Branch Standing Desk vs IKEA IDÅSEN

Branch

Branch Standing Desk

Not sold new in the US. Branch no longer sells this desk new: its product page redirects to the Tria, and only open-box units remain.

Branch has stopped selling its original two-leg desk new. The product page now redirects to its successor, the Tria, and this desk survives only as open-box stock, from $599 against a $749 list price for the 48×30. As a desk it sits awkwardly beside the Duo: the same 275 lb rating, but four presets, three-stage legs and 26 inches of travel, from 26 to 52 inches, which is a genuinely wide fit window, plus 60 and 72-inch widths the Duo does not offer. Its electronics were covered for three years where the Duo gets ten. If an open-box or secondhand unit is on the table, the range is the reason to take it. If you are buying new, the Tria is now Branch's full-size desk and the Duo its small-room one.

IKEA

IKEA IDÅSEN

The IDÅSEN is the one IKEA desk in this catalog that competes on engineering rather than price. Two-stage legs give it a 25-inch travel span from a low 24.75 inches, the collision sensor reverses an inch or two rather than just stopping, and the build is closer to an office product than a flat-pack one: IKEA rates it contract grade, to ANSI/BIFMA. Two things pull it back. The 154 lb capacity is very low: a heavy monitor arm, a large panel and a laptop dock gets you uncomfortably close to it, and it rules out mounting a tower. And it is a genuine hour and a half of assembly, sometimes with a second person, on particle board with a veneer over it. The 10-year frame cover and 2-year electronics cover is the usual IKEA split. Note the controller is proprietary, so third-party keypads and desk-automation hardware do not work with it.