Uplift Desk Standing Desks and More
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Austin, TX-based UpLiftDesk.com was originally known for many years as TheHumanSolution.com, one of the earliest online purveyors of ergonomic products including chairs, keyboard trays, monitor arms, etc. founded by ergonomist and entrepreneur Jon Paulsen. Our Uplift desk reviews show that being around for such a long time doesn’t necessarily mean you make the best product.
With the launch of their highly popular UpLift standing desk about a decade ago, the company’s primary emphasis shifted to marketing the standing desk line, currently in its second generation as the UpLift V2 standing desk. While the original website still exists it has virtually no remaining traffic; all of the company’s marketing firepower has been gradually shifted to the newer UpLift Desk brand as standing desks began to absolutely dominate the ergonomic office furniture business.
UpLift competes head-to-head with another pioneering e-commerce player, Fully, with their Jarvis Standing Desk, also built on the same Chinese-made Jiecang lifting base. Both companies focus primarily on lower-end standing desks, though they offer a few high-end solid wood options as well.
While competitor Fully was acquired by $1.3B Knoll Furniture, and Knoll itself then acquired by the industry’s largest player, $3.5B Herman Miller as part of their response to the pandemic boom in Work From Home, UpLift Desk has remained fiercely focused on its arch competitor Fully—matching product offerings and ad campaigns as they each battle to maintain market share in the high-volume, commodity-grade standing desk market.
Though based in the USA, virtually all the products sold by both companies are made in China, and their review scores reflect the quality comparison of these offerings to American-made equivalents. Regardless, both Paulsen and Kahl have played pivotal roles in shaping today’s standing desk industry.
See the below UpLift desk reviews for what our experts thought on how they performed.
Check out our full collection of office fitness equipment brand roundups.
UpLift Standing Desks
1. UpLift V2 Standing Desk - Commercial
The V2-Commercial carries over the standard V2’s negatives and adds a couple of its own—a crossbar, plus limited maximum height for taller and treadmill users. Outside of a few very specific scenarios, there’s no reason to pick the V2-Commercial over the standard V2.
Price: $679
2. UpLift V2 Standing Desk - Residential
It’s popular. Really popular. Not necessarily because it’s an awesome product but because it’s very heavily advertised, with hyperbolic marketing claims that don’t hold up to close inspection. The UpLift is probably the top-selling, Chinese-made commodity standing desk on the market in the sub-$800 price tier, now on its third generation design (the “V2”). The improvements over the last generation appear to be more behind-the-scenes in cost reduction moves than in tangible, valuable features that can benefit most users. After weeks of testing in our labs our reviewers detail the pros and cons of the new design.
Price: $599
3. UpLift Curved Corner L-Shaped Standing Desk
Like all the other UpLift desk models, the Curved Corner unit is built atop a low-cost, Chinese made base. However, stability and lift capacity issues will be somewhat diminished in this desk rendition due to the fact that it incorporates three lifting columns instead of two. So although the base is a little less costly than a high-quality American-made standing desk base, you’ll in effect be paying 50% more for a third lifting leg.
Price: $1,399
4. UpLift Standing L-Desk
A minimalist “secretary desk” design in solid wood, the Albright is a pretty desk, for sure. From a practical standpoint, however, its design could have been better thought through. The two drawers are top-side, not slung under the desktop, so to open them you need to clear the space in front of them. There isn’t a practical way to install an articulating ergonomic monitor arm on this desk so unless you’re planning to use it only with a laptop, an external monitor would need to sit on the shelf, which may or may not be ergonomically ideal for you. As solid wood desks the quality of the woodwork is on par with UpLift’s but nowhere near as nice as iMovR’s. At the end of the day, it’s a very nice piece of handcrafted solid wood on a cheap Chinese-made Jiecang lifting base that you’ll have to assemble on your own, so unlike other designer desks that pair really nice American-made tops with really nice American-made bases (and better warranties all around), we don’t get the rationale between this mish-mash.
Price: $1,688
Check out our full roundup of electric standing desks
UpLift Standing Desk Converters
1. UpLift E7 Standing Desk Converter
Despite excellent weight capacity and an attractive keypad for changing height, the E7 has drawbacks. It lacks flexibility in important ergonomic spots, is difficult to set up alone, and is outclassed by similarly priced (and cheaper) electric sit-stand converters.
Price: $449
Check out our full round up of standing desk converters
Uplift Balance Boards
1. Uplift Desk E7 Motion Board
The UpLift E7 Motion Board is nothing special, but it does prevent some common problems we see with less imaginative balance boards. The surfaces are conducive to using without shoes and its motion is not so aggressive that it hampers your ability to work. However, it’s visually mundane and doesn’t really have any features that distinguish it from the lot of other balance boards already out there. It works better on solid wood floors than on carpeting, at least as far as twisting motion goes.
Price: $89
Check out our full roundup of balance boards
UpLift Standing Desk Storage
1. Uplift File Cabinet
UpLift mostly worries about three competitors, Fully with their Sidekick 3-drawer mobile pedestal, Vari with their 4+ models of mobile pedestals, and Autonomous with their ultra-cheap rolling file cabinet. The three models that UpLift has created are, like the others, a) made-in-China with thin steel and relatively cheap components, b) designed to go with their own desks, with paint color options matching all four of the colors they offer on UpLift standing desks, c) lightweight and thus a bit of a tipping risk, even with the “prosthetic” 5th wheel under the bottom drawer, and d) very competitively priced between all of them. If you’re wanting to stick in the economy price range of a steel cabinet that matches the legs of your UpLift desk rather than a wood cabinet that might match your desk surface, there’s no need to look further than these matching cabinets from the same factory.
Price: $269
2. Uplift Desk Monitor Riser
The UpLift Desk Monitor Riser looks nice, has a great warranty and features a clamp-on installation that’s mostly positive, if you don’t have a real wood desktop. On the other side, it requires some assembly and the 15″ version has a weak weight capacity.
Price: $79
3. UpLift Locking Under Desk Drawer Review
The UpLift Locking Under Desk Drawer is a solid drawer. We don’t love the design that pushes it down so far into the user’s leg space, but some people might. It also comes in four colors. If not for a competitor with a similar design that’s much cheaper, the UpLift drawer would rank even higher.
Price: $149
Check out our full roundup of standing desk storage options
Uplift Desk Cable Management Accessories
1. Uplift Wire Management Kit
The UpLift kits (Basic, Advanced and Ultimate) have hits and misses, but the real issue is a lack of differentiation. UpLift made kits that aren’t nearly as good as category leaders but aren’t much cheaper. There are also some of the common mistakes we see from companies that aren’t considering the user, like necessitating a special tool for the cable sleeve or providing weak adhesive mounts that will fail under the load of a desk that moves up and down several times a day.
Price: $39
2. Uplift Magnetic Cable Organizing Channel
We love that it’s reusable, but the design won’t allow it to work well on many standing desks. Also, it’s only a partial solution because you still have to get cables from the bottom of the channel to where they need to end up.
Price: $35
3. Uplift Desk Cable Management Sleeve
There are much better cable sleeve designs available, especially ones that don’t require you to use and keep a special tool. Plus it comes up short in the details with no thermal protection, no ROHS or REACH certification and no warranty.
Price: $16
4. Uplift Desk Zipped Cable Management Sleeve
The UpLift Zipped Cable Sleeve is a strong option among cable sleeves because its adjustability will make your workspace more flexible. A zipper is better than velcro options, as long as the zipper holds up well. It’s a solid option that only lacks thermal protection, certifications and long warranty.
Price: $19
Check out our full roundup of cable management
Frequently Bought With Standing Desks
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