Review: Staples Union & Scale Electric Standing Desk With Micro Movements

Standing desks can quickly go from cheap to eye-wateringly expensive, but that means there's almost always a good option, whatever your budget. At the low end, you'll typically find standing desks from Flexispot, but Staples' house brand, Union & Scale, is also vying for your money.

Its desks aren't as affordable, but the model I've been testing—the 55-inch Standing Desk With Micro Movements (UN62092)—has been treating me well. Staples also has a feature not too common on standing desks called Micro Movements, where the desk shifts height ever so slightly as you work to promote movement and “reduce fatigue”—anything to stand out from a crowded field.

Standard Fare

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Staples didn't spend much time on looks when cooking this desk up. Unlike a few newer standing desks that play around with different designs, this one retains the classic look with two T-shaped metal legs under a 55 by 27-inch laminate desktop. The edges of the surface are beveled, so it doesn't feel sharp, but it would have been nice to have some color options instead of the boring white. You also can't change the frame color, so you're stuck with the white and gray combo.

Assembly was easy and took me roughly 20 to 30 minutes, though you may need some help flipping the desk over after you're done since the whole thing weighs 90 pounds (it can hold up to 264 pounds). The instructions in the manual are easy to follow, and there are even some built-in cable-management solutions to keep the wires that connect the motors to the control box nice and tidy. Sadly, there aren't many built-in options for neatly routing your own cables, except for a cable tray you can attach to the center back of the desk.

The control panel is refreshingly simple. Instead of limiting the number of buttons and making it confusing to set up height presets, there are a total of five buttons on the box, along with an LED display to show the exact height you're at. The first two buttons move the desk up and down, and the last two are the height presets. Just put the table at your preferred height, press the preset button for three seconds, and it'll glide to that height whenever you press it.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

The desk height ranges from 25.5 to 51.1 inches, and the dual motors glide effortlessly up and down, and they're not too loud. You'll want to be careful when lowering it—there's collision detection, and it successfully stopped the desk from crushing a stool after I put it underneath, but it seems to depend on where the object under the desk is. I rolled my seat in so that the arms of my chair were directly under the desktop, and when I pressed the lower height preset, the desk kept going and would have probably broken my chair arms (or toppled forward) had I not forced it to stop. Maybe had I not stopped it, the sensor would have paused the operation automatically, but it was a little too close to my liking.

I haven't noticed much wobbling when the desk goes up and down, though if you put pressure on the front of the desk (maybe you're leaning forward with your elbows on the surface), there's a slight forward shift. This didn't cause any problems.

Staples offers a seven-year warranty for the motor and legs, along with a few other parts, but the control box, cables, control panel, and desktop are only covered for five years. That's about the same as what you'll find on a Flexispot, though short of desks like the Branch Duo that don't cost that much more. The nice thing about buying from Staples is that returns are always free, and you can drop it off at a nearby retail store (though you'll still have to disassemble it).

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Small Shift

The middle button on the control panel turns on Micro Movement mode, and at first, I thought it didn't work, but that was because I didn't realize how micro the movements are. Once turned on, the desk will move up 2.36 inches within five minutes, stop for two minutes, then move down the same amount in another five-minute increment. This will repeat after 48 minutes and cycle four times throughout four hours.

Staples says this will help reduce fatigue and encourage movement—subtle shifts in posture and muscle engagement—but the only reason I started noticing it was because my arms felt pinched. I set the desk up perfectly to my height and seat—my elbows sat level with the desktop without touching the surface. But for a few minutes with this feature turned on, my elbows suddenly were resting on the edge of the table, and it wasn't pleasant. It works a little better when you're standing, though you'll still feel your arms resting on the table as the desk creeps upward.

I didn't find the Micro Movements feature helpful. I didn't feel like it encouraged movement, and I'm still fatigued from, well, everything. The best part of a standing desk is that it enables you to stand up, which will hopefully then induce some actual movement throughout your workday. The Micro Movements feel akin to the active seating hype, which has never felt particularly effective.

Thankfully, it's an optional feature, and you can ignore it. And you probably should if budget is on your mind, because Staples has other dual-motor 55-inch desks without this feature, but they're not cheaper. You can size down to the 48-inch standing desk, but it only has a single motor.

This Union & Scale is a solid desk for the money, with easy assembly, simple configuration, and a dual-motor system that operates smoothly. That said, Flexispot's desks have more desktop customization options, sizes, colors, and accessories you can add on, and they cost roughly the same, if not less. I've had more trouble with Flexispot's assembly process in the past, though, if that's worth something.