in a bag and forget about it, and it’s even dishwasher-safe. And the complex folding design means you probably won’t be able to stop playing and fiddling with the thing. Hell, it’s even cheap, at just $15, and comes in a wide range of (interchangeable) colors.

The only thing that might put you off is the looks. This is a product for which the term “utilitarian” was invented. That’s not to say it is ugly, or even that the appearance hasn’t been considered. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but somehow it reminds me of medical devices, or perhaps even the toys of my childhood, which tended to be chunky and long-lasting rather than stylish and short-lived.

Or maybe I’m just seduced by the fact that this makes the ultimate executive stress-toy, something to keep your hands and brain busy when you should be working. Available now, from Amazon.

3Feet product page [3Feet. Thanks, Steve!]

See Also:

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