Steelcase - AMQ Sit-to-Stand Desk - Merele Base Dark Oak Top

Steelcase and AMQ are high-end office furniture brands normally absent in the “affordable, entry-level” category where this sit-stand desk squarely sits. So, I was skeptical. After use though, my opinion is this isn’t a “paste famous name on junk and call it a day” product. For the money I think it’s as well-designed and stable as you’ll find. Its lackluster controller is a drawback, and its last inches of height are unusable. But it’s consideration worthy for anyone not NBA center height. For these reasons I give it 4-stars. I put it though a few tests. I’ll review those and my use experience and assembly process. Bottomline though, if you are looking for an attractive, quality built (by entry level standards) sit-stand desk and are of 1) average or lower height, 2) won’t put much weight on it or 3) use it like a traditional office desk, consider it. BUILD QUALITY, AESTHETICS, AND FUNCTIONALITY Build material quality is good plus it’s UL Listed, an important distinction to me among its competition. Also on the safety front, there’s anti-collision protection similar to a garage door opener – when it detects its going to hit something it immediately stops. This is especially important if you have kids. It weighs around 100 lb. so it doesn’t easily shift around the floor. Half its weight is the 1” thick single-piece laminate desktop. A single piece is more stable and attractive than a cheaper two-piece design. The top color I have is called “light oak,” but looks light maple color to me. The corners are rounded, and all edges are slightly beveled to eliminate sharp areas. There are no visual seams or exposed screws and overall, the desk appears more upscale than its price. There is no under-desk storage but if you want to install some there is about 8” of usable depth ahead of the power supply and wiring. The legs and feet are beefy with the heft of a small anchor. I didn’t weight them but guessing 20-25 lbs. each. The feet have adjustable stands to prevent rocking if your floor isn’t level. While some assembly is required, 99% of the electronics, including the power supply and a single motor, are pre-installed under the tabletop. The motor moves the desktop smoothly top-to-bottom. When churning, ambient room noise increased from approximately 38 dB to 50 dB, according to the app I used, so borderline noisy. The sound is between a “purr” and a “whine.” The controller is no-frills with only a small LED display showing the current height of the desk and silicone-covered up and down buttons to adjust height. A button must be continually pressed until the desired height is reached. I’m not a fan of the controller’s lack of features, but its buttons are tactile, responsive, and feel pleasant. Even as an entry level desk, such a basic controller is a disappointment. I’ve seen less expensive desks with way more sophisticated control options – though I can’t speak to those desk’s overall quality. This controller is the one aspect that I find truly objectionable about this desk. There is no onboard Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and therefore no app or voice assistant compatibility. All sit-stand desks are inherently less stable than traditional desk since they have extending and retracting legs. In the entry level tier, particularly, expecting and accepting some wobble is a must. They all have some wobble, but some have less than others. So, I conducted a few tests to pinpoint what conditions render this desk impractical. To be clear, when I discuss wobble it’s the result of me pushing or pressing on the table trying to get it to shimmy. MOTOR STRENGTH First up, motor speed and smoothness. How fast does it go from fully retracted 28” to full height of 47.5” and vice versa, and is it smooth or jerky. Repeat 3x for an average. Then I added 10 lbs., then 20 more, and finally 50lb on the desktop. I stopped at 50 lb. even though the desk’s maximum weight is 144 lbs. because I don’t see people loading up more than 50 lbs. here. A small desktop, a couple monitors and a desk printer, combined, weighs maybe 20-25 lbs. The trip from 47.5” to 28” and vice versa, averaged 18 seconds effortlessly, regardless of weight on it. That’s quite respectable and a testament to the motor’s vigor. A lesser motor will slow, maybe stutter, as weight is added. Few people (probably no one) will be using this desk at 47.5”, so for a more usable data point, going from 28” to 40” takes about 11 seconds or just under a second per inch by my stopwatch. WOBBLE TEST Disclaimer - this section contains raw data to offer prospective buyers a sense of what they are getting. Please don’t conflate with the desk’s usability because it’s only half the story. I’ll discuss real life usability and my experience in the next section. OK, the wobble test. Here I gently move the palm of my hand on the table or poke the side. The goal is to simulate “real use” circumstances – dropping a book, bumping my body against it, etc. I repeated this at various heights and for the desk’s long and short ends, though I think most people stand at the long end. I added weight after each round until I reached 50 lbs. With the understanding this is an entry level product, the results pleased me but did not surprise. It’s irrational to expect Corvette quality in a Malibu. Compared to what I’ve seen in true low-end desks, this Steelcase AMQ desk is reasonably stable… reasonably. Unlike to the speed test, weight load did factor here. Generally, as weight load increased, stability decreased both front to back and side-to-side, most notably after 37”. At 28”, the desk’s lowest level, wobble is effectively non-existent regardless of weight on the desktop, on par with a moderately price fixed-height table. Up to 37” wobble exists, but is minimal, again regardless of weight on it. After this point height and weight figure in so it was no shock it was easier to get the table to wobble with 50 lbs. on the desktop at 45-47” high. I wish I could quantify the wobble more scientifically, but the point here is it the level of wobbling above 44” increases significantly and adding weight will magnify it more. Still, the amount of wobble in the 38”- 44” range is less than most of the desk’s peers I’ve seen, and as I’ll discuss below, not enough to interfere with working comfortably. “REAL USE” TEST CASES I separately used two different laptops, one a 14” with firm display hinges and then a 16” with looser hinges. For some ambiance I also added a small 3 lb. potted plant garden. I will use the desk as a place to use my laptops, so it’s my real-life setup. In this test I work normally and do not intentionally force wobble as I did in the wobble test. In each test I started working at 39” and raised the table a few inches every 10 minutes until I reached 47”. I’m not a tall person, so eventually I needed the help of a step stool to get me to the equivalent of about 5’11”. Using the firm-hinged laptop, typing at a 50-wpm pace, I never notice shaking. At every height the table felt more stable than my wobble tests suggested, probably because the force was indirectly pushing down on the desk rather than directly into or on the desk. Where wobble enters the picture here is when I physically touch the table, be it a palm push off or a body bump. As noted, in my wobble test, as the height increases so does the desks sensitivity. Naturally, with the approximate same level of force applied, it’s a weaker wobble at 39” than at 44” Wobble was more perceptible using the looser-hinged laptop, especially at the 45” level where I noticed my display movements, small as they were. Especially at the higher desk heights around 45” it become unusable to me. 45-47” though is the last 3” of this desk. Most people will not need to go this high, but definitely measure what is comfortable to you before ordering. While I did not test with a desktop and display monitor I think it’s reasonable to extrapolate one would have a similar experience with a display that did not have a solid foot/feet. In that vein, I would not attach a VESA monitor arm to the desktop. POST-TEST DEDUCTION - WHO IS THIS DESK BEST FOR? While not “scientific,” I think my tests are useful enough to evaluate how and how not to use this desk. Every sit-stand desk at this tier has wobble, and I think this Steelcase AMQ is the among best available at this price range. It clearly has weak points, so the question not turns to: who is the ideal user for this desk? The answer, I believe, average height or shorter people who won’t need raise the table more than 44” to be in a comfortable typing position. Additionally, it’s best as a supplement to a traditional desk or to be used as convenient place to use a laptop instead of the couch. Equipment matters too, more so at its higher elevation range. I think a happy user will have a modest setup - laptop or small desktop, 27” monitor and a pair of compact speakers. I would not treat it like a traditional desk. ASSEMBLY I left this for last because I think it’s the most insignificant part of the buying decision here. The desk ships in one gigantic 100 lb.-ish box. It’s assembled upside down, which can be done by one person. When it’s time to turn the desk over, unless you have the height, arm span, and brawn of Paul Bunyan you will need two people. The most difficult part of the assembly is closing the lever that supports the legs. This requires using a little muscle – I bopped it with a mallet instead. But if you have any kind of shoulder or upper arm injury or are in recovery take note. The feet are screwed in, and the cable management cover, if you choose to use it, is a combination of screws and clicking into place.

I’ve Had my eye on a stand-up desk for a while now. I wanted to use it as a traditional desk, but I also wanted the ability to use it as a work bench-style hobby desk. The Steelcase looked like it would do the job and do it in style. Got it home and it’s a heavy box. It weighs about 100 lbs., so be sure to have a helper if need be to move it into the house. It will also need a pickup or SUV to transport (FYI). Be careful with the top part of the cardboard box if you use a box cutter. Do not cut too deep as the laminate desk top does have padding on the corners and side but the whole laminate desk top is not completely protected other than the outer layer of the cardboard box. Got all the parts out and laid them in my floor (see pic). I was pleasantly surprised just how easy the setup was. The instruction manual comes in the box and it will guide you right through the assembly. I mentioned that the box it came in weighed about 100 Lbs., That’s because this desk is SOLID. The material is top notch and the quality of the pieces is fantastic. I did get a little confused about a rod which was a piece of metal that connects to the motor to the non-motored side of the legs of the desk to raise and lower it. Once you read the instructions it will make sense. You have to slide the rod all the way onto the motorized side which then gives you the clearance to slide it back towards the non motorized side then tighten. It looks a little weird because the rod will look like there is extra room on the motorized side but that is by design…. I digress…just read the instruction manual! Once it was all set up I tried it out. Up and down…nice and smooth. The table top is super steady and the legs are solid…no wobble. I did have to play around with the chord a bit because if you get the chord hidden and out of sight….then raise or lower the desk the power chord has to have enough play to go up and down. I wish it had some sort of retractable power chord design. So, I am 6’1” tall and I can raise the desk all the way up till it’s too tall for me! Likewise…I can lower all the way to a comfortable seat. Really cool. (see pics). Steelcase has a winner on this one! It looks absolutely gorgeous, super stable plenty of lift and lower, and a great 12-year warranty on parts and labor! If you need a sleek well built stand-up desk or workbench for hobbies that gets the job done and looks amazing in any room….Steelcase AMQ Sit to Stand will get the job done!

I love this desk as this medium-sized and modern-looking AMQ height-adjustable desk by Steelcase with round legs and round desk edges perfectly fits my simple home office needs perfectly fine (laptop, mouse, and notebook). It enables me to make it through a workday from sitting to standing with the push of a button providing a height between 28 inches (71 cm) and almost 48 inches (120 cm) that suits nicely even tall people like me (6’6”/197 cm). The desk looks beautiful and feels rock-solid/stable even at the highest-level setting thanks to its design and weight of about 105 lbs./48 kg. The desk lift operates quietly (at < 50 dB) and rather fast (1.1”/2.8 cm / second). The only drawback is that the height control panel is limited to up/down buttons and does not provide memory settings. As such, you need to remember the height settings and with the help of the digital display press the up-down buttons for as long as needed to reach the desired heights. Thankfully, the desk provides a quiet and fast lifting experience. The desk is shipped in one box and comes with beautifully described and easy-to-follow illustrated assembly instructions and all necessary tools; despite the weight, I could quickly and easily assemble the desk independently in just 20 minutes (including unboxing) without the help of a second person. There are only 11 screws, where 8 of them are for installing the feet onto the columns, and the other 3 for the wire tray. Everything else snaps beautifully without the need for tools. I would highly recommend this desk to friends and family. From the product manual: - Dimensions – Width, Depth, Thickness: 47.5"/120 cm x 28"/71 cm x 1”/2.5 cm - Dimensions – height: min 28"/71cm – max 47.25"/120 cm - Power cord length: 9'/2.75 meters - Worksurface maximum weight capacity: 144 lbs./65 kg

This table replaced a simple table from IKEA. My 11-year-old will be the primary user of this table. He does homework and plays PC games. I want him to be able to stand from time to time. This table is very heavy. The legs feel durable. Assembly is not too difficult. The only confusing part for me is the screws. The instruction labels got me confused. It said something like M6 x24 (something like that). Initially, I thought I was supposed to have 24 in quantity and it only had like 6. But that second number is the length of the screw. The design is nice and clean. The cables under the table can be hidden. The finish of the tabletop is nice as well. One adjustment I had to make was the legs. The previous table had four legs and skinnier (simple table). The legs on this table two and take up a little bit more space. I had a cabinet with drawers as legs on one side of the previous table. Now I must find more space to accommodate. I need to continue to use it because my son is messy (you can see in the photos). It works, just takes up a little more space. The space between the legs are similar to the previous table. But because the table now rises, I have to make more space for the printer which sits on top of the cabinet. The lowest height can be set to 27.9 inches. The highest height is 47.6 inches. From lowest to highest, with weight on the table took 19 seconds to raise. There is a glass riser with a Dell all-in-one computer on it. That is the heaviest that is on the table and can handle the weight. He has other toys on top, but they are not that heavy. Overall, the desk is well-built. The motors are not too loud when using. He enjoys it because it looks better than his previous table. His height is set to 31.6 when sitting.

The AMQ Sit-to-Stand Desk is a little pricey, but is a spacious, heavy duty, ergonomically efficient piece of office furniture. Sitting at 28” high when lowered, I found it to be the perfect height for my 6’2” frame sitting in a variety of chairs. Tasks performed included typing on a laptop and tablet, reading and taking notes, writing, and resting my arms on it while perusing social media. The desktop is 48” X 28”, which means it has plenty of room. It is quite heavy and rests on two solid feet attached to thick bar legs. It is extremely stable, and does not shift or move while working on it. The coolest feature, however, is the electronic height adjustment that allows you to elevate the workspace and comfortably stand while performing tasks. There is a small LCD display that shows the height in inches, with a Up and Down arrow for raising and lowering. Fully raised height is 48”, and at this max height the table is a little less stable, but still very usable. I must say, I was extremely impressed by how high it could go and how comfortable it was to use. I generally raise it to about 43” and find this to be an excellent height to stand while typing, writing, and studying documents. So why not 5 stars? Because the desk arrived with damage. I tried to reach out to the manufacturer, but got no response. There are two spots that are damaged on the desktop, most likely from being dropped at some point during packaging or shipping from the manufacturer. The box didn’t look damaged, although it was pretty worn by the time it got to me. Without that damage, I would have given this an easy 5 stars. It is a fantastic and comfortable desk.