The Satechi F1 monitor stand is simple and does what it needs to do. The only thing that really surprised me is the not so solid feeling build quality. For $34-ish dollars you'd expect to get something that felt a little more sturdy, but then again these are one of the cheaper risers that has USB ports. The base is made of a cheap feeling plastic and when tapped on feels almost entirely hollow. I'm pretty sure the thought behind it being hollow is weight, Satechi probably wanted this to be a light weight riser. This sacrifices what could be put on it, the max weight is about 22lbs. The USB hub works fine but does eat up some system resources to power 4 more USB 2.0 ports plus some more if you're using them to transfer data. Overall it does what it needs to do and elevates my laptop so I may look straight rather than looking down at my laptop (I'm crazy about ergonomics).

I do recommend this product if you NEED something that has USB ports and doesn't cost TOO much.

This is my second Smart Monitor Stand. While I really enjoyed my first stand, and still use it at home, this stand may be defective. There seems to be an issue with this stand and the USB ports. I have a new Macbook Pro (2017), and in order for my bluetooth keyboard and mouse to operate, I have to remove and replace the USB adapter every single time I plug in to my office desktop setup. I suspect that there is some compatibility issue with the new Macbooks, but I can't be sure. I have a brand new Microsoft Sculpt Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse and am using certified Apple brand connectors to connect to my desktop monitor, the Satechi stand, and my Macbook power cord.

Very cheap looking, cheap materials, the silver legs don't latch into the base -- you have to place them in to the holes underneath and actually hold them in while you put this thing on the table...to put my $2,000 iMac on? Nope!! I was looking forward to the white and the fun lime green color of this, but was disappointed to see how low quality, hollow plastic this thing was. Not really that smooth either. Just cheap. Please look elsewhere. Even if you're not putting an expensive computer on it, I wouldn't trust it...and, again, it looks terrible.

I was going to return this, but I'm having a hard time finding a monitor stand that I like better than this one that I can afford and that would fit on my desk. This stand fits perfectly on my desk and was insanely easy to put together (you just literally put the legs on and they snap into place). There's enough room for me to put my keyboard underneath it and to put stuff on the top of it next to my computer like my computer mouse when I want more space on my desk for doing homework. My complaint about it is that the speaker/microphone ports do not work. Whenever I plug my speaker into it, everything coming from my speaker sounds terrible - like my speaker is really far away and underwater and it's broken. It's inaudible and therefore unusable. I tried unplugging and plugging the wires that go from the stand to the back of my computer and rearranging them and so forth - each time the same bad result with the horrible sound quality. There is nothing wrong with the speaker itself. It's also brand new and I've tested it out with other devices like my iPad and iPod and it works fine. I know the USB ports work on this monitor stand because I was able to charge something using them. Maybe if I bought this stand used with the knowledge that everything was perfect except the microphone/speaker connections and the price was significantly less, or if it just didn't come with this feature and the price was significantly less, I'd be okay with it. But the fact that it's supposed to be a "Smart" monitor stand is one of the reasons I wanted to buy it so I could plug my speaker into it and set it next to my monitor. Other than the problem with the microphone/speaker connections, the stand looks nice and works well for my needs.

Tough to rate this one three stars. If not for the better version (Satechi F3 Smart Monitor Stand with Four USB 3.0 Ports and Headphone / Microphone Extension Ports (White)), I'd give it five. But why buy this when for a little more $$ you can get USB 3? I bought this one first (by mistake) and wound up bringing it to the office so I could upgrade my stand at home to the F3 model. Here's my review from the better version:

Tremendous. I love this thing. I placed it on top of my computer desk to give some vertical height and improve viewing angles. What it also does is improve cord management and makes the desk much cleaner when using headphones and USBs - for thumb drives, charging phones, etc. You can also get extra storage neatly placed under the stand. The only negative I have is the wires they provide for the USB and the audio connections are much too short. Mine don't have far to travel and it's still tough to navigate (hence my review of the Bush desk where I indicate I may drill a small hole to shorten the distance from this - or get an extender). Since I also use this as a pseudo docking station at work (I turn it backwards and plug in my keyboard and mouse into the stand's USB ports, then just hook a single USB wire to my laptop to connect everything at once) I'm giving it the full five stars.