I tried a four-legged standing desk with hidden controls — and it’s the elegant upgrade my home office needed

The Branch Four Leg Standing Desk is an elegant yet highly functional piece of home office furniture that made me completely rethink what a standing desk could be. If you were to walk into a room, you likely wouldn’t even know beneath its chic desktop that it’s actually a quad-motor standing desk.

The reason for this is that, unlike Branch’s past standing desks which have their controls on the edge, it features an integrated control pad in the right corner of the desktop. Besides giving the desk a sleeker look, this also prevents accidental adjustments. This new control pad does limit you to just three height presets but if you aren’t sharing the Branch Four Leg Standing Desk with anyone else, this won’t be a problem.

Its clean design, minimal steel frame and plywood edge desktop don’t come cheap though, as this desk starts at $949 for the smaller version or $1,099 for the larger one. However, it does come with a 10-year warranty and you can choose between several different desktop styles as well as white or carbon legs.

My Branch Four Leg Standing Desk review will help you decide if this is the best standing desk for your home office and whether or not having a four-legged electric desk with quad-motors really makes a difference.

Branch Four Leg Standing Desk: Cheat Sheet

• What is it? A premium electric standing desk with four legs instead of two that also features a plywood tabletop.
• Who is it for? Those who want a sleek standing desk that looks more like a nice piece of furniture than a desk.
• What does it cost? The Branch Four Leg Standing Desk costs $949 for the smaller size (48 x 27 inches) or $1,099 for the larger version (59 x 27 inches).
• What do we like? The exposed edge plywood tabletop, its quad-motor design, how the control pad is integrated into the desktop, its rounded edges and legs, its high lift capacity and even higher static load capacity and that it comes with a 10-year warranty.
• What don’t we like? That the Branch Four Leg Standing Desk is pretty expensive, doesn’t ship with a cable management tray and you’re limited to just three height presets.

Branch Four Leg Standing Desk: Specs

Branch Four Leg Standing Desk: The ups

The Branch Four Leg Standing Desk is a sight to behold and a pleasure to use. It ditches the traditional two- leg standing desk design and putting it together was relatively simple despite having two extra legs and motors.

More table than desk

Home office furniture doesn’t have to be boring, nor does it have to cost an arm and a leg. While the Branch Four Leg Standing Desk is on the expensive side compared to other standing desks, it costs less than half as much as Herman Miller’s Spout Sit-to-Stand Table.

With its rounded edges and legs, plywood edge desktop and integrated control panel, this is the kind of desk that’s better suited for a living room, though it works equally well in a home office. My review unit has white legs and a walnut top but you can also choose from woodgrain, white or a gray top or go with darker carbon legs at checkout. Although there aren’t any colors that really pop yet for the frame and legs, Branch has a history of releasing loads of fun new color options after the fact like it did with the Branch Duo standing desk and its Branch Verve chair.

The Branch Four Leg Standing desk can go as low as 27.3 inches and all the way up to 44.6 inches. When going from my preferred sitting (29 inches) to standing height (36 inches), the desk had an approximate noise level of 58 db. This is slightly higher than the Vari Curve Electric Standing Desk at 53 db but significantly lower than the Uppeal 2 Leg Desk at 65 db. Essentially, the Branch Four Leg Standing Desk is as quiet as it is pleasing to look at.

Integrated control pad

I’ve built and put more than a dozen standing desks through their paces and one thing that I always find interesting is how each one has a slightly different control pad. For instance, the original Branch Standing Desk had your typical, four-button side-mounted pad; with the Duo, Branch opted for a paddle-style controller that just goes up or down with a double tap to switch between presets. In recent years, many companies have opted for touch controls instead of physical buttons and that’s what we have here — but with a twist.

The Branch Four Leg Standing Desk has a control pad with touch-sensitive buttons that’s integrated directly into the top of its desktop. Not only do you not have to worry about accidental presses — like how my dog’s nose set off one of the buttons on the Secretlab Magnus Pro the other night — you also don’t have to worry about young children fiddling with your desk.

Another benefit of the integrated keypad is that it better conceals the fact that it’s an electric standing desk.. During testing, I also found that I could cover the control pad with a coaster — both a silicone one and a slate one — and put a cup of coffee on top without activating it.

Speaking of coffee, the Branch Four Leg Standing Desk easily passed my coffee test where I put a full cup on top and adjust the desk to see if there’s any shaking or spillage. Not a drop was spilled nor did my cup shake in the slightest.

A shockingly easy build

I’ve become quite adept at putting furniture together after years of reviewing standing desks and the best office chairs. However, I was slightly intimidated when I first unboxed the Branch Four Leg Standing Desk. I knew with its quad-motor design that it would take slightly longer than other desks I’ve built in the past.

Once I got started though, it was shockingly simple to assemble. While putting it together, I just had to route the cables from each of its four motors through channels inside the frame, screw on the legs and then attach the desktop underneath it. Even with a motor at each corner, these channels made cable management easier and all four of the cables came out at the backside of the desk where I plugged them into the control box.

I still think the Vari Electric Standing Desk is the easiest electric sit-stand desk to put together overall but when it comes to four-legged desks, this one from Branch tops the list. I recently built another four leg standing desk from FlexiSpot which I’m also reviewing and suffice it to say, its build process wasn’t nearly this simple and straightforward.

Branch Four Leg Standing Desk: The downs

The Branch Four Leg Standing Desk is an excellent standing desk overall but there are a few downsides you should be aware of. Namely, it doesn’t come with a cable management tray and you’re limited to just three height presets.

Cable organizer costs extra

The Branch Four Leg Standing Desk costs twice as much as other standing desks like the X-Chair Standing Desk or the LiftSync Clear Plus. Granted, both of these are simpler and less elegant. Still, with a starting price of $949, I’d love to see Branch throw in a few extras like Vari does with its headphone hooks and coasters or better yet, how Uplift includes a cable management tray with the Uplift V2. The cable management tray that comes with that desk is made from plastic and does have some give to it but it’s more than enough to hold one of the best surge protectors.

On its site, Branch sells an optional cable organizer for $59. It’s made of powder-coated steel, comes in three colors (white, charcoal, sage) and is available on its own or with an integrated power strip. I also like how it takes inspiration from pegboard with small holes throughout, though there are also large gaps on either side to run a power cable through. Branch’s cable organizer isn’t that expensive given its design and build quality. However, I’d love to see one included with this and the company’s other desks, even if it isn’t as sturdy or full-featured.

Just three height presets

The integrated control pad in the Branch Four Leg Desk comes with just three height presets as opposed to your typical four. For someone using this desk on their own, that’s more than enough. However, if two people want to share this desk, four would be preferable as you’d have a sitting and standing preset for both of them.

The control pad is quite small though at four inches across and two and a half inches tall but I would have liked to see one more height preset option.

Branch Four Leg Standing Desk: Verdict

The Branch Four Leg Standing Desk thoroughly impressed me when I used it alongside the Mac mini M4, as my daily driver for several weeks. It didn’t wobble at all even at its tallest height and the rubber feet on its legs held the desk firmly in place on my wood floors. While the Branch Four Leg Standing Desk doesn’t support as much weight as the FlexiSpot E7 Pro Plus (355 pounds) and several other desks I’ve tested, it can lift up to 225 pounds with a static load capacity of 450 pounds. Now that monitors and computers are a lot lighter though, you’ll have a hard time reaching that limit. I know I did with an Apple Studio Display, a desk shelf and several other work from home accessories stacked on top of it.

If you’re on a tight budget, the Branch Four Leg Standing Desk is quite an expensive purchase, even if you can offset its price by using funds from your HSA or FSA account. Still, if you’re upgrading from a cheaper standing desk or want one with a more table-like design, it’s a gorgeous piece of home office furniture with a 10-year warranty that will last for years. The Branch Four Leg Standing Desk really surprised me overall – in a good way — and I can’t wait to see what Branch comes out with next.