CushTop Cushions Laptop on Laps

My laptop and I can be pretty nomadic sometimes. Usually, I write at my desk, but I often find myself at night on the couch, laptop on lap, surfing the web while watching American Idol or The Office with my kids.

Not, as I've mentioned before, the most ergonomically correct way to work on a laptop. So I'm happy to be checking out Belkin's CushTop, a low-tech, common-sense solution to writing and surfing on a laptop when it's perched on what it's named for, laps.

It's a simple design that definitely makes working on a laptop on your lap more comfortable. By raising the laptop off my lap, my arms are at the correct angle and my shoulders feel much less tense. Also, my legs are not as warm as they usually are—not necessarily a bad thing in the winter. While Belkin makes no claims that the CushTop helps vent laptops, it removes the heat from your legs. Some laptops can get pretty hot. The heat from my laptop is not excessive, but it did seem to cause a noticeable odor to emanate from the polyurethane CushTop. This could be because it's new, but it's hard to tell so soon.

The price isn't bad ($32), but I'm not crazy about the colors. I'm testing an orange one, but it also comes in bright green and silver. Then again, I'm not designing a room around it, just using it to ease tension in my shoulders. And that it does.

Update: Belkin's Melody Chalaban writes that the odor will indeed go away in time. "It's called outgassing, and it's part of the foam," she says. "It is the same reason you have that new car scent when you buy a new vehicle." She adds that Belkin is coming out with a new color palette for the CushTop, including silver, beige, and brown.

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