Before you buy a dual monitor arm for your laptop be sure to read through this review. I used the LocTek Dual Monitor Arm (D7DP) for a week, and based on the criteria you’ve come to expect from NotSitting.com, these are my observations and recommendations.
LocTek Dual Monitor Arm Review Summary
NotSitting.com Product Rating: 3.6 / 5
- Stability –
- Reliability –
- Ergonomics –
- Experience –
- Aesthetics –
- Jeff’s Swing Vote –
The LocTek D7DP dual monitor arm is a very capable and functional multi-arm that holds your laptop and full size monitor with ease. It’s cable management system is clean and effective and it secures firmly to your desk. The rotation of the arms and mounts is impressive allowing an immense number of positioning options. A really nice feature of the stand is the USB, audio, and mic ports in the stand base, providing a stationary, desk-top connection point for your phone, headphones or headset.
This is a really convenient arm for those of us that run our business from a laptop. As you come and go you can essentially dock in to a place where everything works and leverage your laptop monitor and desk space rather than having an over size desk and second monitor.
One note, the instructions leave a bit of clarity to be desired. A bit of common sense was needed to get everything together. It was also very challenging to get the monitor arm on to the post. So much so that I needed a wooden mallet from the garage to tap it on. Once it was on I was able to work it in to position.
D7DP Feature Overview
The D7DP is at its best when you come and go with a Laptop computer. Your Lenovo, Mac, Dell or any other model, up to 17 inches, will fit in the holder easily and you can mount it on your desk in a ton of different positions. As you come and go with your laptop this monitor arm serves you as it provides the ability to use a large monitor and ergonomic workstation when you are at home-base. Be mindful that ergonomically this only really works if you are standing at the laptop or if you use a separate keyboard.
- Easy adjustment of monitor angle
- Simple adjustment of individual arm height on the post
- Simple adjustment of arm angle and position
- Audio, Mic, and USB ports at the base
- Flat top base allowing you to set something on it
- Cable management system on both arms
- Through-desk or clamp mount options
Jeff’s Improvement Areas:
- The cable management system is straightforward but could be significantly easier to open and close. After running several cables I had it figured out but I was concerned a couple times that I would break it. The first time, it was work.
- Your cables are probably not long enough to run from the monitor, down the arm, up the next arm and to the laptop through the cable management system. Since this is designed for large monitors this isn’t really avoidable… just don’t be surprised.
- Adjusting the arms for the weight of the monitor and laptop requires a tool. It works but with the position of the arms you cannot just move it around in a 360 degree arc, you have to do a half-circle and reset and do another. It takes time and requires a tool… something to improve.
- At points the instructions are unclear. You have to make sure you understand what you are building to do it right. Fortunately you only have to do this once.
LocTek Monitor Laptop Arm Specifications
- Materials: Aluminium, plastic, rubber
- Capacity: 19.8 pounds per arm
- Extension: 20.5 inches
- Desk Thickness: 0.79 to 4.72 inches
- Monitor Size: Up to 17.3 inches
- VESA Mounts: 75 mm and 100 mm
- Laptop Size: up to 17.3″
- Colors: Silver and Black
- Monitor Tilt Angle: -90 to +15 degrees
- Monitor Swivel Angle: 180 degrees
Setting up the Monitor Arm
Setting up the monitor arm is straightforward but the instructions are unclear in a couple areas, for example:
- I mounted the rubber foot for the laptop tray on the wrong side. When it was time to mount the tray it was obvious I was wrong.
- It was not clear which arm was intended to hold the laptop tray at one point. I had to look at the arms to make my own call on which one looked like it held the monitor. Had I mixed it up, it would have been obviously wrong a few steps later.
- I did have to get a wooden mallet to get one of the arms on to the post. The plastic insert fits very tightly, so much so that the aluminium post shaves off some of the plastic when you install the arm.
Using the LocTek with a Thunderbolt Monitor
The D7SP Dual Arm comes with a standard VESA mount for the monitor. It can handle your Thunderbolt or any other monitor up to 27 inches, or about 10 pounds per arm. However, if your monitor is made by Apple you need the appropriate converter, just like every other apple product.
LocTek provided this product so that you could get a review based on actual experience. Thank you LocTek!