Third blog in a row about my office, this one is about the brand new monitor arm I got. This one took me by surprise as I did not think it would make such an impact on me.
Disclaimer: I've bought all my gear myself with my own, hard earned, money. So no sponsorship here! Which is why I can give you the good and the bad.
The last package to arrive is the monitor arm. I took a single one, as I only have one screen, my laptop screen functions as my secondary screen. I have used 2 dedicated screens in the past and this is something I want to go back to. Multiple big screens (27" and up) are a lot more practical than my small laptop screen.
The monitor arm can be attached as a clamp or drilled through the table. The foot of the support column can be changed so the stand can be attached how you like. The part on the underside is a metal clamp and I could easily see how that would damage my brand new table. I have placed the second foot, which has a rubber sole, between the metal clamp and the underside of the table.
With the column installed, I can attach the arm at the right height. This part feels a little unstable as I need to clamp it on the column. This did have me worried as I installed the arm, but it has not moved since I set it up.
Finding the right height can be a challenge though as the arm can't easily be moved up or down once it's been installed. If I loosen it up, I'll need to adjust the height with the screen attached to it. Which I can assume is tricky and has the risk of the screen falling. That's why I put it at the same height as my screen was when it was standing on it's base. That way, I knew it was at a comfortable height.
When I prepared the screen to be attached to the arm, I was slightly worried that the arm would not be able to carry the weight of the screen. This fear proved to be unfounded as the Asus ROG PG279Q is really light and most of the weight is in the foot. The arm can easily hold the screen up and after I tightened the bolt that controls the tilt, it hasn't budged from the angle I placed it in.
The Asus ROG is a great screen: it has nice colours and a good refresh rate, but I do wish I had taken the 4K version instead of the 2K version. 4K just looks a lot more smooth and is easier on the eyes. Especially when looking a whole day at code, mails and stack overflow. Maybe also a bit for gaming. But mostly for the code.
Attaching the screen to the arm did provide a problem. The mechanism would be super easy to use if the part that holds up the screen would stick out of the back of the screen. If you take a good look, the attachment is sunken into the case of the screen. This part slides over the end of the arm, so it's really easy to install... normally. With the cool triangular design (that you never see), the sliding mechanism is blocked by the triangular part of the back. I attached the sliding mechanism to the arm and asked my wife to hold up the screen, while I screwed it to the attachment. Luckily, the screen itself is very light, but it was a tense moment anyway.
The arm can't easily be adjusted in the height. Tilting and turning the screen side to side is very easy and I notice I use it to show my wife something if she's standing next to me so she can more easily see what's on the screen. The screen has a nice viewing angle, but staring directly at a screen instead of at an angle is always more fun.
Cable management is pretty easy although the plastic holders are a bit of squeeze for my HDMI cable. I made sure there is a bit of room on the end so I can turn my screen left and right without pulling on the cables. There is one cable that is not in the cable management, but that's because my display port cable is not long enough to fit into the cable management holders.
There is one detail that annoys me. When I put the table in the standing position, I notice the screen wobbles if I type or touch the table (put a glass down, for example). When I type more slowly, it doesn't happen, when I type harder or faster, it wobbles more noticeably. It's subtle, but I notice it when I write while standing up. I know it's the vibrations through the table and I can't do anything about it. Unfortunately, that doesn't make it any less annoying.
Now that my screen floats above my desk, I noticed that I have a lot more table space. The place that the foot of the screen took up is quite large and now it's available for documents, my phone and keys. Maybe a microphone if I want to upgrade my audio setup. It's a decent arm and I love the additional space on my desk, but next time I would look for an arm with a more sturdy base so it won't wobble.
