I studied all the similar products sold by Amazon and others before choosing this one. Some reported a greasy finish. Yes, it had a tiny bit of protective oil. Bamboo doesn't absorb that, so after wiping for about a minute with a paper towel, the 2nd towel came up clean. No problems. The clips feel sturdy to me, but I have not used it long enough for them to "pop off" if they are going to. I'm not worried. I can easily use a better screw if these do not work, but I see no evidence to suggest they will be popping off. In fact, I love the clips! They're great!

The stand folds to a thickness of 1 ⅜ inches at its widest part. Most of it is less than an inch. Unfolded, in action, it's dimensions are 15 inches wide by 11 inches tall by about 7 inches deep (with support extended). Of course, the stand itself is only about as deep as a book. The ledge is 1 3/16 inches deep, enough to hold most books, especially when they are open. The clips exert a lot of force. Very sturdy bamboo construction. The fold-down back support is also milled bamboo with grooves for catching the metal bail which adjusts the tilt. The sturdy metal bail will allow the surface to tilt from about 20° to 45° off the vertical. 20° being the closest it gets to vertical, and 45° the closest it gets to laying flat. Of course, in your lap you may opt to just prop it on your legs without the aid of the support stand. It's made for tabletop, countertop, and desktop use, but if you wanted to use it in bed, you might get best results placing it on a tray, like a cafeteria tray or what we used to call TV dinner trays. Then the supporting back would have a flat surface to rest on.

I think most of the similar stands are too small. This one is 15" wide which provides support for sheet music (one of my main reasons for getting it), and large reference books or coffee-table books. It will hold dimestore novels, too, but most of the similar stands won't do justice to sheet music and the other books I just named.

There are no plastic parts. Yay! The wooden parts are sturdily joined with wood screws and possibly glue. I've tried using it in many ways now "” reading music, reading books, holding my business while I'm making phone calls and working, holding an iPad or iPhone or both "” and I'm sure I'll think of many more applications as time goes on. I believe this will be with me a long time, and because it's all wood, if anything DOES go wrong, I can fix it in 5 minutes with a screwdriver and screws of my choosing. I doubt I'll ever have to do that. I highly recommend this stand. It's practically perfect in every way, so 5 stars for this!

Well made, good value, makes reading hardcovers far, far easier

Just to be clear . . . I love this stand. I bought two of the smaller ones and wanted this wider, higher version . . . which brings me to why it only gets 4 stars. This is advertised as 11.2 inches high. Which it is NOT. Put a sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 paper on it. The top of the paper peeks up and out. Because this is not 11.2 inches high. At the most, it is 10.1 or 10.2 But not 11 inches high. I still love the stand but just wanted to let you know that it's not the height of a standard sheet of paper. I didn't measure the width because I was too ticked off at the lack of 11 inches in the height.

As you can see from the picture, the stand is made from strips of bamboo. It has an unfinished, rough texture to the surface. I am okay with that, but I am tempted to take some fine sandpaper to make it a little smoother. If it wasn't cracked, I would keep it. That strip of bamboo looks to be warped causing the separation. Simple design. Sturdy design. Looks like it is built to last. I will return for a replacement. I will give it 5-stars once I get one that isn't cracked.

[update] The replacement stand is in fine condition, so I updated to 5-stars.

This is the best bookstand I've found so far for under my computer screens. Nice solid bamboo construction, simple mechanism for tilt, reasonably good tines to hold papers or relatively small textbook. Foldable, in case you want to transport but mine isn't going anywhere.

This one is approximately 15 inches wide by 10 inches tall. The book ledge is about 1 inch deep. My ideal would be 24 wide by 12 tall, with a 2.5 to 3 inch ledge, so it could hold the 1400 page textbook I most recently contributed to. Please let me know if you come across that ideal bookstand size in bamboo.

Still, this is much better than what I had been using.