As somebody who works at a pc kind of all day every single day and has power again issues, a standing desk is a vital a part of my workplace setup. I’ve been utilizing one for over ten years and again then it was one thing of a luxurious. But recently I’ve been seeing motorized standing desks, not dissimilar in design to the one I purchased all these years in the past, popping up for shockingly low costs. Are these super-cheap desks price your cash? 

I’ve used three completely different desks within the final decade of working from house and writing about expertise — possibly 4, relying on the way you depend all the assorted components and parts. And I reviewed one other mannequin for one in all my earlier employers, all from completely different suppliers, so I really feel like I do know what I’m speaking about right here. My newest one is one thing of a behemoth, to take care of my enormous desktop and triple-monitor show. (Hey, I write for PCWorld, I come by it actually.) 

Between the heavy-duty, four-legged, quadruple-motor Uplift frame and the custom-made six-foot desktop I ordered from a Dallas carpenter, the entire bundle price me over $1,500. And I’m sorry if that appears like flexing, however I actually spend extra time at this desk than in my mattress some weeks. It’s price making it a great one. For the sake of comparability, the earlier desks I’ve used after which handed on to buddies or members of the family once I upgraded had been all $600 or extra. 

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Where are all these low-cost standing desks coming from? 

But you don’t need to spend 4 figures on a standing desk, even a “fancy” one with a motorized elevating and decreasing motion. In reality, I purchased (or fairly expensed for this very article) a motorized standing desk off Amazon for exactly $100. (The similar mannequin is $200 at the time of writing, nevertheless it’s simple to seek out alternatives.) Shipping was free, tax an extra $6. It was solely the most recent entry I’d seen on SlickDeals for super-low-priced standing desks, which received me questioning in the event that they had been truly definitely worth the value, or in any means akin to the extra premium desks to which I’m accustomed. 

100 bucks is a fairly good value for a 55-inch bamboo desk all by itself. You would possibly be capable to discover a particle board model of 1 at Walmart or Target, for instance, to say nothing of a standing model. Or not less than that’s what I assumed — the truth is I discovered a virtually similar desk, solely barely smaller and missing the keyboard tray, for precisely $100. Even cheaper ones can be found in the event you go searching.

Walmart

So, clearly there’s been one thing of a race to the underside on this market, with a hoard of abroad suppliers making desks as cheaply and rapidly as potential. I think a spike in demand throughout the pandemic has created an enormous surplus of those desks. But “cheap” doesn’t routinely imply “bad,” as my hard-working Kia Soul can testify.

The query I purpose to reply is whether or not or not it’s best to avoid wasting cash in your setup by going with one in all these ultra-cheap motorized standing desks or in the event you’re higher off saving up for a extra deluxe choice from a dependable provider. 

Putting it collectively 

The INNOVAR (ALL CAPS) desk arrived from Amazon in a stunning someday, and because it occurred to be Saturday, I set to assembling it instantly. I’m no stranger to flat-pack furnishings within the Scandinavian model, and I’ve assembled and brought aside comparable desks a couple of dozen occasions, so it solely took me about 45 minutes to place every thing collectively. While there are commonalities in all of those desk designs, I noticed a couple of essential variations. 

Michael Crider/Foundry

The very first thing I observed was that it was shockingly gentle. At 46.2 kilos (just below 21 kilograms) within the field, I used to be capable of transfer it into my workplace in a single journey, even with my again issues. Frankly this didn’t bode nicely: If there’s one factor I like in a desk, it’s some heft, particularly when the essential bits are metal. Upon opening the field, my suspicions had been confirmed.

While the bamboo prime is fairly typical and seems to be superb, the entire metal components are comprised of ⅛” or 2mm panels. They’re all gentle sufficient to toss round…not that it’s best to strive it. For the sake of comparability, the body of my previous Fully Jarvis desk with an analogous dimension weighed not less than twice as a lot.  

Michael Crider/IDG

Speaking of metal, I instantly observed that there’s no prime body to the Innovar. All three of the earlier desks I’ve used, plus one overview unit, had metal crossbars which might be affixed to the underside of the desktop. The prime is laid the wrong way up on the ground, then the legs are bolted in place. Not so right here: the directions had me assemble the legs first, full with the motor and the T-bars, then screw the complete meeting onto the underside of the desktop, together with the included keyboard tray and plastic accent hooks. 

Michael Crider/IDG

Exposed innards

Being acquainted with these desk designs, I did a double-take trying on the precise motor mechanism. It’s housed in a semi-exposed barrel on one aspect of the body, whereas the opposite standing desks I’ve used had motors hidden contained in the leg pillars. Note the plural there: this desk has only one fairly weak motor driving each legs without delay. It does this via an extended hexagonal metal bolt, primarily an enormous Allen wrench spanning between the 2 legs. 

Michael Crider/Foundry

The indisputable fact that this driver bolt was uncovered to the underside of the desk threw me for a loop. Not solely is it uncovered, simply begging to get caught on cables or wires, it’s positioned on the entrance aspect of its crossbeam, going through the person. The odds of really rubbing towards your knees are fairly low except you moonlight as an NBA participant, however as somebody who typically runs wires all throughout the underside of a desk to maintain the highest good and clear, it makes me nervous to see transferring components anyplace in there. 

Michael Crider/Foundry

Also, having an uncovered mechanism like which means the legs aren’t routinely degree out of the field. I needed to manually alter the preliminary top of 1 aspect of the body to match the opposite. And to get them matched on a separate hexagonal bar that I needed to set up myself, I had a restricted alternative of roughly six positions to put the “master” leg at to match it to the opposite aspect. I feel I used to be capable of eyeball it fairly nicely, however it is a downside I haven’t encountered on desks with mechanisms which might be much less threadbare. 

Michael Crider/Foundry

There are a few further factors on this particular desk bundle price highlighting. First, it comes with a slide-out keyboard tray, one thing you don’t typically see at any value. I want to lift my screens up with VESA arms fairly than decrease the keyboard and mouse space, nevertheless it all achieves the identical impact, so having the choice with out spending any extra cash is some extent in its favor. The low-cost plastic hooks, presumably for hanging luggage or headsets, I might do with out completely. I wouldn’t belief any type of heavy bag to it (definitely nothing with textbooks inside), and second I’d fairly see some extra helpful cable routing, like a tray for a power strip on the rear of the desk. 

Highs and lows

There’s one level on this desk’s favor: it comes with a four-setting, programmable top controller, full with an LED readout. That stunned me — it was an expensive little improve once I purchased a Fully desk. I think about that these desks have change into so ubiquitous that like Bluetooth within the head unit of a price range automotive, it’s simply commonplace now. It’s a pleasant little controller with the LED readout neatly hidden throughout the white plastic. It’s only a disgrace that the facility connector pins had been so bent once I assembled it that I needed to manually straighten them out with a flathead screwdriver. Some extra stringent QA would have caught that. 

Michael Crider/Foundry

Bent pins had been removed from the one problem I discovered with the desk. While I used to be ending the setup, I observed that the entrance was severely dipping down. This isn’t utterly the fault of the desk, as there’s a little bit of a bunched carpet pad close to the wall in my workplace. But I by no means observed it earlier than as a result of no different piece of furnishings in my workplace was so gentle that it couldn’t press down degree on this pad with its personal weight. Thankfully there are plastic adjustment toes beneath the white metal legs, and I used to be capable of juuuuuust about degree the floor of the desk by placing the entrance ones at their most top. 

Michael Crider/Foundry

Finally, with every thing set as much as my satisfaction, I examined the elevating and decreasing motion. It works. It’s gradual, particularly at the beginning, nevertheless it works. You can program as much as 4 positions just by urgent and holding the corresponding buttons on the controller, and it measures top in increments of a tenth of an inch. In reality you’ll be able to set the floor much more exactly, as a result of the motion of the motor is analog, regardless that it’s measured digitally. 

Not fairly a battlestation 

I proceeded to arrange a fairly fundamental workstation: small laptop computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and mousepad. A light-weight lamp, heavy espresso mug, and a bit LEGO set for taste rounded it out, plus the assorted cables wanted for every thing with admittedly sloppy administration. I’ve used it for a couple of weeks, however straight away I might inform that this desk can be missing in sturdiness.

To be blunt, the body is simply so gentle that the factor wobbles like a Weeble on the slightest contact. Every standing desk goes to have a bit little bit of give on the prime of its top, even my large four-poster. But this one is so unstable that I can see it shake with each single keystroke on my laptop computer, even once I wasn’t utilizing any exterior show or keyboard, and even within the seated place. 

Michael Crider/Foundry

At a decrease place the soundness is alright, it doesn’t really feel like I might flip it over by chance. But on the standing place it wouldn’t take greater than ten or fifteen kilos of stress to get this factor to tip both forwards or backwards. I can think about an incautious youngster, an enormous canine, or an particularly clumsy web author reaching this all too simply. 

In the previous I’ve mounted a full desktop with three screens, lamps, and numerous and varied different computing gear to a standing desk with solely a bit warping of the wood prime floor to fret about. The Fully Jarvis, for instance, is rated to elevate 350 kilos (if not fortunately). Innovar claims a 198-pound capability on this factor, and whereas the motor could be rated to elevate that quantity of weight, I’ve zero religion on this desk’s skill to really get up below that load for any period of time. Just my admittedly “husky” desktop and 34-inch heart monitor would weigh extra collectively than the complete desk.

Save your cash in the event you can

Is a $100 standing desk price it? The reply will rely in your wants and your means, in fact. My fellow tech writers and I typically get into discussions alongside the strains of “how much does a budget laptop cost?” Well, if all you need to spend on a laptop computer is $300, then a price range laptop computer for you is $300 and never a penny extra. If you end up in a scenario the place you merely can not spend any greater than essential on a desk and also you want a standing desk for ergonomic or well being causes, then yeah, it’s price it. 

But in the event you’re on this scenario and also you’re planning to create a workstation with a desktop PC on the heart, then even that qualifier doesn’t apply to you. I can’t communicate for each single desk available on the market, however this Innovar mannequin I’ve examined is so shaky and top-heavy that it might’t safely maintain an enormous, beefy desktop. Get an everyday desk or desk as a substitute. For this standing design and people of comparable ilk, restrict it to a small kind issue PC on the absolute most, extra doubtless a laptop computer and a lamp. I wouldn’t anticipate to move this desk down as heirloom furnishings, both. 

Michael Crider/Foundry

The phrase “you get what you pay for” involves thoughts, trite because it could be. If you’re ready to spend money on a extra substantial desk or in the event you can afford to attend till your price range is extra roomy, then I recommend you accomplish that, particularly in the event you’re working from house or in any other case planning on spending a considerable amount of time with it.