Best Standing Desk for 2022 – CNET [CNET]

Are working remotely at home? Sitting for a long time can ruin your health. If you want to maintain your physical health and get rid of backaches, a standing desk would be the right choice for you. A comfortable standing desk helps you work comfortably and increase your productivity. These types of desks help you either sit or stand at your convenience. Another benefit of the standing desk is you burn more calories as you switch positions frequently. Your cable management might need some looking into but there are a lot of benefits that come with a standing desk.

There’s also the fact that sitting for long stretches isn’t healthy; it’s associated with obesity, cardiovascular disease and other potential health risks. That’s bad news for office workers, but swapping out a regular desk for a standing version (or even a treadmill desk) can make a definite difference. Scientists are still studying the extent of the health difference between standing and sitting, but some research shows that an average person burns 8 additional calories per hour of standing instead of sitting. Other estimates are significantly higher. 

While standing instead of sitting might not lead to weight loss, it’s still shown to help moderate blood sugar faster following a meal and reduce the potential for back or shoulder pain (although you might be trading that for leg or foot pain, unless you invest in a standing desk mat). Check out these tips on how to position your desk for maximum comfort, whether you’re sitting or standing. 

I tested seven standing desks of various prices, styles and options to get to this list of the best standing desks. Each model is a little different, but they all share one key feature: the ability to raise or lower on demand to suit your specific home office needs. That means it doesn’t matter if you’re a laptop user, a desktop user, prefer a certain standing position or want to sit most of the day at a traditional desk — there is a best standing desk for your needs.

How I tested

I selected seven desks of different sizes and styles, ranging from under $200 to $650. Some are controlled manually, while others have electric motors for height adjustment. Check out the table below to get a quick side-by-side spec comparison of each model I built and tested at home:

To test each standing desk, I started out by building each one and noting the ease or difficulty, including whether I needed help with any of the steps. Then I spent a full day working at each one — switching between sitting and standing — making notes when something worked particularly well or caused a problem. 

The good news is that three of the models I tested worked extremely well. The Vari Electric Standing Desk, the Ikea Skarsta Standing Desk and the Latitude Run Amilcar Height Adjustable Peninsula Standing Desk all earned spots on the best standing desk list above. 

The four others I tested — the Seville Classics Airlift Height Adjustable Desk with Glass Top, the Seville Classics Airlift Pro S3 Electric Height Adjustable Standing Desk, the Inbox Zero Height Adjustable Standing Desk and the Steelcase Solo Sit-To-Stand Desk — didn’t make the cut. The Airlift with Glass Top came close to earning a spot above. It’s a beautiful, sturdy desk at a midrange price. It also features a small center drawer for holding the basics. Unfortunately, its built-in touchscreen wasn’t very responsive and the two USB-A ports, while a nice tech feature in theory, are outdated for today’s phones and tablets.

The Airlift Pro S3 was a decent desk, too, but it was a little tougher to install than the others in its size range and it had a cheaper-looking finish than the overall winner (the Vari desk). The Inbox Zero model was pretty wonky, from the initial installation to testing it out for a day. It seemed like a great desk, in theory, due to its dual-sided design. Unfortunately, it was just too complicated. Two of the legs didn’t fit into position correctly and the desktop had strange removable plastic edges that fell off regularly while I worked. 

The $540 Steelcase Solo desk was surprisingly simple to install for its size (the same as the Vari desk). Instead of using screws to install the legs, these simply lock into place. The desk is sturdy, looks nice and is quiet when raising and lowering. But the Vari — at a few bucks less than the pricey Steelcase Solo — has a more sophisticated control panel, a nicer-looking finish and comes with desk accessories. 

As always, consider your specific needs before you buy a sit-stand desk. Do you have a lot of space and a higher budget? Consider the Vari desk. The Ikea model is a fantastic midsize manual desk at a great price. The Latitude Run Amilcar is the best option when you want a sturdy standing desk that won’t take up a ton of space. Regardless of your home setup, one of these models is bound to suit your needs. But if you aren’t sold on a standing desk, consider a standing desk converter for your existing desk instead. 

Standing desks 101: What to know before you buy 

As with any new piece of furniture, you’ll want to take a little time to balance your needs with the space and budget you have for it. 

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