With more and more of us working from home, the temptation to work from the sofa is strong. But what may initially feel like a small luxury can lead to significant pain, not to mention the loss of concentration and productivity that it takes a serious toll on.
Here at Creative Bloq, we’re fans of a good standing desk. They help you stay active in a job that might have you stuck at your desk for most of the day, and can also improve your posture, relieve back pain, and even help improve your concentration and mood. However, many of them can look quite functional, and while that might be fine in an office, at home you might want something with a bit more style.
That’s where the Maidesite TH2 Pro Plus comes in, a motorized standing desk with a touch of extra design. It keeps a lot of other bells and whistles to a minimum, but has some subtle differences in the finish that make it look more like a piece of furniture than a functional appliance. I’ve been living with it for a few months now, and I’m getting by.
Design and assembly
The TH2 Pro Plus is one of the company’s most premium and attractive options. In particular, it features elegantly shaped oval legs that ultimately set the TH2 Pro Plus apart from the company’s regular T2 Pro Plus. We suspect that the “H” in its name probably stands for “Home,” as it gives the desk a much more stylish look – especially handy if it’s going to be part of a room that you use outside of work as well.
Of course, these oval legs also serve as powerful lifting columns for the desk. Motors are built into each of these legs, making it easier to move the desk up and down.
There are numerous options to fit it into your home. The frame is available in black, grey or white. Maidesite’s FSC-certified desk top is made from eco-friendly chipboard and is available in oak, white, antique and black finishes. Available sizes are 47 x 24 inches (120 x 60 cm), 55 x 28 inches (140 x 70 cm) and 63 x 31 inches (160 x 80 cm).
You can also get your own desk top if you want, but I tested the desk with the black frame and antique finish desk top in the smallest size.
If you do the same, the desk will come in two parts – the tabletop, complete with pre-drilled holes and nuts – and the frame. Both boxes are very heavy, so you’ll probably need someone to help you transport them and, if possible, assemble them. According to the brochure, assembly should take about 30 minutes with two people, but I managed to assemble it alone in about 45 minutes.
Everything is well packaged and the instructions are really easy to follow. All the tools you need (an Allen key and a screwdriver) are included – although I’d recommend having your own screwdriver on hand for some parts – and all the various bolts and screws for the different sections are in numbered bags that correspond with the instructions.
Optional casters are also included if you want to move your desk conveniently and easily.
The only part of the assembly that I found a bit tricky was screwing the self-tapping screws into the wood when attaching the control panel and cable guides. This is where your own screwdriver will come in handy – the mini screwdriver provided doesn’t offer much leverage.
Speaking of cable management, having cables under the desk will prevent the various cables you need to connect to the control unit from dangling unsightly. However, there is no such solution for the power cable. If you are not sitting directly against a wall, like me, you may want to come up with your own solution for that to keep everything looking neat.
Following the instructions, I mounted the control panel on the right side, but note that there are pre-drilled holes on both sides if you prefer the left-handed position.
Once set up and assembled, the desk looks really smart. It’s sturdy and well made, and although the tabletop isn’t solid wood, it looks good and is very durable – plus it helps keep the price down. The rounded edges of the tabletop are welcome with small children running around, and – for a similar reason – so is the child safety lock.
Its size is perfect for me. I’m not blessed with a lot of space at home, but it’s compact enough not to eat up my room, while still providing plenty of room for my (admittedly rather small) setup. I also really appreciate that if my circumstances change and I need something bigger, I can easily upgrade the desktop to a larger one and the frame can be customized, keeping costs down.
Features and experience
While some of our favorite standing desks include things like wireless charging, the TH2 Pro Plus is relatively no-frills. There’s a handy cable grommet in the top right corner, and there’s a USB port on the side of the panel for plugging in a phone charging cable or maybe even a wireless charging mat. There are no storage options here, though, so you’ll want to make sure you have something else ready for that if you need it.
As I mentioned at the beginning, this is a motorized standing desk. There is a small control panel with a small LCD display that allows you to access the different functions and see the current settings. It extends just slightly over the edge of the desk and is angled upwards so it is easy to see and use while sitting.
The screen is primarily used to display the height of the desk, which is shown in centimeters by default, but can be customized if you prefer to display it in inches.
The manual tells you to reset the panel after unboxing. This apparently calibrates the legs to ensure they are the same height. This requires holding down the down arrow key when the desk is at its lowest position. You also need to put it into mode to access some of the advanced menu options. These include setting upper and lower height limits and adjusting the collision avoidance sensitivity. By default this is set to the highest sensitivity (19kg) and I’d recommend leaving it that way. This will stop the desk from moving higher or lower if it detects an obstacle in the way.
You’ll want to keep the manual handy for adjusting these settings, as without it it’s not entirely clear what you’re doing. However, once you do it once, you probably won’t need to adjust these things very often.
Four programmable heights can be accessed at the touch of a button on the panel itself. This means I can adjust my sitting and standing positions exactly as I want them, and my husband can do the same.
Of course, you can also manually adjust and adjust your height using the up and down arrows – the desk has a height range of 62-127cm (24-50 inches), which Maidesite says is suitable for users between 1.4m and 1.9m (4ft 6in to 6ft 3in) tall. There’s also a weight capacity of 125kg (275lbs), which is pretty generous.
There is a sit-stand reminder feature built into the control panel that vibrates quite loudly at an interval you choose to remind you to adjust your working position. This can happen every 30 minutes, 1 hour or 2 hours.
Whether you use that little nudge from the desk or just decide for yourself when it’s time to adjust your working position, the motorized movement is super smooth and you’ll have no trouble moving the desk up or down while you have a full cup of tea on it. At up to 40mm/s, it’s fast too, so you won’t have to wait forever for it to adjust to its new position.
I’ve been using this desk for several months now and aside from a few initial difficulties getting my bearings on the control panel, everything has worked smoothly and without issues. Since I was using a fixed desk at home before switching to the TH2 Pro Plus, I’ve really felt the difference in my workday and it’s helped me inject some energy into my day when the afternoon slump sets in.
Price
The recommended retail price for the desk tested is £549 (about $670), but regular sales on Maidesite’s website put it at around £389 ($495) at the time of writing, which is in line with the rating.
That price is made up of the frame, which at the time of writing was £300/$380 (or £280/$355 for white), and desktops, which start at £79/$100 depending on size and finish.
Considering the ease of assembly, the quality and workmanship of the materials and the smooth handling, this price seems quite fair.
Should I buy it?
If you’ve been thinking about modernizing your home office, the Maidesite TH2 Pro Plus standing desk offers great value for money and looks good too.
Its design-conscious build makes it a particularly attractive choice for anyone needing a desk in a multi-purpose area of their home, but it’s also great for anyone who simply prefers something a little softer looking while still being efficient and functional.
The range of sizes and upgrade potential make it very practical and the materials used are of excellent quality. If you can do without a real wood desk top, the product on offer here is almost flawlessly crafted and has shown no chips, dents or cracks in the busy months I’ve been testing it.
Aside from the lack of nice-to-have features found on more expensive desks, there’s little to complain about with the TH2 Pro Plus. I think anyone who incorporates this desk into their daily work routine will be very happy with the results.