InMovement Elevate Desktop DT2 Standing Desk Converter Review

Review

[Editor’s Update August 2, 2019: InMovement, which was owned by LifeFitness (a division of Brunswick Corporation), shut its doors in January, 2019. The one decent product they produced, this Elevate Desktop DT2 Standing Desk Converter, was acquired along with the InMovement brand and website, by a reputable competitor. The product can now be purchased here. Below is our original review of the DT2 Converter which we’ll be updating in the near future to reflect any changes since the acquisition.]

InMovement’s Elevate Desktop DT2 Standing Desk is yet another new entrant in the “Z-lift” category of standing desk converters, also commonly referred to as “Varidesk Alternatives.” Z-Lift is one of four categories of heigh-adjustable standing desk workstations—and generally the most stable of the bunch—that we summarize in our ever-expanding, comprehensive round-up of Standing Desk Converter Reviews.

The (Original) InMovement Brand

InMovement, a newly created brand of Life Fitness, which is a division of multi-billion dollar sports equipment manufacturer Brunswick, was launched in 2015 to exploit the office fitness opportunity. Their formula is a simple one. Create cheap, Chinese-made knock-offs of products that have been successful in the US market, and market them with a lot of glitz and spin to American consumers, at very high prices. Claim to have invented the genre.

The problem with this approach is that it lacks any real innovation, or for that matter, any understanding of modern ergonomics. Copying old designs of treadmill desks, standing desk converters and other devices of yore leaves out all the ergonomic and technological advancements of top-rated units available in the market today. Making them in China and putting very short warranties on them (only one year in the case of the Elevate Desktop DT2 Standing Desk, e.g.) is one thing, but selling them at a premium price above newer, better, competing products is then quite another.

We reviewed the InMovement Treadmill Desk in the past—a virtual photocopy of the decade-old Steelcase Walkstation, at its original $5,000 price tag—in a market where $3,000 gets you state of the art. Most of InMovement’s standing desk workstation products appear to be knock-offs of popular Ergotron products. In this case they were gunning for Varidesk’s Z-lift design, complete with its worrisome potential instability at full extension. The DT2 is a completely different product than InMovement’s original Elevate Desktop, which is a direct knock-off of Ergotron’s older, front edge-clamping Workfit-S standing desk workstation design (since superseded by the Workfit-SR). As you can see, there is no originality here, not even in coming up with decent brand names to differentiate their products.

Yesteryear Design

This lug of a product is quite large at 41″ in width, and consequently a staggering 58 lbs. in weight. As their video shows it takes two people to remove it from the 78 lb shipping container and place it on top of your desk. Once there, it’s fairly permanent, as you will not likely be moving it aside as easily as you can other standing desk converters.

All that metal and wood takes lifting power away from the Elevate Desktop’s capacity, leaving it at a max of 25 lbs (although we found inconsistent specs of 25, 30 and 35 lbs between InMovement’s web pages, Amazon’s and Staples’). Modern units will have a higher lift capacity to accommodate the dual monitor setups many people have.

The unit employs springs to aid in lifting the platform up to stand, much like the older Varidesk Pro ($395) and Workfit-T ($436) designs—in contrast to the silent the smooth and silent air air cylinders like in the ZipLift ($339), the now discontinued Cadence Express ($429) and other newer models. Spring-aided mechanisms can make clanging noises as you find the right detent of the ten stops provided in this design. Standing desk converters designed with air cylinder pistons don’t need detents to hold their position, and have an infinite number of stopping positions.

Stretching the Truth on “Ergonomic”

The Elevate Desktop DT2 has a height range of 18.75″, with the thin keyboard platform being mounted 5.5″ below the work surface (meaning the “stroke” of the mechanism totals 13.75″). While the keyboard tray has the nice feature of being retractable, it has no tilt adjustablity, and has some bumps underneath that prevent it from laying perfectly flat on the desk surface when in the seated position.

This lack of tilt adjustability is surprising given that InMovement advertises the keyboard tray as “ergonomic,” when what they really mean is that it’s retractable (these people know sports equipment, not office furniture, clearly). A true ergonomic keyboard tray would allow you to change its tilt angle to reduce carpal tunnel stresses, such as the ones that are built into the ZipLift, Cadence (discontinued), and OneTouch standing desk converters. On the plus side, while the keyboard platform is thin, it is spacious and has a matte black plastic lining to help with proper mouse function.

Like Varidesk models, the DT2 also lacks a grommet hole for mounting and ergonomic monitor arm. Our biggest issue with the DT2’s height adjustment capability is that with only ten detents on the spring lift mechanism the available height positions are 1.375″ apart, which is quite a large spread. You may have to settle for a position that’s just a little too high or little too low to be perfect.

What Users Are Saying

As we normally do on any product review (learn more about how we review standing desk converter products), we scanned the web for telling user reviews. There aren’t many to be found outside of Amazon and the company’s own website. Overall reports on Amazon are positive (albeit few in number), though this is not uncommon as we find that office fitness products on Amazon are always given optimistically high ratings by users who are enthused about standing, not so much about the specific product that got them standing.

Verified users on Amazon and Staples have complimented the unit’s heft but this was coupled with “the UPS driver needed help bringing it in, and I was afraid my desk would collapse under its weight.” One called it “a good upper body workout to lift,” which could explain why the manufacturer and retailers appear to be walking back the 35 lb weight rating to 30 and 25.

Some users complained about its brake paddles getting sticky on occasion and requiring multiple attempts to lock it into position. Sounds a lot like the Varidesk Pro Plus, which gets similar complaints. Curated 5-star reviews are all you’ll find on InMovement’s website, though this is common with manufacturers’ websites across all industries, so we put less stock in these.

The Takeaway

Read our reviews of other Z-lift standing desk converters and find one of many that’ll give you a lot more modern design features for the money than this Chinese-made imitator. If you’re attracted to this unit regardless of its shortcomings we recommend purchasing it through Amazon for better consumer protection.

Specifications

• Supports single or dual monitors
• Work Surface: 41″ x 26.2″
• 14″ Vertical Travel
• Keyboard Tray Dimensions: 25″ x 10.5″
• Max Weight Capacity: 25 – 35 lbs (inconsistent specs).
• Unit Weight: 58 lbs

Warranty

The InMovement Standing Desk comes with a One Year Warranty.

Shipping

InMovement charges $50 shipping, and will deliver in 5 to 7 business days within the US.