Plenty of research shows that working at a standing desk has a lot of positive health benefits, but nobody wants to get rid of their existing, possibly expensive desk to upgrade. That’s where The Duke comes in!
The Duke makes your existing desk into a convertible sit/stand desk. I’ve been using a standing desk at work for about three years now, but I still had a regular desk at home. I’d been eyeballing several convertibles on the market when the fine folks at Beyond the Office Door reached out to me about testing out the Duke.
The Duke consists of only a few pieces that require assembly. It’s made in the USA, and all of the components are very high quality, sturdy wood, plastic, and metal. The stand is about 44 pounds, so it’s not light weight, but you don’t want it to be when its meant to hold all of your precious computer gear above your desk.
Because I work on a laptop, I opted for the platform shelf. This lets you put a laptop or monitor on a stand at eye level. There is also a VESA mount option instead if you want to mount a screen to the stand instead. It took me about 10 minutes to put the whole thing together and get back to work.
The base is nice and wide and easily accommodates a full-sized keyboard and mouse (though I use a trackball), and is less than half an inch off the surface of your desk when fully lowered. There is also plenty of space on the bottom shelf to add goodies though you’ll want to stick with things (toys and collectibles) that aren’t too wobbly or they may fall when raising and lowering the stand. The laptop and monitor shelf is wide enough to accommodate two monitors, a laptop and a monitor, or even more toys and collectibles.
The one touch lever (under the bottom shelf on the right) makes it very easy to raise the entire stand to your desired height. There are no set heights so it is infinitely adjustable to the exact height you need it to be. Because of the amazingly sturdy construction, the foot of the stand is actually much smaller than I expected. It is a very solid, metal base that doesn’t have any tolerance for wobbling.
I’m six feet tall and I was able to adjust The Duke to the perfect height without maxing it out. It should work for just about anyone except for the tallest of people.
The lever for raising and lowering is very powerful since it’s lifting the entire stand and all of your gear so it takes a few tries to get the pressure right so it’s not going up too fast, but it barely takes a couple of fingers to depress the lever and make it go. I have to admit that it’s so powerful that I was tempted to see if I could launch stuff off the stand, but I managed to resist.
And in case you were worried about that big metal base scratching up your desk, The Duke has both heavy-duty felt and rubber feet to not only hold the stand in place and prevent sliding, but to also stop your desk from getting damaged.
If you’ve been wanting to upgrade to a standing desk but didn’t want to buy a whole new desk, give The Duke some consideration. At only $499, it’s cheaper than a brand new standing desk or convertible desk, it’s sturdier than my sitting desk ever was, and it’s infinitely adjustable which means my wife and I can both use it and find the perfect ergonomic height.
Note: I received The Duke for review purposes but all thoughts and opinions above are my own.
