The Altwork station feels like an anomaly. It’s been in gestation so long, available for pre-order for so long, that one might be quick to count it as another stalled crowd-funded campaign. Except that the desk and chair number isn’t a crowdfunder. It’s a real product that will really be shipping later this year, and if you don’t buy it by July 29 you will really be spending $US5900 ($7892) instead of the current price of $US3900 ($5216).
Either price is a lot of cash to spend on a World of Warcraft junkie’s dream battlestation. But dang is the Altwork station cool. It’s got four tiny motors the move all the parts and insure that your desk and monitor are always the exact same distance away — whether you’re lying down or standing up. It’s also wicked quiet. Testing it out in a bustling WeWork I had to strain my ears to hear the motors.
Some components of the rig are kind of goofy. I understand some people might be OK lying all the way back with a giant monitor looming overhead, but I was freaked out and felt like I was on an unpleasant theme park ride.
And to solve the problem of your mouse and keyboard flying off the desk as you move around, Altwork has included magnets that you stick on the back. It’s certainly a solution that works, but it’s not very elegant.
What is elegant is the motion of this thing. It’s the Fred Astaire of battlestations. Shame I’d have to drop nearly $8k to get in on the action.