Everyone should ride a desk at least once.



Starting at just $299 for the home edition, the SmartDesk is a no-brainer replacement for your static desk. It offers several surface and frame options, position memory keys, and an advanced electric riser motor that won’t topple all the Dunnys and LEGO minifigures littering your workspace.




If you feel the need to spend more, the office edition is just $399 and adds faster movement, a wider range of elevation, and 300lb load capacity via a second synchronized motor. You’ll also get a 5-year warranty. I’m not ashamed to say that I tested the SmartDesk’s load capacity several times while suppressing giggles.

While all SmartDesk surfaces have a couple of two-inch holes at the back corners, routing the cables supporting my three monitors, speakers, peripheral cables, and phone charger took some careful planning. And then more careful planning after the desk lifted my UPS off the ground and disconnected my left HDMI monitor during its first ascension.


Cable management is the SmartDesk’s only shortcoming when compared to the IKEA Sit/Stand desk - a long-standing Gizmodo favorite that includes a cable net, but costs hundreds more and loses premium features like desk-height memory and load capacity.

There’s no shortage of articles on Lifehacker touting the benefits of getting off your ass during the workday. However, parting with $500-$1500 for a premium sit-stand desk isn’t an option for all of us. Before Autonomous, budget-conscious options used to be compromises that consisted of hacking together wood and parts from Home Depot and Ikea, or spending a couple hundred dollars on a manual monitor riser that mates to your current desk.

We also took a look at Autonomous’ ErgoChair and will be checking out their active sitting stool very soon.

