I’m in love with this iPad Monitor arm

While I love my iPad and want to use it all the time, I have gone through so many devices over the year as a reviewer that it’s hard to keep it in front of my mind. So when Kuxiu reached out and asked if I wanted to review its new iPad monitor arm, I jumped at the chance to keep my iPad charged and on my desk at all times. I wasn’t sure how I would use it, but I knew it looked cool, so I was willing to take a shot.

When the arm arrived I clamped it down to my desk and quickly found out that it’s not like a traditional monitor arm. It’s very thin, so to support the weight of an iPad, it needs to be super stiff. It’s flexible enough to move into the position you want, but it’s not meant to move or be pulled towards you, which is disappointing considering its expensive $160 price tag.

That being said, I got it into position, and since the iPad Pro magnetically attaches to the arm, it is possible just to pull the iPad off and bring it closer to me manually instead of keeping it on the arm. So, in day-to-day use, I haven’t been as bothered by its lack of movement as I suspected. It’s really easy to pull it off too. The magnetic plate only covers about ¾ of the back of the iPad, so you can grab it at the bottom and peel it off the stand when you need it.

I have it next to my main monitor, and I’m not using it as a display with SideCar, but instead, I leave it as an iPad with a secondary app like Slack or my email open. Then, with Apple’s awesome Universal Control software, I just move my mouse seamlessly from my Mac to my iPad when I want to send messages and then back to my Mac when I need to write. If I were editing videos fullscreen, I’d use SideCar to host the Mac Finder app on the iPad’s display, but for now, this half Mac/half iPad situation has been working out well.

The killer feature is that the monitor arm’s magnetic plate has pogo pins in it, so as long as the arm is plugged in, it charges my iPad. It’s pretty annoying not to use your iPad for a few days and then come back to find it dead, so being able to leave it on the arm and pluck it off whenever I want to watch some TV while cooking or before bed has been a really nice experience since I don’t really need to worry about charging it anymore. The iPad now has a home, and as long as it makes it back there every two or three days, it usually has enough juice by the next time I need to take it on the go. The stand can also provide up to 18 watts via the contact points, so it usually charges the iPad fairly quickly.

At the end of this review, I’ve fallen for this little display arm, but I wish it was cheaper. Asking around $150 for a product that’s a glorified charging stand is really steep. The product image on the website also shows off a cool orange USB-C cable, but mine came with a rather standard black cable, which again isn’t the end of the world, but at this price, something with a little more flair would have been nice. You can buy one yourself on Kuxiu’s store for $157 right now or Amazon for $139.