My wife recently bought an adjustable height desk. She was looking to do it on the cheap. We looked at some Ikea offerings. She didn’t like any of them. She ended up buying a desk from Motion Grey. I think it was about $150 CAD.
The assembly instructions were clearly written in China, but assembly was straightforward. The desk goes up and down. She’s quite happy with it.
I was able to get the desk put together and get my desktop PC onto it yesterday. Had enough time to play some Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Beta before passing out.
Cord control will come later. I’m not 100% convinced the desk will remain in that location so I’m not ready to lock everything down.
As for assembly, quality, construction… I’m really happy with the last two. For assembly, I was just a complete dumbass multiple times during the construction. First, I had the legs put together backwards. That required undoing eight screws with the allen wrench and getting that right. In hindsight, I just didnt’ look closely enough at the instructions. All on me.
Once I had that right, things went snappily until I realized I didn’t have the bracket on the bar across the center after I had already driven all the screws into the tabletop to mount the legs. Fortunately no stripped screws using the power driver getting them out and putting that on… and then I had it on the wrong side of the desk! I had to unseat screws AGAIN to move it. This is where I can say with 100% honesty that the quality is there because on Ikea furniture I would have stripped the screws by this point for sure.
Finally, after all that, I was good to go. My girlfriend and I flipped it over (it’s heavy… again, quality) and it worked like a champ immediately upon plugging it in. The controls are straightforward and the motors are quiet. I set my seating position and will set my standing position later with two more pre-sets available if someone else would use the desk.
In hindsight, I probably should have sprung for a better tabletop. The “chipboard” is fine, but it’s non-descript and shows prints easily. I do have a HyperX mouse surface I’m going to put down that will cover the majority of the space so it’s not a big deal, but they have better options available for another $50 to $70 and I probably should’ve gone that way. If I’m really annoyed by it within a year I can always replace it.
Given the price though ($307 after tax), I think this is a very good desk at a reasonable price. Obviously with something like this you don’t really know for sure until you see how long it lasts, but given it was well reviewed, I can easily agree that out of the box it’s a quality piece.
Oh! I did move it up and down with the desktop on it as you see there and it seems to handle the weight fine. The case alone is 30 lbs. Probably closer to 50 lbs in total with everything inside. The rated weight for this model of desk (Flexispot E5 Frame) is 287 lbs.
I read that they ship single piece desk tops, that is great. Also great is that it appears they allow a lot of mix/match interchangeability with their desktops and legs so you can swap out parts if you want an upgrade.
Some of the cheaper desks will have a 2 piece top that gets screwed/bracketed together. My current cheap “gamer” desk is that way, but it has an entire top mousepad surface, so I don’t notice the seam. I think for a future desk, I would just want a mousepad and a clean top, as the entire mousepad surface is impossible to clean.
Yeah, I did not want one of those two piece desktops. That was a non-starter for me specifically. Their single piece desktop was perfect, and had pre-drilled holes.
They also sell one of those “Gamer” tops and I considered it. If I hadn’t already had the HyperX one which I’ve been waiting to try out forever, I might’ve sprung for one. They had an FPS one and an RTS/League type one. I thought, as you say, that cleaning it would be an issue.
I like what I have but I think the option is to go with Bamboo or Wood and get your own big mat so you can either chuck it or hopefully clean it by sending it through the washer. I did that with a SteelSeries mat that I had and it came out clean and ready to use.
As for the legs, as you move up from the low to the high end, it becomes how much weight it can lift (only one motor on the low end legs has a lower weight rating…) and then they add in stuff like a cord rack, etc. Since you can buy those add-ons separately, I passed on going with the E7 for the “free” cord control (desk costs roughly $100 more).
Bamboo top dual motor is selling for like 350 now with a 110$ coupon.
Seems like a great deal
So Fuck Grade? Was not expecting that. I was worried it couldn’t handle the PC up and down, good news it can handle the wife…and a friend. ;)
Yeah. I really wanted black. No black bamboo. I saved $50 tho. It’s not all tears and fetal position…
…except if I want to sleep on the desk, which I can do, and hit the button to go up and down. Lol
It doesn’t tilt and stand you up, so fail.
Thing about desk purchases that annoy me is that a basic desk is just three slabs stuck together and it shouldn’t cost so much. I think I’ve always gravitated towards office desks with big hutches in a U or L shape because I feel like I’m getting something substantial out of it. But, I’m heading into my next desk replacement and am watching what’s on tap these days. I think I may finally give up that old-style thinking and get me a modern slab instead.
I agree in principle with your get off my lawn stance. It’s just some legs and a board!
I think where I’ve come around is the board and the legs need to be of a certain type and quality and that does cost a little bit. Definitely not more than say $400 though IMO.
I think the only thing that’s really annoying to me is how many accessories that are genuinely useful there are for desks these days and how pricey they can be. It makes sense to scour Amazon and the zillion companies with the made up names to get the best price on the molded metal or plastic that they all sell that looks exactly like the last company’s.
Yes, this! Looking at those pricey SecretLab desks to go with my chair and, even though I love all the cable management extras, I noped out when I totalled up the ‘ooo, this!’ and ‘ooo, that!’ tickboxes. Really, need to keep it basic; I don’t even want a sit/stand desk. I’m up and moving around all the time both at home and work so I don’t need the extra standing time anyway.
Good advice to shop around for the accessories. I need to dial back my enthusiasm a bit.
Oh yeah, they got me good with that kind of stuff. I mean, it’s great, but they certainly got me.
That was the thing with SecretLab, all those extras really added up and seemed like a premium price just because of the brand. I figure with a standard desk top I can shop around for the best price/quality and it’ll always be able to be stuck on or screwed into the bottom.
That said, if you have the dough the metal is nice. The non-adjustable one is $600 I think?
