Review: Just Mobile AluBase and AluRack for MacBook Pro and Air

Laptops take up a good chuck of desk space when not in use, and Just Mobile attempts to rectify that with products which stand a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air upright. The $49 AluBase is a freestanding product which turns your MacBook vertical, while the $59 AluRack mounts to the rear of an iMac or Apple monitor and allows you to tuck your MacBook away behind it.

The two brushed metal silver aluminum products manage to sidestep any metal-on-metal concerns by use of a white rubber inner lining which keeps your MacBook securely in place with no opportunity to slide around. The AluBase is designed for the Retina Display MacBook Pro, but comes with an insert for use with the much thinner MacBook Air. I like the AluBase quite a bit for use with the Pro. With the insert it holds the Air quite securely in place as well, but I’d like to have seen a separate narrower AluBase product to complement the Air’s svelteness.

The AluRack, because it’s slightly tilted, doesn’t need to form-fit the product it supports. So you can lean a MacBook Pro or Air in there without the need for an insert. And as Just Mobile points out, slimmer hard drives will fit back there as well, potentially giving you a place to stash your iMac’s backup drive without it taking up desk space.

While both products will hold your MacBook plenty securely, setting your MacBook upright is likely best done if you’re not in the kind of hectic, bustling environment where things often get bumped into. But as if often the case with Just Mobile products, the AluBase and AluRack are both elegant in a minimalist manner, and fit right in stylistically with Apple’s silver brushed metal computer designs.

Price: $49 and $59 • AluBase • AluRack