Kaboon Universal Desk Top for Standing Desk

While most people buy their standing desk as a complete system, i.e. getting the lifting base and the desktop together from the same seller, you may find yourself needing to acquire a new desktop on its own. For example, you may already own a standing desk but the top has gotten damaged, or you may want to upgrade to a different size and/or color. Whatever the reason, there are a mountain of options to choose from. Read our Guide to Buying Your DIY Standing Desktop to ensure you know what to watch for when purchasing a standalone top for your desk or table. 

In this review, we explore the desktops individually sold by Kaboon, and discuss where they may excel and where they might fall short of consumer expectations. 

Kaboon Universal Tabletop for Easy Style

The decent variety of different laminate options that Kaboon offers in their tabletops is quite impressive when compared to the majority of other manufacturers. With 11 different colors in a variety of sizes, you will likely find something that fits your style and decor. Not many desktop manufacturers have that many choices, from their Pure Color line in white, black, silver gray, cyan, nostalgia rose, or smoke green to their natural patterned laminate in sea salt, eucalyptus, oak, grayish blue, and cloud atlas. The only other manufacturer that provides more laminate color and size options that we have seen so far is USA-based iMovR (a whole lot more, and of much higher quality).

Depending on the color you select, you can choose a variety of sizes as well. They offer 45” x 20”, 46” x 24”, 48” x 26”, 48” x 30”, 55” x 28”, 60” x 24”, and even some that come in two 20” x 20” pieces. While most of their desks are ¾” thick, they do offer a model at 1” thick that should be a bit more robust.

Kaboon also provides their desktops at a very competitive price, which will make them more attractive to shoppers who look at that as one of their primary pivot points on purchase decisions. While the low cost combined with the variety of color options, seems very appealing that low price comes at a cost (see below).

Buyer Beware – Kaboon Desktops May Not Survive Shipping Well

There are quite a few red flags our experts see when looking at Kaboon’s desktops. First, they all have 90° hard edges all the way around, which has several disadvantages as compared to desktops that have rounded corners, or even better, “ergo-contoured” edges. We’ve all clipped a desk at some point and felt that sting on our hip. And leaning against the desk on your forearms will leave a red mark across them. Lastly, chair backs tend to dent the user-facing edge of a desktop more when it isn’t rounded over.

Hyperbole in their marketing that isn’t supported with any kind of explanation is also a worrisome practice that many manufacturers of lower-quality standing desk products use, especially when selling on Amazon. Kaboon claims their high-pressure laminate (HPL) is durable, eco-friendly, wear-resistant, heat-resistant, waterproof, and easy to clean. This could be true for a time and only to some extent, but very unlikely in the long run. The seams in the laminate edges are exposed to temperature and humidity changes and cleaning solvents, creating a weak point that can break down over time to expose the inner medium density fiberboard (MDF) core. This can lead to the edge banding eventually peeling off starting at the corners, and even spilling a glass of water into any exposed seams can cause the MDF to “puff up” or warp, pretty much destroying it. 

By the way, be sure to check out our experts’ primer on how to best clean your desktop, as this information can influence your choice of 3D-laminate versus HPL versus powder coat and other surface types..

Kaboo’s relatively short warranty of 2 years tells you about how much trust they have in the longevity of their desktops. Our article on Comparing Standing Desk Warranties will explain more on what to watch for in different manufacturers’ warranties. 

Kaboon claims a 300lb weight limit, which means virtually nothing unless it is attached to a lifting base with a 300 lb lift capacity. Tabletop manufacturers do not generally list a weight capacity specification since it all depends on the parameters for testing it, and there are no industry standards so this is kind of a specious claim.

Scouring through verified user reviews of Kaboon’s desks that we found on Amazon, there are a bunch of complaints about the tabletop arriving damaged, likely from a combination of the material not actually being that durable and the packaging being insufficient to keep something so fragile protected from the brutal G forces that parcels endure in transit. While most of these complaints pointed out that they got the damaged product replaced, it does show that Kaboon is more worried about saving money by using cheap materials and cheap cardboard packaging than by ensuring a delightful customer experience. 

Having received hundreds of desktops in our labs over the years we have seen a wide range of packaging quality, and as a rule of thumb the commodity-grade (most typically Chinese) producers will not invest in costly cardboard and foam materials to properly protect a desktop in transit. They’ll just take the replacement hit as a cost of doing business, which may be fine for them economically but a hassle for the consumer (not to mention how hard it is to actually dispose of a desktop, or how costly to ship it back). 

Our Verdict – Do Kaboon Tabletops Measure Up?

Kaboon certainly offers more sizes and colors than most of the competition. But how much does that matter if the product won’t last? Overall, the low price combined with these red flags reveal a pretty poor quality product that we cannot confidently recommend. However, if you don’t mind dealing with the hassle of returns or want to switch out your desktop style every couple of years with a newer look, Kaboon could be right up your alley.

Don’t forget to learn all you need to know about finding the perfect desktop for your standing desk workstation in our primer – DIY Standing Desk: Choosing the Right Desk Top.

If you don’t already have a base and frame, make sure you know how to choose one of those as well by reading our guide to buying standing desk bases.