Throughout the history of humanity, the way we have worked has changed. But only over the course of the last couple of decades have we really begun to think about the needs of the working population. For the most part, desk-based workers have been left with a solid tabletop and simple chair, until some whizz of a marketing team realised there was room to push out proper office chairs; something which in turn has evolved into the gaming chair. And we love them for it.
In more recent times, the actual desk that has been used has also changed, with that of the ‘standing’ desk coming into vogue, allowing workers – and gamers – the opportunity to find the optimum setup at will. It is here where EZ Shopper are coming to market with the EZ Desk Carbon Edition Adjustable Gaming Standing Desk.
The EZ Desk Carbon Edition is a desk – there is no getting away from it. But this is a desk with some magic behind it, and as the name suggests it is capable of being able to be adjusted through a range of heights to suit not just the sitted user, but also those who wish to stand during their working – or gaming – hours. If you’re one of those users, I’m not sure there’s anything to dislike about what has been created here.
At least, in terms of the actual product there’s very little to dislike, yet unfortunately before we get that far we must talk about the first impressions – after all, these are everything. First impressions here come in the form of putting the thing together and without a word of a lie the instructions that come with the EZ Desk are nothing short of terrible. Front and centre as you unpackage the well boxed EZ Desk, the instruction ‘manual’ to hand is an A3 sheet of double-sided print. And I’ll be honest, in my 40+ years of being on this Earth, I’m not sure I’ve ever had the pleasure of trying to put together an item with such a poor set of instructions.
Certain elements are tiny in size – so much so that you really cannot see what is going on – with numbers and letters slapped over the imagery, and this all translates to if you’re able to put together the EZ Desk in less than an hour, you’re a better person than I. In fact, whilst this should really be a fairly simple item of furniture to set up, following the instruction pamphlet is nothing but confusing.
Thankfully EZ Shopper have seen fit to throw an installation video up onto the web. Whilst this is more of a help, again it’s not great; sped up to such an extent and missing of some key moments, that it’s of little real-term use. Perhaps throwing a bit of voice work onto the video would help, but as it is the muted moves struggle to allow much help.
Struggle away – and struggle you will – once you do get the EZ Desk together, the end product is superb. What you’re basically looking at are two slabs of desktop that screw onto a couple of legs, with a motor on one side. There are some fancy additions to help make it a bit more exciting, but that’s the gist of it.
It comes in all black, with a carbon fibre weave running across the top. Running with dimensions of 140cm in length and 60cm as a width, it’s a seriously nice piece of kit. Cut-outs for cable management are appreciated too, with these coming in the form of two round cutouts and indented back slot in place.
The only real downside to how the EZ Desk Carbon Edition looks as a whole is in the split between the two desktops that fit together to make the desk whole. It’s obviously been done to ensure that 1) the EZ Desk is able to fit in an easy-to-handle box, and 2) to be easy to put together (handling a huge slab could well be too much for many). The problem is, there’s then a join and it’s extremely noticeable – unless that is if you throw on the full width square mouse mat that EZ Shopper have included as standard. This is a nice feeling mat that not only works as some kind of protection to the middle of the desk, but happily works as a place for your mouse. It helps that it also covers the gap that is otherwise in place.
With all that considered, the EZ Desk would therefore just be your standard everyday desk. But there’s some magic which is included here and that comes in the form of a motor which helps move this desk to a variety of heights. Running at 73cm high at its minimum, right up to 119cm at the highest, the range of movement here is pretty much perfect – we’ve found that at its lowest setting it’s perfect for use with the likes of our much-loved Noblechairs HERO, whilst whizzing it up to around 110cm is perfect for standing.
At our 188cm in height, and with plenty of extra movement in the EZ Desk over what we need, we’d go as far to say that it could well cater for the taller human with ease. In fact, you could say it’ll cater for all sizes, EZ-ly.
Control is perfect, with a control unit situated on the underside of the desk, just sticking out enough to allow for pressing of the up and down buttons in order to move the EZ Desk. This shows the height set, whilst a memory button helps keep it in place for when you’re shifting between two specific heights. It’s all controlled by a motor, which in turn rotates a bar which sits on the underside of the desk. It’s fairly quiet too (much quieter than we were expecting but not quite the ‘whisper quiet’ that EZ Shopper are selling it as) and can ‘officially’ lift up to 80kg of weight. We’re not sure we want to sit on it to test this out, but it’s more than happy to shift a TV, Xbox Series X console, a couple of laptops and all manner of gaming goodies without hassle. And yes, we’ve got a ton of gaming crap that has found a home on the EZ Desk Carbon Edition, with the Oddworld: Soulstorm Collector’s Edition the latest addition to our collection.
Use has been great too – we’ve had absolutely no issues with getting the EZ Desk to move between various heights, whether that be letting it automagically move up and down to suit, or with the finer adjustments that we’ve looked to make on the fly.
Throw in cable clips which keep any cables out of the way, alongside a cup holder and headset hanger which both sit on the other side to the control unit and, well, we’re struggling to find anything to not like about the EZ Desk. In fact, if only that terrible instruction booklet could be built on – take a leaf out of something like what IKEA have proven to work, please EZ Shopper – and we’d have absolutely zero issues in recommending the EZ Desk to anyone looking for a new standing desk.
And honestly, you may not think you need a standing desk in your life, but like we found out when we first started getting involved in gaming/work sessions with proper gaming/office chairs caressing our units, you’re very unlikely to be able to go back to the bog standard once you’ve given it a try.
Huge thanks go out to EZ Shopper for providing us with their EZ Desk Carbon Edition for review. If you wish to get hold of the desk for yourself, you’ll find a purchase possible by visiting EZ Shopper direct. Expect to pay around £299.
