Right now, I am writing this review of the Autonomous SmartDesk 2 – Home Office while standing up. Normally, I’ll be sitting down when I’m working at a desk. However, the SmartDesk 2 – Home Office is not your normal home office desk.
Benefits of a Standing Work Desk
Sitting down too much can be bad for your health and well being. Multiple studies have shown that people who sit a lot every day have an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and early death. Sitting down also burns less calories, which could lead to weight gain and obesity.
Sitting around all day is a major problem for office workers (and internet marketers and bloggers). Fortunately, standing desks are becoming increasingly more popular, and one of the best affordable standing desk you can get is SmartDesk 2 – Home Office by Autonomous.
Who Is Autonomous?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4PVZsyxiP8)
Started in 2015 as a Kickstarter and IndieGoGo project, Autonomous have grown into one of the premier makers of affordable adjustable standing desks and ergonomic office chairs.
We have been dedicated to helping people work smarter. The SmartDesk is now helping more than 130,000 customers globally, be healthier, happier and more productive. We love our SmartDesk, ErgoChair and everything we have created! What we love even more is what our customers do with them. Behind our desks, people are reimagining whole industries, giving life to AI, developing new medicines, designing robots and even exploring outer space—NASA, Singularity, Harvard, Uber, Orbital Insights, Dell Computers and Deep Map, just to name a few!
The SmartDesk was born because Autonomous saw that the existing options for sit-stand desks were well out of reach for up and coming entrepreneurs. Autonomous wanted to make a standing office desk that anyone can afford. Right now, Autonomous is offering the SmartDesk 2 – Home Office for only $379.
Autonomous SmartDesk 2 – Home Office
The SmartDesk is available in multiple versions to suit your office needs. Autonomous sent me the SmartDesk 2 – Home Office for this review.
The SmartDesk 2 – Home Office is available in black or white frame with up to five different top finishes in two sizes (classic and XL). You shouldn’t have any problem finding a combo to match your office or workspace. My review unit had a classic white top with white frame.
SmartDesk 2 – Home Office can be adjusted from a height of 29.9 inches all the way up to 48.8 inches. If you need more range than that, you can look at the SmartDesk 2 Premium. Both desks will support and lift up to 300 pounds.
Autonomous backs up their office desks with a five year warranty on the frame and one year on the top. They also offer a 30 day trial so you can test out the desk in your home.
SmartDesk 2 – Home Office Unboxing and Setup
The Autonomous SmartDesk 2 – Home Office arrived at my home in two big boxes. One box contained the classic top and the other held the frame and lift motor.
Assembly is a little more involved than setting up a normal office desk, but you should be able to put it all together in about 30 minutes. Autonomous included the hex keys to bolt the frame together, but you’ll need to supply the screwdriver to screw the top to the frame. I recommend using an electric screwdrivers to make the job easier.
In the above picture, you can see the power supply for the lifting motors. One end plugs into your wall power outlet. The other end has three outputs. One goes to the controller display and the other two goes to the lifting motors.
To create a cleaner look and to prevent having wires dangle from under the desk, Autonomous included a bunch of cable ties to stick the cable onto the underside of the desk top. This was a nice touch and gives the desk a really clean look.
Once assembled and plugged in, you control the height of the SmartDesk 2 by pressing the up or down arrow key on the controller. There are total of four memory settings to save your desired height. In this case, memory 1 is Sally’s sitting position, memory 2 is Sally’s standing position, memory 3 and 4 are my sitting and standing positions.
Using The SmartDesk 2 – Home Office
This is the SmartDesk 2 – Home Office at its lowest height of 29.9 inches.
And this is the SmartDesk 2 – Home Office at its highest height of 48.8 inches.
The majority of population should be able to find a comfortable sitting and standing height with the SmartDesk 2 – Home Office. If you’re super tall and need more height than Home Office can offer, you should look a the SmartDesk 2 Premium, which is go up four inches higher, and 2.6 inches lower, than the SmartDesk 2 – Home Office.
The SmartDesk 2 – Home Office is extremely stable and solid. There are corner adjusters at the base of each leg in case you have the desk on an uneven floor. The lift motors had no problems with all the computer equipment I put on it. To test its lifting power, I sat on the desk myself and went for a ride (see the unboxing video above). The desk lifted me up and down with no problems.
When working at my desired standing height, I notice no shaking or wobbles from the desk. Everything was extremely solid and stable. The lifting motors are extremely smooth. When going up or down, I noticed no shaking movements at all from my 27″ LED monitor.
The SmartDesk 2 controller doesn’t offer the fine height adjustment as the controller found in the more expensive UpLift Desk. With the UpLift controller, each press of the arrow buttons moves the desk up or down by 0.1 inch. A press on the arrow buttons of the SmartDesk 2 doesn’t do anything. You have to press and hold the buttons to get the desk to move. Unlike the UpLift display, the display on the SmartDesk 2 shows movement in 0.4 inch increments.
Get 10% Off a SmartDesk 2 – Home Office
The Autonomous SmartDesk 2 – Home Office normally sells for $479. However, Autonomous has the desk on sale right now for only $379. That’s a nice saving, but Autonomous has an even better deal for readers of this blog. Enter the coupon code JOHNCHOW at checkout and you’ll save an additional 10% off your order.
If you’re looking for a solid and affordable sit-stand desk, the SmartDesk 2 – Home Office from Autonomous is a great choice. The desk will increase your productivity and your health.