Nulaxy currently makes the best desktop cell phone/tablet holder. The Nulaxy brand, what a name. It immediately brings to mind the thought of new luxury, and man does it feel luxurious to have a hands free viewing experience throughout your residence. The Nulaxy Adjustable Tablet Stand model L2 is exceptional for that cell phone/tablet computing experience you've been looking for. What makes this Nulaxy tablet holder so exceptional is its weighted base, which allows it to counteract the weight of a tablet that is being held in its jaws. So as long as you aren't overextending the holder in some weird angle, there is no fear of the holder tipping over and endangering your hard earned tech! While there aren't any screws or bolts that are exposed to be adjusted for tightening if need be to increase the resistance so that the holder doesn't droop.

We found that it's unnecessary in the case of Nulaxy, since we have yet to experience it wanting to wander. The holder is strong enough for you to interact with the touchscreen without it moving too much. The holder has an aluminum alloy arm that extends from the weighted metal base. This arm can rotate around its horizontal axis on the base 360 degrees. This joint also rotates around the vertical axis about 160 degrees The arm then meets up at a second joint that allows for a range of movement to up around 130 degrees in the vertical axis, from there another arm continues to a third joint that can rotate in the vertical axis 180 degrees. From there is a short metal arm section that goes into a socket on the back of the holder. This socket allows for rotating about its axis 360 degrees. We found that if this arm was sticking out parallel to Earth, no matter how we orientated our tablet about this axis, gravity wasn't going to affect it. So it stayed in place.

The tablet/cell phone holder bracket itself is actually plastic with soft silicone lining the gripping jaws and the panel for the back of your phone or tablet to rest on. Nulaxy's mounting bracket has cutouts within the gripping jaws for access to the ports on your device The jaws can be extended out and is retentioned by springs that are super strong. Its a workout to get a tablet within the jaws of the bracket. The mounting bracket is designed to hold 4-11 inch devices. The weighted base weighs 3lbs. The arm can extend your tablet vertically up to 15.7 inches in height when fully expanded. Tablets that are larger than 11 inches or thicker than 13mm though will not fit this holder. This tablet/cell phone stand was excellent for everything from sitting and working at a desk with a wireless keyboard connected to our cell phone or tablet, to having a movie play or watching the news while we cooked in the kitchen. The Nulaxy tablet stand was money well spent!

AboveTEK creates futuristic articulating arm stands for tablet,cell phone holder use. While we rated the Nulaxy above AboveTEK's offering, in actuality AboveTEK has more innovative features, it's just that the quality of the build could be improved by using better materials and a heavier weighted base. We are looking at the AboveTEK Long Arm Aluminum Tablet Stand TS-196B which fits 4-11 inch tablets/phones. The arm is similar for the first two joints to Nulaxy except that the first joint can rotate about the vertical axis 180 degrees, and the second joint housing is plastic and there is plastic within the holes of the aluminum arms. Where AboveTEK's strengths are, is in its ability to tighten or loosen these joints as you desire so you don't have to worry if things loosen up in the future. Also if you just want to make it more rigid and stay in place, it will do that.

 The base is the biggest fault of this holder since it is too thin and light to withstand holding tablets or even its own weight very far away from center, without it tipping over from the weight. The second part of the arm has an attachment to it for a ball joint. This attachment has a slot within it that allows part of the ball joint to slide into it and gain a 90 degree orientation that it is now locked in. The attachment can be loosened and rotated 360 degrees around the arm to allow a 90 degree locked in orientation to be achieved from any angle. The end of the attachment is open and the ball joint extends out of that to the mounting bracket. There is a plastic knob for tightening or loosening the attachment to tighten down or loosen the orientation of the ball joint which in turn affects the orientation of the mounting bracket. This allows for a lot of complex angles to be achieved.

Finally the ball joint actually has a plastic wing nut on the end of it that tightens down onto the mounting bracket. This allows for switching mounting brackets so if you need a larger mounting bracket, one can be ordered from AboveTEK and the bracket can be easily switched. These are amazing features but the downside is the materials that they are made out of is plastic. So they can wear and break. It would have been better if these items were made out of metal for durability. AboveTEK's arm can elevate your phone or tablet 15.6 inches vertically when the arm is fully extended. The Mounting Bracket itself is better than Nulaxy's option because it has extenders that come out that back of the holder that act as hand holds for you to interact with, allowing for a much easier mounting and unmounting experience of whatever phone or tablet you are using.

Just as Nulaxy's mounting bracket has cutouts within the gripping jaws for access to the ports on your device, AboveTEK has the same thing. Besides the standard 4-11 inch mounting bracket the holder comes with, you can order a 5.5-13.5 inch Tablet holder for those larger thicker phones or tablets that you may have a thick case on. It is not only able to extend out further but the face your items rest on is 4.63 inches wide by 5.63 inches long. So there is much more surface area for a tablet to rest against providing sturdier backing when you want to interact with the device.

AboveTEK has another offering called a Table Mount that is even more exceptional for mounting to desks, benches, or bookcases. Officially it is called the TS-398B. This fixes the greatest flaw that the desktop stand had, which is the sturdiness of the base. It has a clamp at the base of the arm that extends to a maximum of 1.5 inches and closes to a minimum of 0.4 inches. Within the clamp there are rubber feet so if you have a surface that you're worried about damaging, your worries are covered. The bracket tightens down by a knob on the backside of it. We would have liked this knob to be made out of metal like the rest of the bracket since it's what you will be putting pressure on to tighten the clamp down, but the device performs really well!

The rest of the arm and its features remain the same as the desktop version but due to the sturdy clamping force, now you can get all types of angles and even have your devices hanging off the edge of whatever surface you are mounting to without fear of it getting damaged. This table mount only weighs .09lbs and has a range of 15 inches, fitting the same 4-11 inch cell phone or tablet devices. You could have the bracket mounted to a table and be working at the table looking at a diagram of how to assemble something. Then you could move to the floor to do some assembly and rotate the device around to follow you and provide a viewing angle to keep referencing back to the diagram. Or you could just have a comedian on to entertain you while you work.

QZTELECTRONIC also produces a table mount tablet stand folding arm. This is the solution for those who need greater range and flexibility, like in the case of wanting to mount the holder to the headboard of your bed or night stand and be able to enjoy hands free viewing. It holds 4-13 inch phones or tablets. It can extend out to a maximum of 32 inches. It has three metal arms to it that have 4 springs between the first three joints that can hold a maximum of 2.2lbs. The holder comes with replacement springs that can hold a max weight limit of 3.3lbs. The second joint has two plastic knobs for tightening motion down. The third joint has one plastic knob, and the finally leading to a dual ball joint allowing for a range of movement and angles to position the attached mounting bracket, since the arm itself doesn't really do any rotating. Unlike AboveTEK's offering, this ball joint and housing is metal. Even the knob for tightening down is also metal.

The mounting bracket for your tablet or cell phone is actually a flimsy type of plastic with soft pads on it to protect your device from scratches. There is a sliding mechanism that can expand or shrink the space between the jaws of the mounting bracket. This sliding mechanism can be locked into place with a quick release clamp on the back of the bracket arm. We would have liked this mounting bracket to be made out of a sturdier plastic or even metal, but it does the job of holding your device. The end of the arm that goes into the table mounting bracket is just round metal. The clamp it mounts into simply tightens down on it using a knob to keep the arm in place. Once again these knobs are plastic. The table mount bracket itself is metal. It has a maximum opening of 3.27 inches to clamp down on whatever surface presented. The arm can be used in a vertical or horizontal orientation. It can be extended up, or hanging down. No matter the orientation you won't have to worry about the device getting damaged and you can enjoy to your heart's content.