The Best Lap Desk of 2025 | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Sarah Witman

Sarah Witman is a writer focused on batteries and charging accessories. She has spent countless hours charging, discharging, and recharging batteries.

Lap desks are like the athleisure of workspaces — not the most elegant option, but generally comfortable and functional.

After extensive research and testing, we’re confident that the LapGear Designer Lap Desk is the best one to use while you’re working from a couch or bed.

It beat the competition in comfort and build quality, has one of the widest and sturdiest surfaces of any lap desk we tested, and offers extra storage options for your phone and other supplies.

A good lap desk keeps your legs cool when your laptop gets hot. We ruled out models without heat protection.

We decided not to consider lap desks smaller than 15 inches wide because they’re too small for comfortable use.

Lap desks should be just as comfortable for lefties as for righties, so we dismissed those with a bias toward one side.

You can find a ton of questionable lap desks. We passed on models with a C grade or lower on Fakespot.

This lap desk is the total package, offering comfort, stability, build quality, and style — and it includes some extra storage options, too.

The LapGear Designer Lap Desk has a clean design and comes in a variety of colors and patterns. It’s sturdy and well made, and it feels comfortable and cool on your lap, even for longer stretches of use.

This lap desk measures 17.75 inches across — wide enough to fit a 13-inch laptop and mouse, or a 15.6-inch laptop without accessories — and weighs about 2 pounds. It has a handle for carrying it around or hanging it up, a slot to perch your phone, and an elastic strap for storing index cards or a pen.

Plus, it has a short and unobtrusive plastic laptop rest toward the front edge to keep your stuff from sliding off the top, and it works equally well for left- and right-handed people.

Earlier in my career, I spent several years as a science journalist, covering a wide variety of topics, from particle physics to satellite remote sensing. Since joining Wirecutter in 2017, I’ve reported on the best surge protectors, pencils, mousetraps, and more.

In addition to drawing upon my own experience working from home and in flex-seating offices for the past several years, I consulted with more than a dozen other Wirecutter journalists, as well as a group of paid testers with varying heights, body types, and disabilities, to better understand the wide-ranging needs and wants of people who use lap desks.

For this guide:

You probably shouldn’t use a lap desk. Or not that often, anyway.

They’re ergonomically inferior to a regular desk and should be used for only up to an hour per day, according to workplace-health expert Alan Hedge. That said, life is short, and sometimes you need to work from a slouchier-than-usual sitting position. Enter the lap desk.

Lap desks have been around for centuries. Thomas Jefferson even used a lap desk of his own design. Made of solid mahogany, it weighed 5 pounds and had a built-in drawer for storing quills and ink to draft the Declaration of Independence.

If you don’t like our picks and are in the mood to spend, you can buy a replica of this Founding Father’s lap desk — or just make your own.

Most modern-day lap desks have padding, ventilation, and something to keep your phone, tablet, or laptop from sliding off, but their basic function is about the same. If you like to work on a laptop or tablet — or do a crossword, write thank-you notes, color, consult your tarot cards, whatever — on your couch or in bed, a lap desk can help.

Lap desks provide a work surface that’s flatter and more stable than your bare lap and should effectively shield your skin from laptop burn (we have details on that and other health considerations later on). They let you pick up your workstation and take it with you.

And they’re used by people with a wide array of needs: remote workers, retirees, commuters, college students, people with injuries or disabilities that prevent them from working at a desk, and more.

We chose not to test gaming lap desks or lapboards for this guide, and we don’t recommend them. Gaming laptops get very hot, which affects their performance, and that’s why there are so many products designed to keep them cool.

We also didn’t test wheelchair add-ons, weighted lap pads, breakfast trays, standing laptop carts, or lap desks for kids, deciding that they fell outside the scope of this guide. However, we plan to keep them in mind for future rounds of testing.

First, we scanned Amazon, Staples, Target, Walmart, and other retailers for the most popular and widely available options. From there, we crafted a rough list of lap desks to check out, taking the following factors into consideration.

With the above criteria in mind, we asked several Wirecutter staffers to test nearly two dozen lap desks in 2019 and again in 2021 by using them to work on a laptop for at least 30 minutes per lap desk and then filling out a survey after each one. Afterward, I tested each lap desk for an hour or more.

Throughout it all, we took note of the following factors, listed in order of importance:

In 2025, we did another round of research and brought nine new models to a group of paid testers. We asked them to assess comfort, aesthetics, and how useful the extra features were. With their feedback we narrowed the list of contenders, and Arriana then spent a full workday with each.

This lap desk is the total package, offering comfort, stability, build quality, and style — and it includes some extra storage options, too.

Of all the lap desks we considered, the LapGear Designer Lap Desk is the one I would buy for myself. It’s comfortable to use and has a sturdy-feeling build. At 17.75 inches across, it’s wide enough to fit a 13-inch laptop and mouse comfortably, or just a 15-inch or 17-inch laptop, and it works equally well for left- and right-handed people.

It raises your work surface above your bare lap by more than 3 inches and weighs just over 2 pounds. A handful of small touches stand out — a plastic laptop rest to help your stuff stay put, a phone slot, a handle, an elastic strap for storing index cards or a pen — and overall it has a cute, clean-cut look.

If you want a little extra surface space, we also tested and liked the slightly wider version, which measures about 18.5 inches.

It’s enjoyable to use. The top surface of the lap desk, made of a warm-colored, faux-wood laminate, is comfortable to work on. Its smooth, matte finish shouldn’t chafe your wrists as you type, draw, practice calligraphy, or handwrite the first draft of your novel. We prefer this texture to dimpled plastic like that of the LapGear Memory Foam Lap Desk, or the slick, shiny surface of other desks we tried.

The padding conforms to your needs. The padding on the underside of the Designer Lap Desk is filled with microbeads (little foam pellets) and encased in a soft, comfortable, canvas-like polyester material. It feels squishy yet stable because the pellets inside allow it to conform to the shape of your lap better than solid foam padding. You can even adjust the angle, roughly, to fit your position.

Software engineer Nazanin Hesamzadeh said she loves the versatility of the desk’s design: “No matter where you sit, or how, there is no problem in adjusting it. When I was sick, it was good to have it in bed to put my plate on.”

It looks nice. The Designer Lap Desk is one of the most attractive models we tested. It’s simple and stylish-looking, and it has a streamlined shape that’s easy to tuck under a couch or next to a bedside table.

Its faux-wood top is a warm honey color that complements the white details. The handle and the bottom cushion come in a variety of vibrant colors and patterns, giving you lots of options to match your personal style.

It’s well built. Even though its topper is not made of real wood (which might look and feel more luxurious but would also be heavier), the Designer Lap Desk feels sturdy and well constructed. The materials seem durable, and because they’re petroleum-based, they’re easy to wipe down and spot-clean. In contrast, we struck plenty of models from our testing list upon noticing a pattern of owner reviews reporting shoddy workmanship and cheap-looking materials.

It supports a decent sitting posture. The Designer Lap Desk raises your laptop about 3 inches off the surface of your lap, about an inch higher than most of the other models we tested. This helps with both heat management and ergonomics versus a bare lap.

It’s not too heavy or too large. This lap desk weighs about 2 pounds and feels similar to the weight of a thick wool blanket laid across your lap. It’s big enough to fit a 13-inch laptop and a wireless mouse, or a larger laptop up to 17 inches wide without a mouse.

It keeps your laptop in place. The small lip on the Designer Lap Desk’s near edge, a 6-inch strip of white plastic only a half-inch tall, is just wide enough to ensure that your laptop doesn’t slide onto your abdomen while you’re typing. But it also doesn’t prevent you from comfortably using a wireless mouse or writing on the lap desk, regardless of the hand you use.

Some other models we tested had laptop clasps or other features that our testers said were annoying and impeded the basic functions of the lap desk.

The additional features are thoughtful and don’t get in the way. The Designer Lap Desk has a little slot to prop up your phone or to store a pen and pencil. An elastic strap in the corner — a feature we’ve seen on only one other model — provides additional storage for index cards or other small items that you wouldn’t want to go sliding off the edge.

The Designer Lap Desk comes with a solid warranty. LapGear backs all of its lap desks with a one-year warranty and has a robust web presence. When we called customer service anonymously, a representative picked up right away and offered to ship a replacement, no questions asked.

We wish it came in a solid, neutral color. We like the look of the LapGear Designer Lap Desk overall, but bold prints like paisley and argyle aren’t for everyone. However, since the lap desk comes in a wide variety of patterns (seven at this writing), we think most people are likely to find a decently appealing one, even if it wouldn’t be their first choice.

Although lap desks are not as good for your posture as an ergonomic work setup with a real desk, they’re still better than no desk at all. Aside from the fact that they provide a more even, stable work surface than the average lap, there are some medical reasons to use lap desks, too:

If you want something bigger, sturdier, and more sophisticated-looking, and you don’t mind paying a hefty premium for it: Consider the Cooper Desk Pro XL. It has a removable laptop rest at the bottom of the work surface, as well as legs that allow you to adjust the height and angle for improved ergonomics. This lap desk has a handy little drawer underneath for storing pens and other small things, plus a lengthy slot at the top to hold a phone or tablet.

Whereas most of the lap desks with legs we tested wouldn’t look out of place in a hospital, the Cooper Desk Pro XL embodies home-office chic. Its legs are made of brushed aluminum, with black plastic crossbars that are curved up like skis, so gliding it out from under you is easier. The black plastic tabletop is even covered in a layer of black faux leather.

However, this lap desk has a few key drawbacks. First, at 24 inches wide, it’s bigger than many people are likely to want. (Though if you have generous hips or a larger body, fitting between this desk’s legs may be a tight squeeze.)

Also, this Cooper lap desk weighs more than twice as much as our other picks — nearly 8 pounds, or roughly the weight of a newborn baby. Finally, it’s the priciest lap desk we tested, costing twice as much as our top pick from LapGear. But if you don’t mind those drawbacks, or if it goes on sale, don’t hesitate to get it.

If you like the look of bamboo and don’t mind the extra weight: You might prefer the LapGear Bamboo Pro Lap Board to our top pick. It feels sturdy and stable on your lap, and its honey-colored bamboo wood is durable, plentiful, and relatively sustainable to harvest.

It has a faux-leather laptop rest that doubles as a firm, comfy cushion for your wrists. It also has three sizable slots for your phone, tablet, and other supplies, whereas most models we tested had only one. The honeycomb-shaped cutouts in the center add ventilation for your laptop, and the mousepads on both sides accommodate both lefties and righties.

However, the Bamboo Pro Lap Board wasn’t an unqualified favorite in our testing. Testers either adored or abhorred its minimal aesthetic. And since it has no padding on the bottom, it feels like you have a plank of wood on your lap, albeit a nicely sanded and varnished one.

It’s also much heavier (almost 5 pounds, whereas the Designer Lap Desk weighs just 2 pounds) and wider (22 inches) than anything else we tested. That’s more lap desk than most people need.

We liked the beaded pillow on the LapGear Ergo Pro Lap Desk, as it was comfortable and easy to massage into the perfect angle. The laptop tray can be set to any of 20 heights, providing a wide range of working positions, and there’s a place for a phone and a dedicated pen slot. The mousepad offers more friction than a traditional mousepad, which helps grip your mouse and prevent it from sliding off the lap desk when not in use — an issue we had on other lap desks with dedicated mouse pads.

But it’s a right-hand-oriented design, so if you’re left-handed or don’t have a use for the mousepad, it can be uncomfortable to use. This model is also listed as a final-sale item on the LapGear website, so we’re not sure how long it’ll remain in stock.

Like the LapGear Ergo Pro, the LapGear Home Office Lap Desk and the LapGear Elevation Pro Lap Desk place the laptop rest on the left side and a mouse rest on the right side of the work surface. This design makes the tray impractical for lefties. And if you don’t use a mouse, it can be awkward to use your laptop when it’s off-center. In addition, the mousepad area on these lap desks is made of a slippery material, so if you have the lap desk at an angle, the mouse slides off the moment you let go.

Both the Huanuo Laptop Lap Desk (HNLD12) and the Gorilla Grip Laptop Lap Desk are small lap desks, and the slot for holding a phone or tablet is right behind the monitor screen — with a phone in the holder, we couldn’t fully open our laptop without its hitting the phone, which prevented us from getting a comfortable viewing angle.

The Huanuo Adjustable Lap Desk (HNLD2) felt cheaply constructed. All of our testers worried that it would break easily, and some were concerned about its weight distribution and the possibility of its flipping backward off their laps if they didn’t use their wrists to hold it down.

The Huanuo Lap Desk (HNLD3) looks nice, but the large, rounded cushion toward the back of the desk slipped off the knees of our testers with shorter laps. Many testers also found the wrist cushion too tall for comfort.

The Wishacc XL-Large Oversized Lap Desk is similar to our top pick but larger, and it has a bamboo surface. At 24 inches wide, this model is simply too big to use comfortably. Wishacc also has a smaller, 21-inch version, but we’ve noticed stock issues with that model.

The Saiji Laptop Lap Desk is a large, premium-feeling lap desk. What sets it apart is a small phone/monitor mount that you can stow when you aren’t using it. But that feature didn’t work for us; the mount can hold a phone only if it’s in a thin case, and when we placed a thin portable monitor in the stand, it felt loose and unstable. Measuring 21.3 inches wide and weighing 3.5 pounds, this lap desk felt somewhat awkward to maneuver and use, as well.

The large, 19-inch size of Arlo Skye’s The Stowaway Lap Desk made it cumbersome to use for our testers, and the microbeads in the cushioned base felt like hard plastic in comparison with the soft compression beads found in our top pick. Plus, the docking tray is too narrow for anything but a mobile phone or tablet, making it inaccessible for people who pair their devices with thicker cases.

The Huanuo HNLD11 felt flimsy and cheap next to our top pick. And at 16.5 inches wide, it’s an awkward size — a bit too small for daily use and too big for travel. Plus, the fleece material on the bottom got warm more quickly than the padding on most other options we tested.

The LapGear MyDesk Lap Desk, measuring 17.5 inches wide, has a generously sized workspace but is not as sturdy or stylish as the company’s Designer Lap Desk. Also, while the fleece material on the bottom was velvety-soft, it got too warm on testers’ laps.

We found the dimpled plastic surface on the LapGear Memory Foam Lap Desk unpleasant to write on. Plus, the lip around its tablet slot created an uneven surface for a laptop or notepad.

The Mind Reader LTADJUST lacked a storage compartment, and its fleecy padding was soft but too warm for comfort.

The Executive Office Solutions Portable Adjustable Aluminum Laptop Desk and the PWR+ Laptop Table are nearly identical models with built-in, USB-powered fans to keep your laptop (and your lap) cool. We thought they might be a good option for people who edit video or who run lots of programs on their laptop, generating more heat than is typical.

However, these models were not easy to set up and use — each leg has three joints that you must manually adjust to a precise angle — and they were not substantially better at keeping our laps cool than other legged lap desks we tried. Also, these lap desks’ legs extend straight down from their work surface, leaving just over 18 inches for your legs in between them, so if you have hips like Kim Kardashian’s, it’s going to be a tight squeeze.

The Saiji Adjustable Laptop Stand appears to be nearly identical to the Cooper Desk Pro XL, which we recommend for people who want something more substantial than our top pick. It features collapsible legs and generous height and angle adjustments, so it’s ideal for someone who doesn’t like the weight of a lap desk against their body. But it weighs 9 pounds, more than four times as much as our top pick, the LapGear Designer Lap Desk, and 2 pounds heavier than the Cooper Desk Pro XL, so it’s cumbersome to use. Although this model offers a wide, 23-inch work surface, people with larger bodies or wide hips may still have difficulty sitting comfortably between its legs: One tester, who measures 5-foot-3 and has 40-inch-wide hips, occasionally struggled to rearrange how they sat beneath it.

Arriana Vasquez contributed reporting. This article was edited by Ben Keough and Erica Ogg.

Sarah Witman

I research and test a wide variety of batteries, including some that are smaller than a Tootsie Roll (for tiny gadgets such as a stylus or penlight) or bigger than an overweight English bulldog (to keep vital electronics running during a power outage or camping trip). To test chargers, I’ve spent countless hours waiting for the batteries in my phone, laptop, and other household appliances to die—just so I could recharge them. Outside of my usual coverage areas, I’ve reported on the best wooden pencils, mousetraps, massage chairs, and scented candles for Wirecutter.

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