Are you struggling with your mobility, your flexibility, your back, your neck, your hips, or anything similar for that matter? If so, then it could be something as simple as sitting down for too long that is causing you so much pain and discomfort.

With so many people now working sedentary jobs requiring them to sit at a desk for hours at a time, the number of people suffering with bad backs and poor posture has increased dramatically over the last two decades. So much so, in fact, that health experts now say that ‘sitting is the new smoking’.

A great solution for these issues however, comes in the form of a standing desk, but which is better, a cheap standing desk, or a premium desk such as the SOLOS Advanced Standing Desk? Well, that’s what we’re going to attempt to find out.

Here’s a look at whether it’s worth upgrading your cheap standing desk to a more advanced model.

What is a standing desk?

Before we can start comparing the key differences between budget and premium standing desks, we first need to take a look at precisely what standing desks are.

Contrary to the name, standing desks are not desks designed solely for standing, though that is one of their main functions. Standing desks are basically desks which can be electronically adjusted in height, allowing users to swap between sitting at them to work, and then standing up at them to work.

The idea is that you switch between standing and sitting throughout the working day, so as to help straighten the spine, improve posture, ease pressure on your joints, and help get you that little but more active.

Standing desks are equipped with an electric motor, or electric motors, and can be adjusted in height in seconds with the press of a button. They’re also equipped with other features, though some, such as the SOLOS Advanced Standing Desk, are more sophisticated and advanced than others.

Things to consider when choosing a standing desk

When choosing a standing desk, regardless of your budget, there are some features and requirements that you simply must look for. 

Whether you want to kit your workplace out with standing desks for your employees, or whether you want a standing desk for your home office, here are some things to consider when choosing a standing desk:

Height range

One of the best things about the human race is that we’re all different, both in terms of personality, and in terms of physical appearance.

In terms of physical appearance, the height range of a standing desk is very important because, obviously, different people are different heights. A 5ft 4-inch individual for example, will not have a standing desk set at the same height as a 6ft 5-inch individual.

As a basic rule of thumb, look for a standing desk with a height range of between 22.6” and 48.7” though obviously the taller you and/or your workforce are, the higher the desk will need to rise.

A cheap standing desk will likely not rise as high as something such as the SOLOS Advanced Standing Desk which, with the desktop, has a max height range of 49.4”.

Size

In a perfect world you’ll have an enormous office space and you wouldn’t need to worry about the size of your standing desk. If this applies to you then consider yourself lucky, as most people are limited in terms of space.

When choosing a standing desk, figure out where the desk/desks will go, measure up, and make sure that there is plenty of space around the desks themselves.

Typically, cheap standing desks will be smaller, as they’ll use fewer materials and will have fewer features. If you can stretch your budget a little further however, a more premium desk such as the SOLOS Advanced Standing Desk would be ideal as it only a max of 55” wide.

Ease of adjustment

Perhaps the most obvious feature to look for in a standing desk is the actual adjustment feature.

When you’re ready to switch from sitting to standing, the last thing you want to do is sit around for what feels like an eternity as the desk slowly and awkwardly clunks its way up higher and higher to the standing position.

Cheap standing desks are cheap because they use inferior parts and fewer parts, and it is in the motor where this really becomes obvious. A premium desk like the SOLOS Advanced Standing Desk however, offers multiple motors. This desk actually provides a dual motor with 3 stage advancement. 

Having dual motors in place really makes adjusting the height of the desk much easier.

Programmable heights

To help save you time when adjusting the height of your desk, when swapping to a standing position, rather than having to mess with the desk every time until you get it just right, look for a standing desk with programmable heights and memory settings.

Basically, once you’ve got the desk set to a height that is just right for you, you can press a button to save this height so that when you press the button again, it will remember your ideal height and will adjust itself until it reaches it.

Cheaper budget standing desks don’t always have this feature, so look for models that do.

So, are cheap standing desks or premium standing desks better?

As you can probably tell from the tone of today’s article, we definitely recommend spending a little bit more and going for a more expensive standing desk, rather than cheap standing desks.

If a budget desk is considerably cheaper than all of the other desks on the market, you have to ask yourself why that is. Does this mean that you need to spend a fortune? Absolutely not.

A premium quality desk such as the Solos Advanced Standing Desk is packed full of features, is built to a high spec, comes with a 5-year warranty, and only costs $499.00.