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Twelve South Debuts Curve Flex Stand for MacBooks

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Apr 12, 2001
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Twelve South today announced the launch of the Curve Flex, a new stand that's designed for Apple's MacBooks. The Curve Flex can be used as a desktop wedge or it can be adjusted to meet your viewing needs, as it can be elevated from 2 to 22 inches.

twelve-south-curve-flex-1.jpg

Designed to be versatile, the Curve Flex can be collapsed down so it can be used at home or on the go, with Twelve South including a travel sleeve.

twelve-south-curve-flex-2.jpg

The Curve Flex comes in matte black or matte white, and is ideal for increasing the height of your laptop for video calls or to match the height of an external display. It also adjusts the angle of the keyboard up to 45 degrees.

twelve-south-curve-flex-3.jpg

The Curve Flex is priced at $80, and it can be purchased from the Twelve South website today.

Article Link: Twelve South Debuts Curve Flex Stand for MacBooks
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/08/16/twelve-south-curve-flex-stand/
First time hearing about this, but just placed an order.

Last week, I had to go into the office and had an important video conference. Because I'm sensitive to the camera height on my 14" MacBook Pro, I literally took a small folded-down Amazon box with me, and unfolded it to get more height. Although that worked great, this is way more elegant and a better long-term solution.
 
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Everything I see stands like this I think to myself what a waste the laptop's keyboard & trackpad is. If only an iPad ran macOS (what a concept!)...
 
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Moonjumper said:
Why is it so common to show adjustable stands set up wrongly for ergonomics? Eyes should be level with the top of the screen (a change to my usual rant about poor Apple ergonomics regarding screen height).
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the future said:
Looks great! Most other stands just don‘t elevate the screen enough.
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Spot on. I see so many people with really bad posture. Sit up as straight as you comfortably can, keep your head up and your arms should lay flat or slightly downward to your keyboard. That means a height adjustable chair and quite possibly desk too - depending on your shape. But it most definitely means getting the screen way up higher than most people have it. Use your eyes to look down, not your neck.
 
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ArrayDecay said:
It looks a lot nicer than the stack of old programming books I currently use--but it's no more functional.
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I would argue that it is more functional than a stock of books or a box. If you need minimal use of the keyboard and/or trackpad, it will be easier to type in the "angled" position you get with this product vs. the flat horizontally-raised manner that a stack of books would allow for.
 
I have their Curve. It’s okay, but would be nicer to control height like this. What I really want is one like the Roost v3 that folds up way smaller than this but it doesn’t seem quite as stable.
 
Functionally it looks like a broken MacBook waiting to happen. The pivot point for tipping over is in the far back, so if someone accidentally bumps the setup they might have a broken MacBook to fix. Form over function is senseless, and in this case way over priced too!
 
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BeatCrazy said:
I once had a smallish manufacturer tell me that he couldn't make and sell a basic metal rectangular box for <$100.

Between tooling, design, manufacturing, packaging and distribution costs, there's just not a lot of margin in these type of bespoke products.
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I see. I suppose I have my doubts, but of course, I could be wrong.

A long time ago, I bought Twelve South's stand for iPads. The stand looked like a compass. In theory and design it looked great and felt solid. But in practice, the design was terrible because any time you pull the stand forward, the legs would collapse. The product wasn't cheap either though I don't recall how much it was. That stand is now no longer in use.

A bit later, I bought Twelve South's riser/stand for iPhone which also in theory and design looked great and felt solid. But in practice and in time, I discovered that the stand created dimples along the back of the iPhone case where it rested on the stand.

These days, I tend to stay away from these types of accessories as they don't seem to perform and maintain quality as much as one would expect. :(
 
w5jck said:
Functionally it looks like a broken MacBook waiting to happen. The pivot point for tipping over is in the far back, so if someone accidentally bumps the setup they might have a broken MacBook to fix. Form over function is senseless, and in this case way over priced too!
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Interesting! I see what you mean about the potential for accidental "spills". I hadn't notice that until you mentioned it. This reminds me of the iPad stand that Twelve South designed (looked like a compass). It felt really solid and looked good, but in practice, there were at least 2 issues with that very expensive product:
1. pulling the stand forward or backwards to adjust for position would eventually collapse the stand and it would happen suddenly without warning
2. placing the stand in reading/writing position with the iPad in, if I recall, in landscape mode would create a wobble back and forth as you use the iPad. The legs of the stand did not spread far enough to support this kind of activity even though it is an advertised ability of the stand AND pictured in their company ads.

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I see that your signature says this: "Old Mac user. My first Apple computer was the Apple II+ in 1981 before most of you were even born. My first Mac was the Mac SE in 1985. Currently using MacBook Air M1 with 16GB RAM & 1TB SSD."

That reminds me: my first Apple was the Apple ][e, although it wasn't made by Apple; it was a copy of an Apple ][e, probably not legal :). My first Mac was an SE/30. How far computers have come!
 
I'm more of an external monitor + notebook in clamshell mode + keyboard + trackpad kind of person. These stands often look weird to me.
 
Another not for me item. I'd rather spend that money on an external monitor, since multiple monitors setups makes me more productive. I'm curious as to how long before the load bearing hinges fail.🤔
 
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