For many people, sitting behind a computer for 8-10 hours is a fact of life that may not seem like a big deal when you're young but may actually have negative repercussions later in life!
To make a sitting environment a little bit healthier, there are a few things one can do, including getting a comfortable chair or a motorized standing desk to help alleviate the "half-dead" feeling that arises from sitting for too long.
If you are stuck in an office though, getting a tabletop riser will, probably, be the most  economical option and also the most practical for laptop users because tabletop risers are typically more compact.
If you work mostly on a laptop, you definitely want to bring the laptop screen closer to eye level and a laptop stand such as the StarTech LTSTND will help you achieve this, as well as improve your overall posture, giving you immediate health benefits and potentially saving you ££ on chiropractor visits!
The StarTech LTSTND laptop stand riser consists of five parts, including a 2 kg heavy duty steel platform, which measures 36cm long, 29cm wide and 2mm thick.
The steel platform, which is finished in black with a grit-like texture, has a small slant towards the back of the platform with three small square cut-outs that are designed for routing cables. These cut-outs on the platform also provide a good surface area for grabbing hold of the stand when carrying it around.
Since the steel platform panel is deigned to be at a permanent slant, it features a right-angle lip designed to contain the laptop within the platform so, the laptop won't fall off.
The lip measures 12mm tall and integrates a thin rubberized foam strip along it to prevent the steel scratching the laptop body.
The StarTech LTSTND laptop stand legs and feet consists of two L-shape legs, weighing 286 grams each and measuring 18cm long, 4cm wide and 30cm long.
The longest part of the leg L-section features two threaded holes to secure it to the steel platform via the included nuts and bolts.
The shortest part of the leg L-section features four threaded holes designed to attach the feet of the stand, which also have an L-shape.
The aluminium legs and feet are, essentially, the adjusting mechanism of the StarTech LTSTND laptop stand, allowing you to manually raise or lower the height of the stand.
The L-shape feet weigh 264 grams each, measure 29cm long and 9.5cm wide and, integrate a thin rubber foam backing to prevent the laptop stand scratching and sliding on the desk.
The shortest section of the feet have three threaded holes and a rail-like design with a small circular bump stopper designed to slot into one of the threaded holes of the legs when you slide the feet up and down.
The circular bump helps reinforce the adjusting mechanism, which is secured in place via two star-headed thumb screws made of plastic (head) and aluminium (thread).
The star-head of the thumb screw is grippy and fairly large, providing a large enough surface area for the fingers to comfortably screw and unscrew it.
The steel platform has a tilted angle fixed at 20 degrees by the slanted L-shape design of the legs, unlike the feet, which have a 90-degree right-angle design.
The StarTech laptop stand riser can support up to 10kg, which is more than enough to support any current laptop on the market. This includes the Acer Predator 21 X, which is, to date, the heaviest laptop, weighing 8.5 kg.
Once assembled (under 5 minutes), the StarTech laptop stand riser weighs 3.1 kg and has a minimum height of 18.5 cm tall, a length of 31.8 cm long and a width of 35.7 cm wide. It will accommodate laptops up to 17 inches. The StarTech laptop stand height can be adjusted from 18.5 cm (7.3 inches) up to 21cm (8.3 inches) and 23.5cm (9.3 inches) tall.
An important feature with all laptop stands is heat dissipation to prevent the laptop overheating. The StarTech laptop stand steel platform has no air gaps, which isn't a problem since metal acts as a passive heatsink that will dissipate heat effectively without the use of fans.

That said, not all metals are equal. Copper is, by far, the best metal at conducting heat with aluminium coming second. Steel and bronze are the least conductive.
The material of the platform is listed as steel, although giving the rough texture and black color finish there is clearly a coating on it because bare steel has naturally a dark grey color.
The steel platform feels like it's made of galvanized carbon steel or bare steel with a black sand rough texture finish or black zinc plating, which also has a powdery, rough surface. Whichever the finish on the platform steel, it does make it perform better than bare steel would at dissipating heat because of the coating.
The aluminium legs and feet of the laptop stand have a high gloss finish that indicates an anodized finish.
With an anodized finish, the aluminum legs and feet, essentially, have a film coating that will prevent corrosion and scratches for a very long time. How long the film coating lasts depends on the thickness of the film coating.
The product specification doesn't list the anodizing coating thickness but, assuming it has a 15.20 micrometre thickness, the protective coating should last at least 10 years without fading, peeling or rubbing off.
Speaking of years, the StarTech metal laptop stand comes with a 5 year warranty, as well as a detailed user guide for assembly.
Included with the laptop stand is also a 10mm L-shaped double-ended hexagon offset socket wrench, which measures 12cm long and weighs 60 grams.