StandDesk Rolling File Cabinet Review

The “Bottom Drawer” in File Cabinets for Standing Desks

StandDesk is once again in competition with Autonomous to see who can sell the cheapest-made product, this time with their rolling file cabinets. Autonomous was selling theirs for $169, so StandDesk had to bring there’s out at $157.45 to win the cheapest of customers. Both are manufactured in China to the lowest quality standards of any of the mobile pedestals that we reviewed.

In fact almost all the mobile pedestals marketed for pairing with standing desks come from China these days (including Fully’s, UpLift’s, Autonomous‘ and Vari’s), the one exception being iMovR’s American-made, premium file cabinets. You can see how they all compare in our comprehensive round-up of File Cabinets for Standing Desks Review.

A three-drawer, lockable, all-steel storage cabinet, the StandDesk roller has a spartan, squared-off design with no drawer pulls of any kind (you open them from the side). The overall dimensions of this cabinet are in the standard range for standing desk accompaniment. You don’t want to use a cabinet any taller than that lest you crash your standing desk into it while lowering it to a seated position.

At 36 lbs it uses by far less steel than any other cabinet we’ve reviewed (even 10 lbs less than the Autonomous cabinet). Unlike the Autonomous cabinet, however, this one is deep enough to handle both letter-sized and legal-sized documents.

The color selection is sparse. Although photographs are shown in black, white and grey, only the latter two appear to be orderable on StandDesk.co’s meager website listing. In fact, we had to wonder if this product has been abandoned. There were literally no specifications listed and a bunch of weird typos and HTML errors when we last examined the page, so caveat emptor.

There is no video or documentation of any kind to indicate whether this cabinet arrives fully pre-assembled, for that matter, and queries to the company for a test sample have so far gone unanswered. Since we have reviewed StandDesk’s standing desk products in the past we felt it was important to include their file cabinet here, but to be honest there isn’t much we can say lacking a test unit, basic information or even a single user review to read online.

There is also no indication of any warranty, and at a price point of $157.45 wouldn’t be terribly surprised if that was indeed the case.

While most of the competitors position their mobile file pedestals as having the dual purpose of being a desk-side, roll-out seat for office visitors, and some even offer seat cushions, StandDesk does not promote this potential of its storage pedestal. The squared-off edges of the cabinet would indeed be quite uncomfortable to sit on in any event.

They do promote it, however, as a “foot rest.” Seriously? We hope that was just a joke throw in by their marketing department. (If you’re looking for a real foot rest for your sit-stand desk, by the way, check out our round-up of top foot rest reviews.)

Like several of its competitors, the StandDesk filing cabinet has a fifth caster wheel attached to the front of the bottom drawer to reduce the chance of tipping over when opening a heavily-laden drawer all the way. This is to make up for the lack of ballast weight in the rear of the cabinet, such as you’ll find on premium, fine office furniture products like iMovR’s.

The 5th caster wheel is an inexpensive workaround that keeps the shipping weight down and thus retail price as low as possible, though it won’t do anything to keep the cabinet from tipping over except when the bottom drawer is pulled out. Just avoid storing your reams of paper in the upper drawers and you’ll probably be ok.

The Takeaway

This cabinet is as basic at it comes, about $110 cheaper than its next-nearest competitors after Autonomous, and less than half the cost of an iMovR premium wood file cabinet. The lack of substantive color selections make it the most spartan of choices in this category, and the lack of drawer pulls, while giving it a clean look, is a bit odd.

StandDesk was recently acquired by Innovative Office Products, a commercial office furniture company with zero experience in ecommerce. According to company executives we interviewed at the time (mid-2020) StandDesk was to be their “sandbox” for learning how to be an ecommerce player. Well, keeping your website up to date and products in stock shouldn’t be rocket science. We wonder if some things got lost in the ownership transition, such as this rolling file cabinet.