Name: Space Bar
Brand: Quirky

TechRadar Verdict

Pros

+
Sleek and stylish
+
Frees up desk room
+
Conveniently placed USB ports

Cons

-
Might not support 27-inch iMac

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Products that get everything right are a rarity, but Quirky's Space Bar comes close to such perfection. Its design shows a great deal of attention to detail and aesthetics.

Crafted from brushed aluminium and finished with white plastic details, it's the perfect match for Apple's aluminium keyboard and an iMac. At 52cm long and 17cm deep, it's spacious enough to support most monitors, and is obviously an ideal fit for both the iMac and Apple Display's footprint.

The area underneath the device is 44cm wide and 1.5cm tall, which is big enough to stow a full-sized Apple USB keyboard with numeric keypad. If you need some more room on your desk and you're not using your Mac, just push your keyboard under the Space Bar and free up valuable space.

It's also enough for a closed Apple notebook, so you can connect your laptop to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, and keep it under the Space Bar while you use it in closed clamshell mode.

It's engineered to support up to 20lbs, which is enough for a 21-inch Apple iMac. On paper, the latest Apple displays are a little too heavy at 23.5lbs, but you'd probably be okay.

As well as a monitor raiser and desk tidy, the Space Bar also functions as a powered USB hub. When we previewed it in our Gadgets section back in MF219, the plan was to offer three ports on each side. The final release version still offers six ports, but two are at the rear of the device. It's better this way. The front-facing ports are less crowded, so plugged-in peripherals are less likely to block an adjacent port, and the rear-mounted ports are ideal for things you seldom unplug, like your keyboard or printer.

And while your digital camera, iOS device or other such peripheral is connected, the Space Bar also functions as a convenient shelf to keep them safe and tidy.

The Space Bar is an excellent mix of form and function. It looks great, is robustly built and does a great job of helping you organise your desktop. At £80 it's expensive, but not overpriced.

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