The combination of more people working from home along with an increasing awareness of the health implications of sitting for extended periods has led to a rise in people in the market for an alternative to a traditional desk.
UpDown Desk is an Australian supplier of adjustable desks. They focus on providing high-quality sit stand desks and accessories at a competitive price point.
We’ve been using the UpDown Desk Pro Series for the past 2 weeks and have been incredibly impressed with both the build quality and functionality. In this review we’ll discuss our experience with the desk and try to help you decide whether an UpDown desk is right for you.
Who is the UpDown Desk for?
The UpDown Desk Pro Series is UpDown’s flagship product. These standing desks feature digital height control for easy adjustments and four height memory buttons so you can store your preferred settings.
They are available in three sizes (120cm x 75cm, 150cm x 75cm, and 180cm x 75cm) plus a corner frame only option, which makes them suitable for a wide range of settings. The Pro Series is perfect for a home office but would also be very much suited to a commercial or professional environment.
When choosing a Pro Series desk you have the option of either a black or white frame. There are also eight different desktop surfaces available ranging from Melamine to Bamboo to Jarrah to Recycled Messmate (recommended!). This makes it easy to personalise your workspace to match your existing home or office decor.
Price is one factor we could imagine would put users off an UpDown desk. To be clear, we don’t consider them to be at all overpriced, but they don’t come cheap. Depending on your preferences, a Pro Series desk will set you back between $879 (Melamine 120cm x 75cm desktop) and $2,359 (Jarrah 180cm x 75cm desktop).
These desks may also not be suitable if a power supply is not readily available. If this applies to you, consider the Pro Series Manual Standing Desk.
Getting Started with an UpDown Pro Series Desk
The UpDown desk arrives well packaged in a series of boxes containing the legs, frame, motor, and the desktop itself. Once everything is unpacked you can start assembling your desk by either following the PDF guide you will receive by email or a series of handy youtube videos:
Your UpDown Desk setup guide will state that all you need is a phillips head screwdriver and a measuring tape to assemble the desk. While it was possible to use a screwdriver to get screws into our Recycled Messmate desktop with a bit of elbow grease, we were very grateful for our electric drill and recommend getting hold of one for the assembly process if possible.
While the assembly took slightly longer than the advertised 20‐25 minutes, we found it all to be relatively straightforward and intuitive. It was clear which parts and components were to be used at each step.
One thing we noticed when assembling the frame is the high quality materials. It is also very heavy, which contributes to the stability of the desk when assembled. In fact, UpDown states that the frame weight (41kg) exceeds that of all standing desk competitors.
Another thing we were pleased to note is that it appears the legs can be removed from the frame without removing the screws from the desktop. This will come in handy in the future if the desk needs to be moved or put into storage.
Once the final steps of the assembly process are complete you can flip the desk up the right way (we recommend some assistance with this) and attach the cables for the motor.
The control pad for the desk has six buttons. Two are manual up/down buttons and four are stored height settings (M buttons). Programming your stored settings couldn’t be easier – simply use the manual up/down button to get the desk to your desired seated or standing height and then hold one of the M buttons for 5‐6 seconds until you hear a beep. Now you can alternate between sitting and standing at the touch of a button!
Important Features to Consider
4 Height Memory Settings
Selecting your optimal desk height is something you should only have to do once.
With the inclusion of four saved height settings, two users can store their preferences and adjust the desk with one touch. The height range of 61.5cm – 127cm means it is suitable for almost anyone.
41kg Frame Weight
Before using a standing desk the importance of stability hadn’t occurred to us.
However, when you’re working at the desk in a standing position it becomes clear that a wobbly desk would become not just annoying but potentially dangerous.
Thankfully, the UpDown Pro Series is rock solid even at maximum height.
It also has adjustable feet so you can tweak each corner if you have it set up on an uneven surface.
Powerful Dual Motor
It goes without saying that a sit/stand desk becomes pretty worthless if the lifting mechanism fails.
The dual motor on the UpDown Pro Series boasts an incredible 150kg lifting capacity and a movement speed of 32mm per second.
It also features an anti-collision mechanism with adjustable sensitivity along with overload protection.
Accessories for Customisation
UpDown offers a range of accessories allowing you to customise your desk to suit your needs. These include:
- Anti-Fatigue Mat
- Cable Tray
- Monitor Arms
- Desk Drawer (Metal or Bamboo)
- Cable Hole Grommet
- Power Rail
- Cable Management Kit
- Heavy Duty Castor Wheels
Generous Warranty and Returns
UpDown pride themselves on their after sales service, so you can be confident in knowing that you’ll have assistance should you run into any problems. We like that they stand behind their products with a 10 year warranty on the frame and 5 years on the desktop.
What’s more, UpDown offers a 30 day money back guarantee on Pro Series electric standing desks (and they will pay for the return shipping cost).
This is always great to see as a consumer, and these assurances from the company combined with the hundreds of positive reviews for the product provide a good indication of the quality.
Conclusion
Our experience with the UpDown Pro Series Desk has been overwhelmingly positive. The delivery was efficient and easy, the assembly was straightforward, and we’ve run into zero issues with the desk so far.
We generally switch from sitting to standing a couple of times a day and have found the saved settings and quick and quiet motor help facilitate that process.
We love the polished imperfections of our Recycled Messmate desktop which fits in well with our other home furniture. We’ve been pleased with our decision to preserve the desktop and not insert hole grommets.
The cable tray, however, has been very helpful in keeping cords tidy (extra important with the desk moving up and down).
In summary, we highly recommend the UpDown Pro Series standing desk for a wide range of users. They may be more expensive than other options on the market but it’s clear that you’re paying for quality design and materials and something that is sure to last for many years.
