Sway Adjustable Desk | Workers, stand up!

The Sway from the Montreal company ergonofis is an adjustable motorized desk that reminds you to get up at regular intervals. Impeccably designed, however, it is expensive and does not offer the connectivity of some of its competitors.

Karim Benessaieh
The Press

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Before getting into techno, let’s talk about environment and design. The firm ergonofis, whose head office is located on rue Louvain in Montreal, obtained B Corp certification last July for its environmental commitment, in particular with the design of sustainable products and its efforts to reduce its ecological footprint. With her Sway adjustable desk, she opted for sobriety and natural colors. The one and a quarter inch thick Canadian solid wood table is available in maple, cherry or walnut. A device makes it possible to group and hide the cables.

The Sway looks great, is rock solid, it’s a distinctly high-end piece of furniture that adds a touch of chic to any office space. It comes in three preset sizes, from 48 to 72 inches wide, and can also be custom cut with a 6 to 8 week lead time. We completed the assembly of the 21 parts in almost two hours.

Tapping the touchscreen interface, 5 inches high by 1 inch wide in the lower right corner of the desk, reveals a tiny screen at the very top indicating the height. A line in the center with two up and down arrows allows us to raise or lower the desk. A single button labeled Menu displays more advanced settings. This is where you choose the interface language, metric or imperial units, and configure the upper and lower limits of the desktop.

Thereafter, all you have to do is slide your finger on the line, up or down, for the Sway to adjust to the height requested. You can also hold your finger on one of the arrows for manual adjustment. Its height can increase from 22.7 to 48.7 inches, thanks to its two motors capable of supporting up to 300 pounds. Operation is quiet, less than 45 decibels. In our setting, we went from the lower limit to the upper limit in 8 seconds. Up to four different users can program their two preferred heights.

If an obstacle hinders the movement of the desk, a sensor automatically stops the motors. Do you forget to assemble your desk from time to time, just to stretch your legs? We have programmed three intervals, to remind you to get up 5, 10 or 15 minutes per hour. A bell icon will simply flash, prompting the user to raise and then lower the desktop.

Finally, the last clever little touch, you can lock and unlock the height control, again with the Menu button, to prevent children from playing with the desk.

The Sway comes with a 10-year warranty for steel components and five years for electrical components. Ergonofis also allows the desktop to be returned after a 30-day trial, for a handling fee of $95.

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Without being incredibly complex, assembly of the Sway is demanding, with 28 screws – which thankfully go into pre-drilled holes – and a few not very obvious steps. Irritating detail, the manual refers, with a QR code, to a video that is not available.

The Sway has no connectivity, WiFi or Bluetooth, which would allow for example more intuitive configurations from a smartphone or an activity report. The ergonofis-designed interface does its job well, but it takes a while to get used to.

At a starting price of $1795, this is a hefty outlay.

One buys ?

We will not insist here on the need for an office worker to get up for a few minutes every hour, she agrees. The Sway is a valuable ally for this, much more practical than manual supports.

Buyers disappointed with adjustable desks generally have two complaints: noisy and faltering motorized mechanisms, and a work surface that is easily damaged. Without having obviously tested the Sway in the long term, it must be recognized that ergonofis has not skimped on the quality of materials and components. A beautiful desk, solid, silent and carefully designed, at a substantial price, but in the average of this category. A recommendable purchase, without a doubt, if you are ready for this investment.