iMovR Lander U-Shaped Standing Desk Review

⁣iMovR’s U-desk offers full three-station integrated movement so the entire desk rises and lowers together.

iMovR changed the game for premium standing desks when it introduced the Lander desk in 2018. The Lander had a bevy of features we had never seen in the industry—a factory pre-assembled desk, entirely made in the USA, with an advanced, Bluetooth-enabled handset and free smartphone app, and with thousands of color and size combinations. Manufactured “on-demand,” customers can order with state-of-the-art, ergo-contoured desktops in any of more than 20 Surf(x) 3D-laminate colors or in any of 36 species/stain options in real wood.

The 2-legged Lander desk quickly became the most highly-rated premium standing desk on the market. In 2019 iMovR followed up with the second act, introducing a new 3-legged L-desk system based on the same high-performance Linak lifting platform as the Lander desk.

This second act again changed the game. As we cover in our round-up of L-Shaped Standing Desk Reviews, competitors in the category typically offer only a handful of size variations with limited colors; whereas the Lander L-desk can be customized to thousands of size, shape and color combinations. At the time it was launched the maximally-configured Lander L-desk topped the standing desk rankings for largest work surface area (30.9 sq. ft.), and lifting capacity (540 lbs) as well.

Ready for the third act? iMovR’s U-Desk has arrived as a true category disrupter. Yes, there are some U-desks around, but if you wanted a true standing U-desk (meaning one in which all three work surfaces, not just one or two, move up and down together in unison), you’ve had to go to a manufacturer of “console workstations”—adjustable-height desks used in places like 911 dispatch centers or financial trading floors.

iMovR has changed that by providing a true U-shaped standing desk that’s accessible to the average consumer or business. A desk that comes with all the benefits of buying from a company with e-commerce roots instead of console furniture roots, like a reasonably affordable price, many more configuration options in sizes, shapes and colors, and dramatically faster production and shipping.

Like other Lander desks, the U-desk is manufactured, pre-assembled and individually factory-tested within one business week from order. The product is made in Grand Rapids, Michigan and ships by freight carrier.

If You Were To Drive A Hummer, Would It Be An H1 Or An H2?

The maximally-configured Lander U-desk offers an astounding 44.375 sq. feet of work surface area. That’s more than most conference tables (and certainly bigger than any of iMovR’s own Synapse Sit-Stand Meeting Tables).

With four brawny Linak DL6 lifting columns it has a combined lift rating of a whopping 720 pounds, enough to lift three adult pandas. But more practically, even after deducting the weight of the desktop surfaces this still leaves you with an immense payload for countless display monitors and whatever else you need on top of, or mounted under your desk.

In many ways, this is the ultimate standing desk — presuming, of course, that you have the space and the budget for it. Whether to build the world’s coolest setup for music or video production, an engineering bench, day trading station, gaming station, flight simulator, police or C2 dispatch station — you can make it happen with this desk.

We can think of many people who might desire this much work surface and lift capacity. It’s just never been this practical and affordable before.

U-Desk Assembly Shouldn’t Be This Easy

Parsing all the praise we piled on the original Lander, the assembly might be our favorite part (and a huge reason it’s one of our highest-rated Migratory standing desks). The easy assembly carries over to the U-desk (as well as its equally easy disassembly and reassembly when the time comes to move this beast someday). iMovR claims a 13-minute assembly time, which we were able to match when we built one ourselves in the testing lab.

The trick is factory pre-assembly. There just isn’t much for the user to do. For each leg, you place the leg into the base, plug it in, push a clamp down onto it, place a lock into the clamp, then push the lock into place with your heel. There are no bolts or screws to drive in. (See video on assembling the center desk and video on attaching the “return” desk sections.)

Like we said above, the assembly should take about 13 minutes. There are eight machine bolts and 10 wood screws total. You’ll need only one tool: a screwdriver (or electric screwdriver to make the job go even faster).

Lots And Lots Of Shapes

Because iMovR manufactures their desks on-demand in a highly automated production process they are able to offer a lot of size options for both the main and side tables. Plus the returns can come in rectangular or peninsula style (a half-circle at the end).

We computed that there are nearly 15,000 different configurations between the main desk size, left and right return sizes and end shapes (rectangular or peninsular), laminate colors, base colors and base height ranges.

When it comes to sizes, the desk comes with length options of 83”, 89” or 95”. The main desk is 30” deep. On the 95”, both desk returns can be 30” deep, leaving you an ample 35” in the center of the U to sit or stand at. The other two lengths can have 24”-deep returns. Return lengths can be 35”, 41”, 47”, 53” or 59”, and you can pick different lengths for each return.

Lots And Lots of Colors

⁣The iMovR Lander U-Shaped Standing Desk with Obsidian Oak desktop.

As with all of their other standing desk models, iMovR offers their exclusive Surf(x) 3D laminated desktops in more than 20 colors for the U-desk. These ultra-durable tops look great and look like they’re carved from natural hardwood—but are nowhere near the cost of real wood. The ergo-contoured edges are comfortable to rest your arms against and they also stand up better to damage from chairs bumping into them.

A U-desk is a major investment so you want to make sure that the desktops will last a very long time. While some competitors’ offerings carry no warranty coverage on their desktops, the Surf(x) 3D lamination process iMovR uses in making their tops hermetically seals them against moisture damage and the elements. There are no exposed glue seams to dry out or to collect bacteria, and they are impervious to even the harshest of cleaning chemicals. Even the grommet holes on these 3D tops are completely sealed, with no exposed MDF or ugly grommet caps.

Speaking of grommets, check out our article on grommet holes, with everything you need to know about the different ways to use them to enhance your workstation, what to look for in your grommet holes, and where to find the desks with the best ones.

The first thing we noticed when first assembling the wood grain Lander U-Desk is that the grain runs in a consistent direction through all three desktops. We’ve not seen this on any L-desk before, fixed height or sit-stand, let alone a U-desk. This is a remarkable benefit of the 3D-lamination process that allows iMovR to change the direction of the grain on the side tables by 90 degrees.

These 3D laminate and other high-quality desktops can also be purchased separately if you want to get your ideal parts for a DIY desk project or just want to upgrade your current desk’s surface. Take a look at all the best standalone desktops we have reviewed for all you need to know about different kinds of desk surfaces and materials.

Grooved Return Connection

One fairly consistent issue we have seen with L-desks (we haven’t seen enough U-desks to say it’s a problem there too) is where the return and the main work surface meet. Because these edges are both usually contoured, it leaves a groove where they meet. iMovR L- and U-desks get around this issue by having a negative contour on the return edge that makes for a much cleaner, and smoother, connection.

This design with the 3D-laminated desktops also lends itself to the interchangeability of either return to be attached to either the left side or right side of the desk, meaning you can switch the returns down the road if you’d like. That’s a completely unique feature we haven’t seen on any other L-desk, which usually have to be ordered as “left-side” or “right-side” and cannot easily be switched.

Bluetooth-Enabled Handset and Smartphone App

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Like the standard Lander and Lander L-desk, the height control “paddle” that iMovR installs on its U-desk is packed with high-tech features. Height changes are a matter of a simple upward or downward tap on the sleek paddle which features a high-res, multi-color display.

The built-in “health coach” reminds you to change posture as often as you set your notification frequency and duration, unobtrusively through either the handset’s display or push notification to your phone, or both. Studies have shown a 117% increase in standing time just by virtue of having this gentle reminder feature built into your desk.

Everything that you can do on the height control paddle can also be done through the app. Even if you only use the app once to program your favorite heights (Don’t forget that you’ll want a separate preset if you’re using a standing desk balance board since that will require you to raise your keyboard height a few inches) and health coach notification settings, we always recommend launching it at least once if for no other reason than to click off the liability waiver that lets you just double-tap the paddle and let the desk move to its next favorite height setting without having to keep your finger on the button.

For Underwriters Laboratories (UL) certification in the USA, a standing desk ordinarily cannot have a “fire and forget” feature like this for safety reasons. iMovR’s Lander is the first standing desk in the market that retains its UL certification — a crucial item for enterprise and government employers, in particular — by virtue of this liability waiver that can be acknowledged using the smartphone app. When you see Chinese-made desks with this “one-touch” feature it is because their desks aren’t UL certified; something your employer may be unhappy to learn about.

Flexibility and Upgrade Path

As we’ve already mentioned, the Lander U-Desks’ returns can be swapped from left to right should your office configuration change anytime in the future. But it’s even easier to be flexible than that. You can actually buy the main desk now and add a return later to make it an L-desk or two returns to make it a U-desk. If you buy only the main 2-legged Lander desk (in either 83”, 89” or 95” width) it’ll already have the appropriate pre-drilled holes for accepting the return or returns later.

American-Made and Tariff-Free

iMovR chooses to make its standing desks in the USA for a variety of reasons, but chiefly for the higher quality and precision tolerances of American components. Though, with the new tariffs on Chinese imports, the competition is getting more expensive and will likely no longer have a cost advantage over USA-made standing desks.

Making a choice between Asian-sourced and American-made for a U-desk is similar to making the choice for a standard 2-legged desk, which you can read all about in our primer on How Asian-Made Standing Desks Compare to American-Made. While desk stability is of practically zero concern with a 4-legged desk given its four-on-the-floor structure, precision manufacturing tolerances and precision electronic controls are paramount to ensuring that the four legs move up and down in perfect unison; if one leg gets out of sync with the others the entire desk could easily break.

Warranty

The Lander U-Desk comes with an industry-leading lifetime warranty on the frame and a 15-year warranty on the motors and electronics, as well as a 100-day satisfaction guarantee. To enable such a strong warranty a manufacturer has to have tremendous faith in the componentry, precision machining and testing of the product that are reflected in the higher price you pay for a product like this.

While some of the Chinese-made competitors like UpLift and Fully (both using a lifting base manufactured by Jiecang) have upped their warranty terms to seemingly match iMovR’s, be aware that not all warranties are equal. Some insert carve-outs in the fine print that might leave you in trouble if you run into a component failure in the future. In fact, there’s so much spin going on in warranty terms marketing claims these days that we decided to write an article on How To Compare Warranty Policies Between Standing Desk Manufacturers, which we encourage the consumer to read ahead of making their final purchase decision.

Our staff experts’ advice is to always go with the higher-quality componentry of a top-shelf American or European-made base and significantly reduce the odds of ever having to deal with the immense hassle of an out-of-commission desk. Keep in mind that desks generally start to underperform before they fail, and loose manufacturing tolerances will lead to performance issues such as grease streaking, squeaking when in transit, and increasing shakiness over time.

Takeaway

The truth is, iMovR could have produced a middling U-desk and we’d still praise it because full-surface height-adjustable U-desks are so difficult to find from an e-commerce company that caters to the individual with aspects like free shipping, lots of options and cheaper prices.

By not producing a middling desk, and instead taking the Lander desk family one step further from Lander, to Lander L-desk to Lander U-Desk, they’ve hit a home run. This is a true category disrupter.

Dead-simple assembly, endless options, state-of-the-art features, industry-leading warranty. The Lander U-Desk has it all. While it’s an incredibly interesting option for many customers who need only one desk, it’s also bound to give the entire “console” industry a serious run for the money.

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