As far as desks go, I've never been so overwhelmingly impressed by a heap of metal before. I didn't know that life could be like this. The MAGNUS Pro XL standing desk from Secretlab came into my life not long ago and has completely changed my work-from-home-slash-gaming setup for the better.
This desk looks stunning, has impeccable cable management, can rise and lower to your preferred heights at the push of a button, and has flawlessly designed integration with other Secretlab-exclusive desk accessories and add-ons for the full package. I hate gushing too much over tech products that I review, but I really don't have a bad word to say about the Secretlab MAGNUS Pro... except for the price.
Secretlab kindly sent me the MAGNUS Pro XL desk to try out along with some compatible accessories. These included two individual Secretlab monitor arms, the Secretlab MAGNUS Desk Riser, a laptop mount attachment, a magnetic headphone Hanger, a magnetic ethernet cable extender, the Dark Knight Edition of the Secretlab MAGPAD Desk Mat and a bundle of Dark Knight magnetic cable accessories, including Dark Knight cable anchors and cable sheaths.
All of this combined totalled just under £1,500 / $1,627, which is pretty eye-watering. The desk alone has a price of £829 / $949 without any accessories or add-ons included, but these are really what make the Secretlab MAGNUS Pro XL worth considering as a collective investment, and it looks incredible too.
I'll dive into what's so great about this desk in the following sections, but if you're looking for something more budget-friendly, then take a look at our other roundups of the best standing desks and the best office chairs for creatives.
Secretlab MAGNUS Pro XL desk review: Key specifications
Setup and assembly
Secretlab advises that the setup of this desk only takes approximately 15 minutes, but this is simply not true. I had some help from my dad who came over to lift the desk upstairs to my office, and he stayed to help assemble some of the parts too, and it still took us nearly an hour to put everything together with two of us. With that said, this could be because I had extra add-ons and accessories to unbox and assemble onto the desk as we went along.
Every tool that you need for setup is provided by Secretlab in super convenient and pretty lil' toolkits, including a chunky screwdriver, detailed instructions, and labelled screws. This made it easy to find each part when it was needed, and the overall assembly of connecting parts was an easy process once we figured out what goes where.
The easiest part of the setup was attaching the magnetic desk riser, as all it needs is a few screws to keep it in place. The Secretlab monitor arms were a bit more fiddly, as you need to attach the base grip to the very back of the desk as it sits underneath the cable management tray, so my advice would be to do this as you go along with building the desk so you don't end up backtracking on yourself.
Top tip: Make sure that you have a very long extension cable to use with the MAGNUS Pro desk, as this is what will sit hidden away in the cable management tray, so ensure that you have enough plugs for all of your consoles, monitors, and peripherals.
Design and build
The MAGNUS Pro XL is 1.7m wide, and you can also get the standard (non-XL) desk which is 1.5m long and slightly cheaper. I opted for the wider Pro XL and it fits in my work-from-home office space perfectly (although I did have to do some reshuffling to make it fit!).
The hidden cable management tray underneath the desk makes up the bulk of the weight, and is crucial for storing your extension cables and ensuring that your connected devices and consoles can safely move with the desk as it rises up and down. It's also cleverly designed to keep all of your messy cables out of sight with next-level cable management, meaning that your workspace will always look neat.
See the before and after images below of my cluttered cable mess, and how the MAGNUS Pro XL has helped me to effortlessly hide all of these away.
The Secretlab MAGNUS Pro XL boasts the world’s first fully integrated power supply column in the left leg of the desk, which plugs in at the wall and uses a single concealed cable and built-in electrical socket to power the desk, as well as directing all power to the cable management system, meaning that you aren't limited by cable length and you have more space and less clutter to work freely.
Constructed as an ultra-durable steel chassis, there's no doubt that this desk is incredibly sturdy and will likely outlive you in terms of longevity. Keep in mind that this desk is big, wide, and heavy. The Secretlab MAGNUS Pro XL is 18% larger than the regular MAGNUS Pro desk, and weighs 68kg without anything on it. Pile on some monitors, your laptop, some nerdy figures, and whatever other desk accessories you use, and this desk will become impossible to move.
Features and performance
The overall performance of this Secretlab sit-to-stand desk is flawless. And it's mostly down to the electric height adjustment which has a very cool trick of remembering your preferences down to the millimetre. There's a custom backlit LED control panel on the right-hand side of the MAGNUS Pro desk that's fully integrated into the edge of the desk that's facing towards you, so you and your chair are free to move and glide around without accidentally bumping into it.
This panel can be switched on and off using the standby switch, and has a mini screen to let you know what height the desk is currently at. There are several buttons on the control panel, including a green arrow pointing upwards, a red arrow pointing downwards, the numbers 1, 2, and 3, plus an S button which can be used to save the current height and assign it to buttons 1, 2, or 3. There's also a clever anti-collision detection feature where the desk will pause movement if it detects any obstacles in its way, so you don't have to worry about it hitting any shelves.
You will hear a bit of a whirring sound as the desk rises and falls, but it's barely noticeable. It moves pretty quickly too, and you can control the movement manually by using the up and down arrows, or by simply tapping one of the memory position buttons and the desk will oblige. I have my seated height set to number 2, and my ideal standing height saved at number 1.
The video below probably makes the height transition seem louder than it really is in person, which is great considering how much weight it is moving.
Price
As I've mentioned, the Secretlab MAGNUS Pro XL desk is a premium product, and certainly not cheap. The desk alone has a retail price of $949 / £829, which only increases with the more accessories added to the package. To give you a general idea of how much you can expect to spend on a Secretlab MAGNUS Pro desk, I've broken down the prices and costs of each accessory add-on below.
• Secretlab MAGPAD Desk Mat - £109 / $109
• Secretlab Cable Management Bundle - £55 / $49
• 2x Secretlab Monitor Arm - £149 x2 / $149
• Secretlab Laptop Mount £39 / $49
• Secretlab Desk Riser £89 / $99
• Secretlab Magnetic Headphone hanger - £29 / $29
• Secretlab Ethernet Cable Extender - £39 / $49
• 3x Magnetic Cable Anchors - £25 / $25
• 2x Magnetic Cable Sheaths - £29 / $35
• 10x Cable Fastening Straps - £13 / $13
This totals around - £725 / $755 for the accessories above, although it's worth noting that Secretlab does occasionally offer bundle deals and discounts to bring prices down, so the total amount you spend depends on the time of year too.
Should I buy the Secretlab MAGNUS Pro XL desk?
In total honesty, had I not been granted the opportunity to review this desk at no cost to myself, I likely would have looked at the price initially and laughed. My budget for a new gaming/working-from-home desk would be nothing over £300, and I would probably be content enough with my low-budget choice after having researched what I wanted and scoured through reviews.
But, since having the chance to try out the MAGNUS Pro desk from Secretlab, I don't think I could settle for anything less now that I've tasted the luxury. The desk rises quickly and near-silently at the push of a button, and the ability to have preset heights assigned to these buttons means you don't need to remember your favourite settings off the top of your head or manually control the desk.
Having the option to work standing up or from the comfort of my gaming chair so flexibly has really revolutionised how I work, especially since my desk doubles as both my home office and late-night gaming cave.
The bottom line, if you can afford to get the MAGNUS Pro desk then absolutely go for it as you won't have any regrets. It truly is a flawless desk that I couldn't imagine life without (I realise this sounds dramatic but it's true, no cap). However, if we're being honest, there are definitely much more affordable options out there that you won't need to take out a small loan for. But I doubt the design excellence or quality would match up to the MAGNUS Pro.
