iMovR Fly Deck Monitor Riser Review

When it comes to monitor risers, it’s immediately clear that iMovR’s Fly Deck is in a class of its own. This is an entirely different creature from others we’ve reviewed in the category that range from drab, black plastic to metal to bamboo. Thanks to its large array of color options, superior strength, and beautiful looks, the Fly Deck has positioned itself as the absolute best in the category, with a price to match.

Distinctive looks

Meant to evoke the fly deck on a yacht, this upscale version of a monitor riser looks cool, creates convenient open storage space on the desktop, and helps with ergonomics by raising an external monitor or all-in-one computer (e.g. iMac) screen.

The ergonomics of the Fly Deck are obviously less ideal than those of a fully articulating ergonomic monitor arm, but there are a number of reasons why people might not want to use a monitor arm. Usually, it’s a preference for the aesthetics of a clean-looking shelf versus the mechanical look of an articulating monitor arm, with the bonus of gaining more desktop storage space. Sometimes it’s simply because their monitors can’t easily be mounted to a VESA plate or that they are so heavy as to make it hard to find a good arm to support them properly.

Ergonomics

The Fly Deck brings your monitor higher, helping with ergonomics, but it doesn’t help as much as a fully articulating ergonomic monitor arm would. While the built-in stands on most monitors don’t go high enough for use at a standing desk (when we stand our lower spines straighten out, increasing the distance between our line of sight and where our hands touch the keyboard), only an articulating monitor arm can let you quickly adjust to the perfect display height each time you change postures).

To be fair, it is completely plausible to use a monitor arm edge-clamped to the desktop and the Fly Deck together. Many combinations are possible but the important thing to know is you’d never want to mount an edge-clamp monitor arm directly to the Fly Deck itself as it will just tilt backward, despite the Fly Deck’s 300 lb rating for centered weight load.

One downside is that the Fly Deck is not height-adjustable, but since we’ve yet to see a monitor riser with true height adjustability (the Amazon Basics unit we reviewed calls itself height-adjustable, it’s really just a different pieces of plastic stacked up or not), this is really more of a negative associated for all fixed-height monitor risers.

The Details

As mentioned above, the iMovR Fly Deck has a weight capacity of 300 lbs. The previous best we’ve reviewed is the Office Oasis Monitor Riser which has a weight capacity of 100 lbs, while others we’ve reviewed are as low as 22 lbs.

It also stands out when it comes to color options. iMovR sells the Fly Deck in 24+ colors of 3D-laminate, ranging from carbon fiber to different wood grains. In solid wood, iMovR sells the Fly Deck in all 38 species+stain combinations matching its solid wood standing desks.

The Fly Deck is 40” x 10”, which is right in line with the Office Oasis riser, our previous best.

iMovR backs the Fly Deck with the same industry-leading 15-year warranty as it has on all of its standing desks with 3D-laminated desktops, and 5 years on the solid wood version. And like all its products, iMovR offers a 100-day satisfaction guarantee on the Fly Deck.

Installation

The Fly Deck assembles in less than a minute. Special cam screws are pre-inserted into the stanchions that mate with pre-inserted parts on the underside of the top surface. The cams lock with exceptional precision and strength with a half-turn of a screwdriver. These are NOT like the cam screws you typically find on IKEA furniture, they’re a new type that we have never seen before and seem to work much, much better.

It comes with rubber anti-skid pads that you can optionally stick to the bottom of the stanchions for perfect traction between the Fly Deck and your desktop. All-in-all, compared to all the other monitor shelves we’ve tested, the Fly Deck has the most solid stability and surface traction to entrust with holding up your expensive equipment.

We also found the clamp-on installation of some other monitor risers to be unsuitable for real wood desktops because it will likely cause indentation damage. If you have a real wood desk, there’s another reason to consider the Fly Deck, beyond just looks. (Note: if you have an iMovR solid wood desk you might want to wait for the planned solid wood version of the Fly Deck, in the same 36 species+stain combinations offered on their desks, for a perfect match.)

The Takeaway

The iMovR Fly Deck has the coolest looks, most color options, best weight capacity, largest size, and longest warranty we’ve seen from any monitor riser. It’s clearly the best monitor riser out there. You just have to decide if you want to pay up to get all of that.

Make sure you check out our full roundup of monitor risers to see what a monitor riser is supposed to do, situations where it makes the most sense to go with a monitor riser instead of a monitor arm, and what factors you need to pay attention to when making your monitor riser choice.

Frequently Bought With Standing Desk Storage