Overall and Final Verdict
Part of making changes in your lifestyle is making changes around you. For me, as someone who spends all day working at his desk and typically all night gaming, browsing the internet, or working a big problem in my own lifestyle is sitting day and night. So having the chance to check out the Autonomous DIY SmartDesk Kit Business Edition has been eye opening. For starters, I expected myself to be standing all of the time almost immediately but the truth is after years of sitting standing all day didn’t work as well. So I don’t get an immediate change in lifestyle but a sit/stand desk is a good tool to help. That is where Autonomous comes in, if I could stand all day I would but having the ability to quickly transition between sitting and standing was very helpful. I even swapped just now while in the middle of writing. I was able to set my desk to what I needed and not just work around my desk.
Now Autonomous has a few interesting things going. Their full desk options are a great way to go if you are starting fresh or don’t like your current setup. For me, I wanted to keep my desktop and just replace the base. While I didn’t follow the directions completely, the installation went smoothly. The first thing I noticed was the solid construction. It was actually more solid than the four steel legs I had previously, even when I have the desk at full height. The 300-pound weight capacity of the business edition helped hold my solid wood desktop and my four monitor setup along with everything else on my desk. While the range of the Home Edition would have been more than enough, the extra range of the Business Edition means the desk will work with the tallest of people all the way down to children. I was also expecting the dual motors to be louder than they were and the movement overall to be more jarring.
I do think they could improve how quickly the desk comes to a stop when using the programmed buttons, a little slowdown from the 2.3 inches a second of the Business Edition would keep my monitors from shaking a little when it reaches the desired height. I also found that if I kept the desk in on mode for a while there would be a little sticking when I moved it, this might be an issue with our specific kit but it is important to keep in mind.
What really surprised me was the pricing. For the Home Edition DIY kit, you are looking at $249 and $349 for the Business Edition that I took a look at today. Adding a table top adds $50 to the cost and Autonomous has a whole selection of top colors, sizes, and shapes. So even with the higher end kit, you aren’t looking at any more than the Arozzi Arena Desk that I previously took a look at. Pairing the solid wood table top that I went with and the base would be a little at $439. That’s still less than the $529 price tag of Ikea's sit stand desk and you would have a better construction. At those prices, I wouldn’t consider this cheap, but for anyone who spends the amount of time at a desk that I do, it isn’t an unreasonable amount to spend. That’s ignoring how much better it is for your health to mix in standing while you work.
Live Pricing: HERE
