Less is more: Dataflex's Bento Laptop Table

For most of us, fixed desks and fixed routines are fading memories.  We move from workplace to workplace, space to space, from meetings, brainstorms and de-briefs to videoconferences. We snatch at time for 'shallow' catch-ups on our e-mails, Slack messages and shot-to-pieces schedules and look for a secluded spot to sink into 'deep' work.

It's a better way of doing things but it takes some adjustment, and smarter management of time and space. It also demands a different kind of office. The days of ranked desks – inflexible workspaces for inflexible working – seem numbered. New activity-based working environments offer different spaces and seating for different needs – conference rooms, breakout areas, cafes for collaboration, hot desks for screen time and cocoons for concentration.

Founded in 1982, Dataflex is a Dutch company that designs, manufactures and supplies ergonomic computer workplace accessories that combine high functionality, competitive pricing and timeless design with sustainable materials. Dataflex aims to help make the place where people work one where they also feel at home. They call this ‘feeling at work’. 

Dataflex has recognised the greater mobility of the modern worker and so the increased reliance on the laptop, our new constant companion. Its new in-house-designed Bento laptop table is a 'touchdown workstation', small and light enough to move wherever it’s needed, from soft seating to task chair. Offering an instant, adjustable micro-desk, the Bento laptop table means far less shoulder-sapping, neck-stiffening hunching, crunching and slouching.

And if the Bento laptop table is small in stature and weight, it's big on personality – minimalist but elegantly rounded. Key to its design is a square, flat foot, offering reassuring stability, and a height-adjustable, angled pole, making it easy to establish a super comfortable working basecamp for a couple of hours. It's also the perfect support for in-meeting screen sharing and note-taking.

Available in black or white, the Bento laptop table sinks as low as 55.5 cm, can stretch to 75 cm and is as moveable but rock-steady on carpets as hard floors. It can also support up to 15 kg – more than sturdy enough for your laptop and a very big cup of coffee.

The Bento range, first introduced in 2019, was created to add functionality, flexibility and considered design into a modern, multi-functional office. The Bento ergonomic toolbox, inspired by the Japanese lunch box, is a particular favourite. The perfect storage box for notebooks, pens, reading matter, devices and, of course, your packed lunch, it doubles as laptop or tablet support. And, of course, it’s the perfect complement for the Bento laptop table.

You can expect more from the Bento range soon but it’s not the only way Dataflex is future focused. It has long been committed to sustainable manufacturing, is fully transparent about the environmental footprint of all its products and is 100% carbon neutral. As of January 2023, Dataflex is a certified B Corp, putting it in the vanguard of socially and environmentally sustainable business.

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