Leband Electric Standing Desk Converter Review

The Leband Electric Standing Desk Converter makes a good first impression, visually. The black metal frame is very minimal and definitely provides a clean aesthetic. It also stands out for not having a keyboard tray, something that has important implications for ergonomics.

This converter has some inherent positive attributes stemming from its electric X-Lift design. It adjusts easily and effortlessly at the push of a button. You won’t have to lean over the unit to lift it, which will help those with lower back pain. Then there’s the lift pattern. It lifts straight up, as opposed to the arcing-out motion many Z-Lift converters have. This can be a space saver in tight spaces.

The fact that you get those inherent features for $199.99 is a strong statement about how far electric standing desk converters have come over the past few years since the first electric models introduced could cost $700 (e.g. the Electric Kangaroo Desktop Riser) and even upwards of $1,000 (e.g. the Winston-E).

An Ergonomic Disaster Zone

Let’s get the dispositive bad design flaw of this product out of the way first, because it’s a killer. Conventional fixed-height desks have the desktop situated anywhere from 28”-30” off the ground. That’s a good height range for working in a seated posture, especially if you have a chair with a gas cylinder so you can optimally adjust your typing height. Adding a typical standing desk converter will raise this desktop height by anything from a half-inch to an inch (the thickness of the work surface or of the independent keyboard tray platform), but generally speaking, this is not a huge problem.

The Leband raises your seated work surface height up to be 2.75” higher than your desk. Yes, you read that right. Not a typo. Raising your desk surface this high makes it practically impossible to work in a seated posture without making it exceedingly uncomfortable to type, not to mention highly ergonomically injurious.

There are other converters on the market with similar work surface heights (e.g. the Ergotron Workfit-TX) but they have a descending keyboard tray that not only lowers your typing height to the original height of your desk, but can go even lower, and some of them (e.g. the ZipLift) offer add a negative tilt feature to create a much more neutral, ergonomic typing posture. Those are some of our top-rated desktop converter models.

The Leband completely lacks this critical descending keyboard tray feature, much less any kind of negative tilt feature, rendering your entire workstation one that can be used only for working while standing. It technically doesn’t even fall in the category of a “sit-to-stand converter,” to be blunt.

Now let’s talk about monitor arms. Without an adjustable, descending keyboard tray, an ergonomic monitor arm would usually be the ergonomic savior by allowing you to create sufficient vertical distance between your keyboard and monitors so you can work without craning your neck down to see the screen. But because the Leband folds down so close to the surface of your desk, edge-clamped monitor arms won’t fit. With no keyboard tray and no monitor arm, we can’t recommend the Leband Electric Standing Desk Converter for anything beyond short-term laptop use while standing. Period.

The surface itself is a solid size at 34.25” x 21.25”. The top only comes in one size and with a black finish. The quality feels decent. The top doesn’t attract fingerprints, but we wish the edges were contoured.

The listed weight capacity is 33 lbs and that’s just about right on. When we loaded the converter to exactly 33 lbs, the motor sounded very strained and moved slowly, but it did lift the load. Our model maxed out at just under 40 lbs. And that makes it the weakest electric lift unit that we’ve ever tested.

A chief reason that consumers opt for an electric converter is that they have a lot of equipment to lift; perhaps more than would be suitable with the counterbalance weight limitations of a mechanical assisted lift mechanism (typically employing metal springs or gas cylinders). It’s all kind of moot with this unit since you can’t even add a monitor arm, so the thought of adding a couple of heavy panoramic displays using an 18 lbs monitor arm doesn’t enter the equation.

So we have to puzzle over what benefit the slow electric lift in the Leband brings to the table. There are plenty of higher-quality manual standing desk converters in this price range that’ll support the weight of a laptop, external keyboard, dual monitor displays and more, and shifting from sitting to standing takes only two seconds.

Build Quality

As we mentioned above, the Leband’s minimal frame looks clean and attractive, but the tradeoff is stability. There’s play in almost every joint and almost every strut of thin metal frame structure when you apply pressure.

The motor is another weak point. It sounds like it’s straining even with no load and it’s incredibly slow. It takes just under 29 seconds to raise from the 2.75” minimum height to the 18.6” maximum height. Normally, slow transit speed is more of an annoyance than anything, but this converter is so glacially slow that it will be a disincentive for people to adjust their height.

The power cord plugs into the converter right next to the charging area, which is near the front left edge of the converter (instead of near the back edge of the converter like others we’ve seen). This means that unless your outlet is to the left of your converter, managing the power cord is essential since it could run underneath the surface and through the X-Lift mechanism (as seen in the photo to the right), putting it in danger of getting pinched or damaged.

Leband provides two adhesive cable mounts to route the power cord out of danger’s way. These get the job done, but we’re skeptical about how long they’ll hold up since we’ve seen similar cable mounts wear out quickly. As we discuss in our roundup of cable management kits for standing desks, the constant up and down of adjustable-height work surfaces puts a unique strain on cable management components.

There are some positives to the design. It arrives fully assembled and ready to use instantly. Instead of a specific number of possible settings, the height options within the 2.75”-18.6” range are infinite. All of the electric components are housed underneath the main work surface, protecting them from damage and dust.

Chargers and Hand Controller

This is more of a pet peeve than anything, but the Leband product page is full of mentions of the converter’s one-button control. The Leband has two buttons. One to make it go up. One to make it go down.

The buttons are a little unusual if you’ve used other electric standing desk converters. There is a button on top of the surface to make the converter go down. Directly below, underneath the surface is a second button to make the converter go up. It takes a couple of uses to get used to this, but it will quickly become muscle memory if you’re using the converter every day.

The Leband has a child lock function that you’ll either love or hate. After a couple of minutes of inactivity, the light ring will turn red and lock out the switch. Then you’ll need to hold the top and bottom buttons down together for three seconds to unlock it. If you don’t have kids in your home this will probably be a slight annoyance. If you do have kids, this is great since the X-Lift design and lack of an anti-collision feature make hand pinches a real possibility.

Once unlocked, you can push the button briefly to move or hold it down for a second and it will travel all the way to either your memory setting or the extreme height. There is one height memory preset available and that’s a very nice touch for a converter, let alone one at this price.

The Leband Electric Standing Desk Converter certainly does not lack charging options. It has two USB ports and a wireless charging pad. This is more of a nice bonus rather than a purchase-deciding feature, but a bonus is a bonus.

The Takeaway

There are a few things to like about the Leband Electric Standing Desk Converter, with the most fundamental of those being it’s the cheapest electric standing desk converter we’ve ever tested. The USB and wireless charging options are great. As is the memory preset and child lock.

There are also plenty of things to dislike about it. The minimal frame looks nice but is very flexible. The motor feels and sounds weak, plus it is very slow, which may make it annoying to adjust your height throughout the day.

The biggest issue is ergonomics. Without a lowered keyboard tray or the ability to add a monitor arm, we can’t recommend spending much time typing on this converter. And we can’t recommend using it at all when seated. Overall, it feels like this product was designed in China by a mechanical engineering intern with no adult supervision, and certainly no knowledge of the most basic ergonomics.

Because of the ergonomic compromises with the Leband, we’d recommend spending $40 more for the Mount-It! Electric Standing Desk Converter if you’re looking for a cheap electric standing desk converter, or check out our full roundup to learn more about the types of standing desk converters. You can also read our roundups of electric standing desk converters and standing desk converters under $350. And be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest news and reviews.

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