Setup and Use

Upon plugging in the power for the first time, the desk display will show 3 lines and a small red LED. You have to press the number 3 and "M" button together to trigger pairing mode. This will display a number on the screen, which you will have to match with the desk found in your app. Such a setup is quite ingenious for environments where you may employ multiple of these desks and want to ensure you are pairing your phone with the right one. That said, the display in the SmartDesk Connect controller isn't that great as it is hard to read from certain angles. It uses a classic three digit segment display, which tend to be bulky, with a bit of recess to the display surface. Other standing desks go for flat mounted, white segment displays or even white on black dot matrix screens which are always readable and look far nicer. Interestingly enough, all other Autonomous SmartDesk products offer a different controller with a nicer display and four memory options.


At the lowest setting, the desk manages to go as far down as 23.6 inches (or exactly 60 cm), with a maximum of 49.2 inches (or exactly 125 cm). This means the desk has very good range, which is due to its three-segment legs, that can collapse further and raise higher than two segment legs.


The desk table top feels nice and sturdy, with its smooth surface texture subjectively resilient enough for the daily torture of your computer setup, mouse, coffee cup or stains. The rounded edges and corners are a bit more pronounced than other tops out there, but that is by no means a bad thing. It will certainly be far less painful bumping into the corner of the SmartDesk Connect for example. One interesting aspect is, that Autonomous has sized this top at 53" wide and 29" deep, which is a bit different than what we tend to see out there.

App Integration

Up to this point, having a three-section, dual-motor desk may not be anything out of the ordinary. What does set the Autonomous SmartDesk Connect apart is its app. As we have an Android device, the app store page for the app does not yet have any ratings. While there are a few tiny hiccups, the app feels well designed and stable for the most part. The very first thing you are asked when opening the app is for your email address. While visually appealing, there is no detail provided why you need to divulge your email to use your standing desk, which was somewhat concerning regarding privacy. So far, we have not yet received any marketing emails in the few days since registering and writing this article, but as there is no explicit opt-in for a newsletter, and you are required to confirm your email by entering an OTP code sent to you, we assume that Autonomous will eventually try to connect with you in an unsolicited fashion.


Once registered, you are shown an empty screen which is actually quite well designed and when wanting to add a new device, you get a clean, clear selection of the products that are supported by the app. Naturally, we selected the SmartDesk Connect entry.


The next step to connect to the unit meant that we had to give the app access to Bluetooth which was expected. However, as the SmartDesk Connect is WiFi based, you will also need to provide your precise location data because that is the only way Android allows access to your local WiFi signals. After the permissions are set, you are shown how to set the desk into pairing mode.


Remember the 436 digits shown on the display of the desk controller? Those are also shown in the app to easily allow you to identify the desk you are connecting to. On top of that, in pairing mode the desk's LED strip blinks so you can easily see from a distance which one is accessible as well. Once connected via Bluetooth, you may enter your WiFi password which is then stored on the unit. This means that you can control your desk setup without the need for Bluetooth connectivity once everything is set up.


Once paired, you can see the desk on your main screen of the app with access to the main controls. Tapping on the picture of the desk brings you to a more detailed overview, which gives you access to a scheduler, unit picker as well as the three memory settings you see on the physical controller as well. Changing the units in-app also does so on the physical display of the controller, which is an excellent detail. The interesting aspect here is, that the app offers two additional saving slots in form of a sitting and standing icon, bringing your total to five and as such solving the issue of a multi-user household. Raising and lowering the desk is also visualized by an animation of the table doing the same in-app, which is a nice UI/UX experience.


The app also allows you to schedule changes in your setup. This could be a downward, upward motion or both. you may set the time, duration after which it goes down again, the day of the week as well as which settings to use. You may schedule multiple such actions and have the app remind you before it gets triggered. This is a great way to remind users of the desk to actually get up and use it as the intended purpose instead of slouching in your office chair all day long.


As the desk controller has an RGB LED built-in, you can change its color by picking from five choices in app. This could be useful to identify a desk if, for example, two users have the same one and are raising it at a similar moment. Another very interesting aspect is the fact that you can adjust the sensitivity of the collision detection for both the upward as well as downward motion separately. This could be extremely useful if you have a plant on or below your desk that could get crushed as it may not offer enough resistance to trigger the stop of movement on a generic setting. Another plausible scenario could be small pets that may sit on top of your PC case that may end up getting squished too hard should the desk move down. Or, it could be something as simple as you resting your feet on the system while snoozing. Regardless of the scenario, actually being able to adjust the sensitivity is a great USP for the Autonomous SmartDesk Connect.

While using the app, we did notice one weird behavior where it did not crash hard, but soft visually dropping the user back unto the main screen mid motion, forcing us to reopen the app as pulling it into focus from the Android task manager did not work. And there are a few UI elements that are missing at times, like a physical scroll bar for the scheduling screen.

Conclusion

Looking at the Autonomous SmartDesk Connect from the perspective of a motorized standing desk, you get all the usual fixings of a higher-end variant. It comes with a dual-motor setup and a three piece leg for wider range. The assembly experience is essentially the same as other offerings out there, having similar steps with the exception of the curve ball with the fit due to the the 53" vs. 55" top. Considering the brains in the form of the controller is quite polarizing. On one hand, you are paying a premium for the table due to the fact that it offers an app enabled experience and functionality, but on the other, Autonomous has implemented it in a way that feels a less premium than others with the basic display and fewer physical memory settings. As such, the app feels like the true highlight of the entire setup as it allows the desk to differentiate itself from other brands out there with solid functionality and a good user interface in general. With the 53" wide top, the Autonomous SmartDesk Connect may be purchased from their website directly for $599 (Editor's note: the "regular" price is not a real base price, but used for marketing purposes, as such we will consider the $599 the base price). Similar options in the market without the smarts sell for around $450-$500, as such you are paying a bit of a premium to have the smarts of the Autonomous SmartDesk Connect. However, that may be a small price to pay for piece of mind for your pets, plants or other fragile elements you may have on or around your desk, when adjusting collision sensitivity is important.