Clever engineering makes this accessory stand out from the crowd
After a successful Kickstarter campaign, designer John Bull has finally managed to manufacture his unique tablet and phone stand, the Plinth.
The £32,000 raised through Kickstarter investment has already proved that the public are behind this design, but until now we haven’t had the opportunity to actually try out the Plinth for ourselves. So what’s makes this tablet stand better than the competition?
Admittedly, it’s a saturated market in terms of tablet and phone stands, so the Plinth needs to be able to, excuse the pun, stand out from the crowd. Thankfully, it manages to do this through some clever design features.
Pulling the Plinth out of its box reveals a fairly unremarkable-looking, lightweight plastic rectangle. But by pressing the sides in the Plinth springs up and out to form a T-shape with extended arms that can hold the back of a phone or tablet.
There are a set of rubberised pads at the bottom of the Plinth to stop it from sliding around, with an additional rubber section along the cradle where the device will sit. The extended arms allow you to angle the Plinth according to your use and comfort. Ergonomically speaking, the Plinth is by far the best stand we’ve used, and we’ve been through quite a lot over the years.
Considering the Plinth itself weighs less than 50g and looks quite flimsy, it’s actually a remarkably robust and sturdy stand. It can easily hold any make and model of tablet, even within some of the more chunky cases available, without fear of it toppling over under the strain. In fact, we loaded it up with a rather heavy Acer Iconia W500, and it remained perfectly stable even with us pawing at the screen for quite some time.
Returning the Plinth to its compact state simply requires you to fold down the raised sections and fold in the arms, then everything clicks back into place neatly. In its compact form, the Plinth measures just 110 x 65 x 10mm, which means it’s small enough to fit into your pocket or bag. Once you’re ready to get your tablet or phone out and work from it, all you need to do is snap open the Plinth, and you’re able to use it in a matter of seconds.
The Plinth is a great tablet and phone stand. It’s sturdy, tough, light and compact, and it can cater for larger tablets easily. One thing we would like to see is a channel that can accommodate the power cable, where you can sit the tablet or phone while it’s still charging. You can separate the arms that hold the tablet in place slightly, but that raises the height of the Plinth above the rubber feet, so perhaps raising the level a few millimetres will allow you to run the cable while it’s in the stand. That of course only applies to tablets or phones that have the port located at the bottom of the device.
Overall, we really like the Plinth. For a mere £14.95 via the Plinth site and available in a range of colours, it’s a fantastically engineered tablet stand and one that’ll certainly last you far longer than the device it’s holding. David Hayward
Perfect for any type of tablet or phone.