One of many advantages of working within the media is that I generally get to find merchandise I might in any other case by no means take the time to check out.
Prior to now, standing desks had by no means me. I beforehand glanced upon these stood spread-legged in entrance of their work PCs with the identical nervous suspicion as a Labrador making an attempt to observe a YouTube video. I didn’t perceive them or their attraction, however after a month with Secret Lab’s Magnus Professional desk, I’m transformed.
Magnus is the chair agency’s first foray into the desk world. Beforehand recognized for its lineup of extravagant, and infrequently loudly themed, gaming chairs, Secret Lab presumably found out that if its prospects are available in the market for someplace to take a seat, they’ll most likely purchase one thing to take a seat in entrance of as effectively.
The brand new Professional model of Magnus is bigger, introduces an built-in energy provide column, and crucially, options the sit-to-stand performance, constructed with the eye to element and customisation choices we’ve come to count on from Secret Lab’s chairs.
In brief, Magnus Professional is a slick place to work or recreation from. In comparison with my battered previous Ikea ironing board, it’s extremely tidy, neatly hideing all of my PC wires and gubbins, whereas providing comparable on-desk order because of the power to magnetically snap nearly something to its floor. Due to a brand new built-in management panel, the desk’s peak might be adjusted on the push of a button, from 65cm as much as 125.
Setup is as simple because it realistically may very well be for a chunk of furnishings of this dimension: like Secret Lab’s chairs, the Magnus Professional is full of clear, human-sized directions on the order by which it needs to be put collectively, and with which instruments. Two individuals are really helpful for meeting, however I bravely managed it solo, which took the perfect a part of a day, together with eradicating my earlier desk and tipping it down a close-by alley (if the council is studying, it is a joke).
Like the usual Magnus, Magnus Professional does an distinctive job at cable administration. This time, an influence socket is included on the base of one of many desk’s legs, permitting customers to energy all of their PC and equipment immediately into the cable tray on the rear of the desk, with nearly nothing left trailing.
The cable compartment is actually a hid tray, with loads of room and gaps for feeding cables, and an angular cowl to cover the whole lot away. This part might be augmented with an RPG cable, offered individually, for additional Gamer Factors.
In case you plan to make use of the peak adjustment to its fullest, you’ll need to buy a separate PC mount too, which securely clamps your tower to the rear of the desk, permitting it to stand up and down together with the remainder of the setup.
The quick size of my subwoofer cable meant I wanted to put it on high of the desk, quite than beneath it, however fortunately, there’s a lot of house on its 1.7m x 0.8m floor (the usual model is barely smaller, however nonetheless giant, a 1.5m x 07m). I additionally added a riser and a monitor mount (once more, offered individually), for added room.
The desk floor of the Magnus Professional is one other of its coolest options. As its identify suggests, the desk’s metal high makes it totally magnetic, permitting customers to effortlessly connect further holders for headphones or equipment, or use magnetic cable clips (once more, all offered individually) to tether cables.
It’s one other means by which the Magnus Professional takes the trouble out of holding your house neat and tidy, and it doesn’t really feel like an industrial piece of steel both: every desk comes with a slick leatherette cowl which magnetically attaches to its floor. This sensible piece of design not solely offers Magnus Professional a premium really feel, however it additionally means it’s simply customizable with completely different designs primarily based on video games akin to Cyberpunk 2077, Genshin Affect, and extra, for much more Gamer Factors.
After two months of utilizing Magnus Professional, I’ll admit that I nonetheless work or recreation sitting down 90% of the time. Nonetheless, the power to easily (and quietly) modify my desk’s peak utilizing the digital buttons is a luxurious I might now discover tough to give up.
Throughout my working day, I incessantly modify the desk peak by minute values to match my exercise, reducing it for intense copywriting, or elevating it for internet looking and video recording. It’s even helpful to maneuver the desk to its most or minimal extension to get it out of the way in which of different workplace furnishings, akin to digging by the desk drawer or readjusting photos behind it.
The apparent damper on Secret Lab’s desk is its worth. The usual dimension model is available in at $800 / £730, whereas the bigger XL dimension will value you $950 / £830. When you begin including equipment, nonetheless, akin to the gorgeous important PC mount, magnetic cable administration, monitor mount, and extra, you’re taking a look at an funding effectively in extra of $1000 / £1000. Even the RGB lighting is offered individually (and fewer preferable to a Philips Hue strip, which I opted for).
However, no less than in my expertise, you’re impossible to really feel shortchanged to your funding with the Secret Lab Magnus Professional. This can be a sensible desk with nice construct high quality and genuinely wonderful cable administration options that I now couldn’t see myself with out. This can be a product its makers have clearly put an excessive amount of thought into, and the result’s a gaming or office accent I wouldn’t hesitate to advocate to anybody who spends a lot of their week sitting, or certainly standing, in entrance of a PC monitor.
