FlexiSpot Kana Pro Bamboo Standing Desk review

Staying seated at your office desk all day can have negative effects on your health whether you’re still working from home or have already returned to the office. In order to be more active and break up their workdays a bit, more and more users have turned to standing desks which allow you to move from a seated to a standing position with the push of a button.

While FlexiSpot’s parent company Loctek.Inc was founded in 1998, it wasn’t until 2015 when production factories were first set up in Vietnam and its first Standing Desk (the ET102) hit the market. Today FlexiSpot has an R&D team of over 600 engineers, 1,000 active patents and over 1,000 enterprises including Google, IBM, Bank of America, Marriott, Starbucks and more have turned to the company to outfit their offices.

Today we’ll be taking a closer look at the design, features, build quality, assembly process and performance of FlexiSpot’s Kana Pro Bamboo standing desk to see whether its sustainable bamboo desktop made from natural bamboo strips is the right upgrade for your workspace or office.

Pricing and availability

FlexiSpot sells the Kana Pro Bamboo Standing Desk (also known as the E8 Standing Desk in the UK) for $540 on its website with the option to choose a rectangular or curved desktop as well as either a black or white frame. While the standard desktop is 48 x 24-inches you can upgrade to one that is 55 x 28-inches for an additional $60 or 60 x 30 inches for $180. If you don’t mind having a lower load capacity (154lbs vs 275lbs), only a single motor and a less advanced keypad, FlexiSpot also sells the Kana Bamboo Standing Desk for $329 at the time of writing.

Regardless of which model you choose, FlexiSpot offers free shipping within the contiguous United States, 30-day risk free returns, 24/7 customer service and a 5-year warranty with all of its standing desks.

Design

The Kana Pro sets itself apart from similarly priced standing desks due to its bamboo desktop. The desktop is built from strands of natural bamboo but there is also a lacquer coating to help protect it from scratches, water and insects according to FlexiSpot. While the desktop is just 0.7-inches thick, bamboo has twice the durability of ordinary wood which allows the Kana Pro Bamboo to support up to 275lbs (124.7kg). This means that you should have no problems using this desk with multiple monitors and a large desktop PC.

Although you can choose between a black or white frame, the white really complements the bamboo desktop and the two pair well together. Unlike the majority of standing desks we’ve reviewed in the past that feature rectangular legs, FlexiSpot chose to equip the Kana Pro with oval legs instead to add to its aesthetic appeal.

The two motorized “T” shaped legs are inserted into the frame which is then attached to the desktop using wood screws. Thankfully, the desk’s control box comes pre-attached to the frame so you don’t have to install it yourself. The cables from both legs as well as the keypad at the front of the desk plug into the control box and FlexiSpot provides a cable tray to hide the desk’s wires from view. The company also sells a separate cable management tray for $25.99 which is mounted to the back of the desk and used to hold a power strip.

The premium keypad mounted at the front of the desk has a silver border that wraps all the way around it and features four memory presets, up and down buttons, a child lock button and even a USB charging port. While other keypads only have numbers for their memory preset buttons, two of the four buttons on the Kana Pro have illustrations of a person standing and sitting. This makes it very easy to program and remember your preferred sitting and standing heights.

Setup

The Kana Pro Standing Desk sent to TechRadar Pro for review arrived in two boxes with the desktop in one and the frame, legs and other pieces in the other. Everything was neatly packed together with cardboard cutouts on the edges of the desktop to protect it from bumps and scratches during shipping.

Once unpacked, we were left with the desktop, two legs, two feet, two side pieces, the frame, the cable tray, the instruction manual, a single Allen wrench and all of the bolts and screws needed to put the desk together. Unfortunately, FlexiSpot doesn’t include any extras like cable ties or a cable tie base to help with cable management. However, the included cable tray does do an excellent job of hiding the cables plugged into the control box from view.

To begin assembling the Kana Pro, you first need to attach the two brackets to either side of the frame using four bolts and the included Allen wrench. From here, you need to insert the legs into the frame and secure them using eight bolts. The final step of assembling the frame involves attaching the feet to the legs, once again using an Allen wrench.

Next up you need to attach the frame to the desktop using 10 wood screws. If you opted for a larger 55 x 28 or 60 x 30 desktop, you will need to loosen the bolts on the frame, extend it and retighten them before you do so. Also you will need a power drill for this step even though the mounting holes are pre-drilled.

Finally, you need to mount the keypad to either the right or left side of the underside of the desk before you tidy up the cables and flip it over. There are pre-drilled holes on either side so it’s really up to you as to where you position it. To install the cable tray to hide all of the wires, you need to unscrew the bolts at the center of the frame, insert it on either end and then re-tighten them.

Assembling the Kana Pro took around a half hour and overall the assembly process was quite simple and the included instructions were easy to follow. Another nice touch when compared to other standing desks is the fact that you don’t have to initialize the desk with the keypad before using it. Just plug in the power cable and you’re ready to go.

In use

After we finished putting together the Kana Pro, we tested it out using a small form factor PC, an ultrawide monitor from LG, a mechanical keyboard and the MX Ergo from Logitech. As FlexiSpot didn’t send us one of its cable management trays, we attached a third-party one to the back of the desk to hold a power strip and all of the other cables from our setup.

The Kana Pro performed well during our tests and the desk was able to raise from a seated position to a standing one in less than 10 seconds. It was also stable enough to raise up and down with a full cup of coffee on it without spilling a drop.

For those with young children, FlexiSpot includes several safety features with this desk. While the anti-collision feature detects and prevents collisions before they happen, the Kana Pro can also be locked using the child lock feature to prevent curious children from pressing the buttons on its keypad. Unlike other keypads which use a combination of keys to lock a desk in place, you just need to hold down the “M” button for several seconds to engage the Kana Pro’s child lock feature.

We also found the USB charging port on the side of the keypad to be quite useful during our time with the Kana Pro. Instead of charging your smartphone or tablet using your PC, you can simply plug a device into the Kana Pro’s charging port. It’s worth noting that you will have to press one of the buttons on the keypad to start the charging process.

The competition

As the Kana Pro is priced at $540, finding a comparable desk at around the same price point isn’t that difficult. We’ve picked out two other alternatives worth considering if you plan on having a lot of devices on your desk or just want more customization during checkout.

The Elite Series 60 from ApexDesk is another electric standing desk that’s just a bit more expensive at $599. For the price though, you can choose between six different desktop colors and you also get a wider desktop overall. In addition to a curve at the front of desktop that allows you to sit closer, the Elite Series 60 includes two grommets on either end of the desk which can be quite useful for those who intend to use a workstation with multiple monitors and want to be able to run all of their cables underneath their desk.

The Uplift V2 from Uplift Desk also comes in at $599 but things can get a bit more expensive once you begin configuring your desk. This is because the company offers a vast array of customization options. In fact, you can pick from 26 different desktop materials, six desktop sizes, four different frames, seven styles of grommets and five different keypads. Uplift Desk also throws in a number of freebies including a cable management tray at checkout.

Final verdict

The Kana Pro from FlexiSpot is an excellent standing desk with several unique features and customization options available. The desk’s design will not only turn heads but the natural bamboo desktop is twice as durable as ordinary wood and its lacquer coating will help prevent wear and tear to its surface in the long run. The Kana Pro’s dual motors are also quiet and quite fast while still being able to lift up to 275lbs (124.7kg). We also like how easy it is to engage and disengage the child lock feature. The keypad is a bit more polished than some of the ones we’ve seen on other standing desks and the USB charging port is another plus.

Still though, this desk might not be for everyone due to its unique bamboo desktop. Thankfully, FlexiSpot offers a number of other electric standing desks that are cheaper and some even offer additional features like Vici Duplex Standing Desk that has a built-in monitor stand or the Comhar All-in-One Standing Desk which features a glass top and built-in drawers.

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