Standing Desks: A Review and Comparison

As someone who spends most of their day working at a desk, I've always been on the lookout for ways to improve my productivity and reduce my risk of chronic diseases. One trend that's gained significant attention in recent years is the use of standing desks, also known as sit-stand desks or vertical desks. In this article, we'll take a closer look at some popular options, including the Vert Desk and the more affordable Up Desk.

My Experience with Standing Desks

I've had the opportunity to try out both the Vert Desk and the Up Desk in my own home office, and I must say that I'm impressed with their performance. The action on these desks is smoother and quieter than traditional standing desks, which makes them a great option for those who work from home or have noise sensitivities. Additionally, the legs of these desks are less wobbly, even under heavy loads, thanks to their innovative design.

One notable difference between the Vert Desk and the Up Desk is in terms of assembly time. According to my own experience, assembling a Vert Desk took significantly less time than assembling an Up Desk. While I couldn't see any noticeable wobbliness at my sitting height, I did notice it slightly when standing up and using the mouse or keyboard shortcuts. However, this was exacerbated by using a heavy monitor, which may be a factor for others who use similar setups.

The Android app that comes with these desks is another story altogether. I found the interface to be clunky and frustrating, especially for those without technical expertise. The app's basic functionality works, but its user experience leaves much to be desired. Fortunately, there are many third-party apps available that can provide similar functionality without the hassle.

Comparison of Standing Desk Options

So, what are some other standing desk options out there? One popular choice is the IKEA Bekant, which offers a sturdy and adjustable design at an affordable price point. Another option is the Ergotron WorkFit-S, which provides a wide range of movement and features like pre-programmed heights for added convenience.

For those who want to take their stand-up desk experience to the next level, there are even more advanced options available. The AnthroDesk and Bolton workstation jobs from companies like Ergotron and Anthology Creative offer solid build quality and customizable features that can accommodate a variety of work styles.

But what about mobile carriers? Ting is one company that offers a unique service: you pick up your phone and call, without having to navigate through automated menus or pay for unnecessary coverage. Their plans start at $24 per month per device, and they'll even cover 25% of your cancellation fee up to $75.

Conclusion

Standing desks can be an effective way to improve your productivity and reduce your risk of chronic diseases. While the Vert Desk and Up Desk are both solid options, it's essential to consider factors like assembly time, wobbliness, and user experience when choosing a desk that meets your needs. With so many other standing desk options available, there's something for everyone, regardless of budget or preferences. And if you're looking for a mobile carrier with flexible plans, Ting is definitely worth considering.

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI wasn't really sure how to tackle this video initially I mean a desk is a very subjective thing and whether you like one or not can depend on a wide variety of different factors is it aesthetically pleasing to you are its features beneficial to you on a day-to-day basis is the bloody thing even comfortable to use these are all questions that can only be answered individually fortunately I have an entire team of people that have been using power up and squared up motorized up desks as their daily drivers since anthology creative was kind enough to provide us with enough for my editors and Hardware testing team So the plan is to mix in some of their Impressions with my own and present them as a group so here we go the master case 5 by Cooler Master gives you the freedom to truly make your midtower PC case your own with a variety of modular parts and accessories check out the link in the video description to learn more I'm not a fan of covering products that make claims about improving your health while you do absolutely nothing to change your lifestyle and the offers that I've received to review things like the ab burner 2000 or whatever go straight in the email junk bin where they belong standing desks are a little bit different number one they don't claim that you won't have to do anything they acknowledge UPF front that you will have to get off your butt and stand up number two and I'll lean on the Mayo Clinic specifically here but they're not the only reputable source of this information sitting for long periods of time has been linked remember this means correlation not causation and they're not the same thing to a fairly wide variety of health concerns including obesity increased blood pressure high blood sugar abnormal cholesterol levels and even cardiovascular disease and three it is also well established at this point that doing pretty much anything but sitting helps so while the best thing to do is move around even at a leisurely Pace periodically throughout the day pacing while on the phone is a good habit to get into if you must be at your desk constantly then standing up is better than nothing so with that out of the way let's take a tour of the up desk mine is the series 3 power up in the large size to accommodate my ultrawide monitor and Aquarium PC but there are a variety of sizes and finishes with medium being the best choice for most people something I guess Anthology creative knows since it's the only available size in some of the funky non-standard top colors not that I'm bitter I couldn't get the purple polka doted one okay maybe I am a little bitter so moving around to the top we find the regrettably plain black top that is well it's plain and black I'm honestly not really sure what to say about this but it's 1 and a/4 in thick and has a nicely finished laminate surface the only really notable thing about the top surface is the gently curved user side this is something I and most of my team like I put my laptop to my left and stuff I need Within Reach to my right but that Teran wishes was straight since the recess puts him a little closer to his monitors than he'd like unfortunately up desk doesn't have anything perfectly rectangular or a little bit deeper the good news here is that if you really wanted to swap out the tabletop it would be as simple as finding a surface you like and screwing everything else into it the input module that handles up down saving and recalling your three preset Heights and displaying the current height in inches is the only thing that would likely need to move and the cable it comes with is long enough that it should work with any tabletop that's under the 375 lb capacity of the base unit anyway since we're down here this is probably a good time to look at the rest of the underbelly of this Beast I've done some custom Cable Management here the USB powerhub AC power strip and a power brick for my monitor and and laptop were added but the J channel management runs come with the desk as does the large power input and controller module in the middle this piece takes input from the user and drives the motors that each telescoping support leg is equipped with this implementation of the motors is aside from the ability to save and recall height presets the biggest difference for me between the up desk and the less expensive vert desks that we've used in the past not only is the action smoother and quieter but the legs themselves are much less wobbly in spite of the heavier load of the stock tabletop and because they don't have a drive shaft that connects to both sides with a motor in the middle the assembly process is much simpler you can actually see here how long it took for me to assemble a vert desk compared to about half an hour for an up desk not to mention that the shaft is impossible to pop out on its own requiring about an hour for me and Luke to figure out what's going on and repair it true story # blame Brandon on the subject of wobbliness there's zero that I can perceive at my sitting height but at my standing height I did not notice it while using the mouse and using keyboard shortcuts but I did notice it while typing I can say that I'm using an extremely heavy monitor which does exacerbate the issue of monitor wobble so it's got that going for it but it was there one thing I can't make any excuses for though is the Android app to remind you to sit down and stand up at regular intervals frankly it's terrible the basic functionality actually works but non-ex Savvy users like my mom would get instantly frustrated by tapping on a field having it bring up a value selector and then just not filling the field out even though it did actually end up working once I got it configured even though I was Flying Blind apparently the iOS one is better but I'm not on the iPhone right now and I didn't use it anyway since there are many third-party standup or break reminder applications out there including ones that run on your PC so I don't have to be bothered about it when I'm not actually even at my computer anyway so conclusion time if the point is to achieve the health benefits of standing then there are definitely cheaper fully motorized desk options like the vert desk that I have firsthand experience with and the Ikea beant or beant or however they pronounce that it means friend apparently that I unfortunately do not and there are even Bolton like workstation jobbies from companies like ergotron and Anthology creative themselves but the solid build quality extremely wide range of movement that allows everyone from me to Luke to adjust to the perfect working height regardless of our body proportions and the added creature comfort of being able to pre-program Heights has made us extremely happy happy with these ones they can apparently even accommodate a treadmill under them if you're into that sort of thing but I'm hoping that my staff will be happy enough that they have standing desks and enough space in the middle of the room to stash their chairs and won't ask for that yet for now speaking of things that might make sense to ask for what about a mobile carrier that you could pick up a phone and call and there would actually be okay this is like someone else having a phone on and I know phones don't look like this anymore anyway the point is ting.com you pick them up you don't talk to a robot you get put through directly to a person you pay only for what you use with the average Ting Bill coming in at about $24 a month per device and if you're stuck in a contract and switched to Ting they'll cover 25% of your cancellation fee up to $75 and you might be saying hold on a second L what do you mean the average bill is approximately blah blah blah well you pay only for what you use so head over to listing.com and use their savings calculator to find out how much you would likely pay so you basically put in your last few bills and then you enter how much you used your stuff and then it goes oh well you know hey you're actually a pretty light user you're using a plan that doesn't make any sense for you why don't you pay for just what you use see that's a concept it's coming back again so it basically goes yeah you'd be a good Ting candidate or no you wouldn't they're completely upfront about it and when you sign up at our link that's guys if this video sucked I think you know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or even consider supporting us directly by using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon buying a cool t-shirt oh I did my outro wrong whatever you can buy a t-shirt this is not a t-shirt uh we're going to have a new store for the shirt soon so that's going to be cool and you can even give us a direct lead contribution through our form you get a little badge next to your name and all that stuff now that you're done doing all that you're probably wondering what to watch next so click that little like button in the top right corner to check out my video of the ultimate gaming monitor the Acer x34 Predator way to go BrandonI wasn't really sure how to tackle this video initially I mean a desk is a very subjective thing and whether you like one or not can depend on a wide variety of different factors is it aesthetically pleasing to you are its features beneficial to you on a day-to-day basis is the bloody thing even comfortable to use these are all questions that can only be answered individually fortunately I have an entire team of people that have been using power up and squared up motorized up desks as their daily drivers since anthology creative was kind enough to provide us with enough for my editors and Hardware testing team So the plan is to mix in some of their Impressions with my own and present them as a group so here we go the master case 5 by Cooler Master gives you the freedom to truly make your midtower PC case your own with a variety of modular parts and accessories check out the link in the video description to learn more I'm not a fan of covering products that make claims about improving your health while you do absolutely nothing to change your lifestyle and the offers that I've received to review things like the ab burner 2000 or whatever go straight in the email junk bin where they belong standing desks are a little bit different number one they don't claim that you won't have to do anything they acknowledge UPF front that you will have to get off your butt and stand up number two and I'll lean on the Mayo Clinic specifically here but they're not the only reputable source of this information sitting for long periods of time has been linked remember this means correlation not causation and they're not the same thing to a fairly wide variety of health concerns including obesity increased blood pressure high blood sugar abnormal cholesterol levels and even cardiovascular disease and three it is also well established at this point that doing pretty much anything but sitting helps so while the best thing to do is move around even at a leisurely Pace periodically throughout the day pacing while on the phone is a good habit to get into if you must be at your desk constantly then standing up is better than nothing so with that out of the way let's take a tour of the up desk mine is the series 3 power up in the large size to accommodate my ultrawide monitor and Aquarium PC but there are a variety of sizes and finishes with medium being the best choice for most people something I guess Anthology creative knows since it's the only available size in some of the funky non-standard top colors not that I'm bitter I couldn't get the purple polka doted one okay maybe I am a little bitter so moving around to the top we find the regrettably plain black top that is well it's plain and black I'm honestly not really sure what to say about this but it's 1 and a/4 in thick and has a nicely finished laminate surface the only really notable thing about the top surface is the gently curved user side this is something I and most of my team like I put my laptop to my left and stuff I need Within Reach to my right but that Teran wishes was straight since the recess puts him a little closer to his monitors than he'd like unfortunately up desk doesn't have anything perfectly rectangular or a little bit deeper the good news here is that if you really wanted to swap out the tabletop it would be as simple as finding a surface you like and screwing everything else into it the input module that handles up down saving and recalling your three preset Heights and displaying the current height in inches is the only thing that would likely need to move and the cable it comes with is long enough that it should work with any tabletop that's under the 375 lb capacity of the base unit anyway since we're down here this is probably a good time to look at the rest of the underbelly of this Beast I've done some custom Cable Management here the USB powerhub AC power strip and a power brick for my monitor and and laptop were added but the J channel management runs come with the desk as does the large power input and controller module in the middle this piece takes input from the user and drives the motors that each telescoping support leg is equipped with this implementation of the motors is aside from the ability to save and recall height presets the biggest difference for me between the up desk and the less expensive vert desks that we've used in the past not only is the action smoother and quieter but the legs themselves are much less wobbly in spite of the heavier load of the stock tabletop and because they don't have a drive shaft that connects to both sides with a motor in the middle the assembly process is much simpler you can actually see here how long it took for me to assemble a vert desk compared to about half an hour for an up desk not to mention that the shaft is impossible to pop out on its own requiring about an hour for me and Luke to figure out what's going on and repair it true story # blame Brandon on the subject of wobbliness there's zero that I can perceive at my sitting height but at my standing height I did not notice it while using the mouse and using keyboard shortcuts but I did notice it while typing I can say that I'm using an extremely heavy monitor which does exacerbate the issue of monitor wobble so it's got that going for it but it was there one thing I can't make any excuses for though is the Android app to remind you to sit down and stand up at regular intervals frankly it's terrible the basic functionality actually works but non-ex Savvy users like my mom would get instantly frustrated by tapping on a field having it bring up a value selector and then just not filling the field out even though it did actually end up working once I got it configured even though I was Flying Blind apparently the iOS one is better but I'm not on the iPhone right now and I didn't use it anyway since there are many third-party standup or break reminder applications out there including ones that run on your PC so I don't have to be bothered about it when I'm not actually even at my computer anyway so conclusion time if the point is to achieve the health benefits of standing then there are definitely cheaper fully motorized desk options like the vert desk that I have firsthand experience with and the Ikea beant or beant or however they pronounce that it means friend apparently that I unfortunately do not and there are even Bolton like workstation jobbies from companies like ergotron and Anthology creative themselves but the solid build quality extremely wide range of movement that allows everyone from me to Luke to adjust to the perfect working height regardless of our body proportions and the added creature comfort of being able to pre-program Heights has made us extremely happy happy with these ones they can apparently even accommodate a treadmill under them if you're into that sort of thing but I'm hoping that my staff will be happy enough that they have standing desks and enough space in the middle of the room to stash their chairs and won't ask for that yet for now speaking of things that might make sense to ask for what about a mobile carrier that you could pick up a phone and call and there would actually be okay this is like someone else having a phone on and I know phones don't look like this anymore anyway the point is ting.com you pick them up you don't talk to a robot you get put through directly to a person you pay only for what you use with the average Ting Bill coming in at about $24 a month per device and if you're stuck in a contract and switched to Ting they'll cover 25% of your cancellation fee up to $75 and you might be saying hold on a second L what do you mean the average bill is approximately blah blah blah well you pay only for what you use so head over to listing.com and use their savings calculator to find out how much you would likely pay so you basically put in your last few bills and then you enter how much you used your stuff and then it goes oh well you know hey you're actually a pretty light user you're using a plan that doesn't make any sense for you why don't you pay for just what you use see that's a concept it's coming back again so it basically goes yeah you'd be a good Ting candidate or no you wouldn't they're completely upfront about it and when you sign up at our link that's guys if this video sucked I think you know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or even consider supporting us directly by using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon buying a cool t-shirt oh I did my outro wrong whatever you can buy a t-shirt this is not a t-shirt uh we're going to have a new store for the shirt soon so that's going to be cool and you can even give us a direct lead contribution through our form you get a little badge next to your name and all that stuff now that you're done doing all that you're probably wondering what to watch next so click that little like button in the top right corner to check out my video of the ultimate gaming monitor the Acer x34 Predator way to go Brandon\n"