The Kensington CoolView Wellness is as the name suggests, part of its Wellness range of ergonomic desktop accessories. They are also very well priced for Christmas geek gifts.
We tried the Kensington CoolView Wellness monitor stand with Desk Fan that won’t break the bank.
Instead of putting a monitor on top of the Kensington CoolView Wellness, we placed a laptop, especially useful in our dual monitor production setup.
Kensington CoolView Wellness – monitor stand with Desk Fan
Website here
Price: $97 at Officeworks and wherever you see Kensington products
The 38 (W) x 24 (D) cm stand is a rectangular platform that raises a monitor or laptop by 10cm. It will hold up 20kg (although the website says 200lbs). Ergonomically its better for a monitor to sit at ‘eye’ height and that 10cm makes a huge difference to having to look down.
Kensington says it is suitable for monitors up to 27-inch, but again we feel that it really depends on the monitor base size. For example, my 38-inch HP z38c has a 30 x 24cm base, and it is quite stable on the base.
It sits on two power coated stirrups (for want of a better word) approx. 20 x 8.5 cm.
The 194 x 95 x 85mm USB fan unit sits inside the front stirrup. It has two speeds and an adjustable angle. Fan noise at 60cm away on speed low/high is 40/45dB – the low setting is quiet. The direction adjustment makes it easy to direct air down, away from your face.
The USB power is 1.2m long and only needs 5V/.5A (or higher) so you can plug it into a dock or spare USB-port. Kensington suggests that you can also take the fan out of the stirrup and use it as a desk fan – certainly a possibility especially it is relatively small and would sit under most monitors. A magnetic cable clip tides the cable.
But wait there is more – optional purifier and heater units
The design will accommodate an integrated WarmView heater (K55465NA) or FreshView air purifier (K55462WW)
I would have liked to try the FreshView, but it is not here yet. It provides ozone-free advanced filtration using a pre-filter with activated carbon and a HEPA 11 filter to remove 95% of common pollutants, including PM2.5, mould, bacteria, dust, particles and VOC odours and gases. The filters last up to 2000 hours, and replacement kits are available (K55463EU). Being small, its clean air delivery rate suits cubicles – it creates a microclimate around you.
The heater version is 250W and requires 240V power.
GadgetGuy’s take – Kensington CoolView Wellness monitor stand with Desk Fan
Who would use it?
Well, I would for starters – it is now part of my dual monitor and laptop setup. The fan is slightly loud on high but low is all you need. Fans circulate the air, and that is what you need in an office.
My only caveat is that you need a deeper desk. Mine is 90cm deep to accommodate the two large monitors, and I think you would feel a little less comfortable if you crammed it into a smaller 60cm desk.
I am going to experiment with placing the fan in a different spot.
Rating rationale: As a desk stand its perfect for raising monitors. As a desk fan its great for larger desks. It isa personal space product and does what it says.
You can find other Kensington product reviews here.
