Features Tech & Hardware The Couchmaster Cyboss “sofa desk” is a nice idea — but it’s cumbersome ByKim Snaith 28 June 202424 June 2024
Since getting a dog two years ago, our home office has been basically abandoned. When he was a puppy, it was easier to stay downstairs with him, working on laptops. It’s a trend that’s stayed as he’s grown up: he can’t be left alone, and so staying downstairs with him, with his toys and room to run around, has been easier. I miss working at a desk, though, and Nerdytec’s range of Couchmaster “sofa desk” products seemed like a good compromise.
Nerdytec was founded in 2011 by two friends who wanted a way to play PC games without sitting at an actual desk. And so the Couchmaster was born. In the last decade, multiple versions have become available. I’ve recently got my hands on the Couchmaster Cyboss, the biggest desk offered by the company. And big it is.
The desk is a metre long, giving enough room for your laptop, a mouse pad and a range of papers, accessories and whatever else you want in front of you. There’s also a cupholder and a slot to use as a stand (although it’s rather narrow, so you’ll struggle to fit many phones and tablets in there, especially if they’re in a case). Essentially, there’s everything you could possibly want on a desk — but on your sofa.
The Couchmaster comes in three pieces: there are two long, firm cushions that go either side of you, then the desk that sits on top. It’s a heavy desk, coated in bamboo, and it feels very sturdy. It’s all well-made, and the cushions even have pockets in the side to store more things (TV remotes, snacks, whatever you want!) in easy reach. The problem is, once you’ve got yourself in, with the Couchmaster pieces wrapped around you, it’s a pain in the butt when you need to move again.
With the desk being so heavy — even moreso when you’ve got your laptop and your bits-and-pieces on top of it — it’s not easy to release yourself when you need to stand up. How comfortable it is will also depend on your sofa. Mine is very deep, and so I needed to prop myself up with extra cushions to be able to sit properly under the Couchmaster. You’ll need a long sofa to fit this on, but it would work better on one that’s not so deep.
Opt for another model of Couchmaster — there are multiple to choose from — and you’ll get a slightly smaller desk, which will be a little easier to move around. I’m not a small person by any means, so figured I’d be better with the Cyboss, which would give me more room, but on reflection I do think a standard model would have been better.
There’s also the problem that, when it’s not in use, the cushions and the desk take up a lot of space. I still haven’t figured out where to store them, so they’re currently cluttering up my hallway. If your sofa is flush to the wall, you’ll even struggle to store it behind the sofa due to the size of the cushions.
The Couchmaster is a nice idea, then, but in practice it’s rather cumbersome. There are better solutions out there for working on the sofa and, ultimately, I’ve already reverted back to just resting my laptop on the sofa arm. Getting in and out of the Couchmaster is too much hassle, and it takes up too much space — but your own mileage may vary.
