SecretLab Magnus Pro review: "The complete gaming desk, and a truly brilliant standing desk"

The Secretlab Magnus Pro is the next stage in the Magnus desk line from the gaming furniture brand, and boy does it make an impact. 

The original Secretlab Magnus was a great success thanks to its clever cable management, strong design, and build quality. The Pro takes things further by adding motors to make it a standing desk, and, in my eyes, completes the package.

It's soon very apparent that the Pro continues to channel the Magnus' excellence, as well as everything that makes the brand's seats some of the best gaming chairs going. Starting at $799 / £729, the Magnus Pro builds on its 'stationary' predecessor by offering even more attachments and design choices - and even two size choices with an XL offering even more for a slightly higher price ($949 / £829). The result is the best gaming desk and best standing desk money can buy right now. It's truly excellent.

Assembly & Design

The first thing you'll notice about the Magnus Pro, even before you open the boxes, is that it is really, very heavy indeed. I knew its weight in kgs from the Secretlab website but even that didn't prepare me for how heavy and solid it is in real life. Yes, this makes it a little unwieldy, but some extra heft has its benefits too.

Out of the box, however, it looks just as we've grown accustomed to with top gaming desks: all black. But don't let this put you off as you can add loads of accessories to change up the aesthetic to match your setup's look - more on those later.

Anyway, these big, black, heavy, metal fragments can be broadly considered as three 'parts' for the assembly process: the desk's top; the two motorised legs, and the cable management tray. It probably took me the best part of two hours to build, position, and power up (etc), all in - which I'm fine with. But this certainly isn't as quick as other desks I've put together. A big reason for the slow build is the desk's weight - although I only needed to recruit the help of another person just once during construction. It's also worth stating the fact that having a standing desk so heavy does very much inspire confidence. I don't want my standing desk to be light and unstable when it's at its maximum height for example. The XL variant may be even heavier, but for me, the extra weight is a pro as much as it's a potential con.

As with its chairs, Secretlab's instruction and toolset are excellent for the desk, and ensure that everything you need to build is included too. I didn't need any other tools myself but I will drop one caveat here about the screws: they can be easy to overtighten and I did bust one screw that I had to replace from my box of spares. I think 'regular' cross-head screws would have been better here - especially if you're like me and like to make sure something is screwed in really tight - but this is a small drawback in the grand scheme of things.

Adjustability & Performance

The last part of the assembly process is the magnet-attached, leather desktop surface. This is most probably the first thing you'll adjust when you've built the Magnus Pro, and while it's great, it can be a bit fiddly at the same time. 

Great, because it finishes the desk beautifully, can come in a variety of different styles and designs, and demonstrates that Secretlab's magnet fixings are an excellent method of affixing augmentations to your desk. However, it's fiddly because it's very hard to adjust once it's on - the magnetic attachments are almost too strong for their own good and it proved to be the trickiest bit to align properly and neatly as a result. In fact, I think I'm a tiny bit out to this day still, but nothing too noticeable, really.

The desk size of the regular Magnus Pro isn't actually that enormous - and perhaps a little less so when you consider the cable management 'lid' at the back takes up some part of that too. However, the overall space, proportions, and real estate given to you are excellent. And if you do want to take things up a notch, the XL variant gives you that option (for a bit more cash, naturally). I have an 'on desk' setup, utilising one of the best gaming laptops going in the Razer Blade 15 to power my work and games, which means I need a fair amount of space in the first place, but the Magnus Pro just drinks it all up and still gives me space for my peripherals, extras, and so on. Switch this to a PC setup, and you'd have even more at your disposal. On the desk as well as my laptop, is my ultrawide monitor, the excellent Acer Predator X38, which easily swallows up the Magnus Pro's acreage. All the same, there is the option to place it on the monitor arm accessory (single and double versions available) which I have done, and this is totally negated, leaving you with even more desk space. In particular, that attachment is perfect for fitting under-screen soundbars, peripherals, or the sneakiest of cats.

On top of the excellent desk space, the cable management is sublime. In a nutshell, all your cables are stashed away neatly in the compartment at the back of the desk - that's it, it really is that simple. However, the way it's implemented is also great. The desk's own power input is at the base of one of the legs, which immediately tidies up the connection between mains power outlet and the desk, and then your extension cable can then be plugged in to receive power within the cable management space itself. This is incredibly useful and a brilliant means of ensuring cables are all kept in place and not dangling all over the shop. There are also tidy gaps at each end of the tray to ensure easy feeding of cables between a PC or woofer underneath, the power supply, and of course to your accessories on top.

What can enhance this more, especially if you have multiple wired peripherals and accessories, is the plethora of accessories that can be used with the Magnus Pro. Overall, the magnet-attachment method itself is genuinely brilliant and means there's no clamping of bits around the desk or using sticky pads to guide cables, and so on. The magnets mean a headset hanger, neat cable guides, and even the PC holder can just immediately grab onto the desk, do the job, and be incredibly solid as a result.

The accessories themselves are genuinely useful and handy, offering neat solutions to cable management and storage. These are easy to recommend in and of themselves too. Furthermore, you can pick from a range of aesthetics and designs, including esports teams, big game series, and so on. These are interchangeable with the regular Magnus desk too, so if you're upgrading to the Pro, you can take your accessories with you.

The motors on the desk are smooth as heck and the touchscreen buttons are easy to interact with and manipulate. But to avoid any accidental presses, you can switch off the buttons on the front too with a sliding power button - a great little touch. You can save up to three height presets with the control panel too.

The Magnus Pro is, however, as you can see from some of the pictures, a little bit of a magnet for dust (and cat hair) - which is particularly noticeable on the black leather desk top. I'd be tempted to go for a lighter desktop surface as a result, but this, again, is a minor quibble.

Should you buy the Secretlab Magnus Pro

The Secretlab Magnus Pro is one of the easiest recommendations we can ever make for anyone looking for the 'best' in a particular area of gaming hardware. Even if you're not a player of games per se, this is still perfect for working from home and offers a bunch of features and characteristics to maximise a working space.

Compared to the Herman Miller X Logitech Nevi gaming desk, another premium gaming desk/standing desk combo, the Magnus Pro still wins and presents a better proposition - it costs much less for starters. Its level of quality can easily match the Herman Miller Nevi, too, but the extra features like great cable management and accessories elevate it further. Plus, as it also offers that XL variant, you have more buying options.

Adding in all those incredibly helpful accessories can definitely make the cost spiral up quickly, which is something to keep an eye on. But the flip side of that is that they are not nailed-on costs for the Magnus Pro - you can add these later and separate the investment.

Any caveats are really tiny in the grand scheme of things: the weight might put some off as it appears impossible to build or move (but this really isn't the case); the screws provided can easily be overtightened (but once you get a feel for them you'll be fine); and while the price is high, the value on offer is still strong and we'd be recommending this desk in a heartbeat to anyone. There is no better desk out there; the Magnus Pro is the complete gaming desk, and a truly brilliant standing desk all in one excellent package.

How we tested the Secretlab Magnus Pro

The Secretlab Magnus Pro gaming desk was my everyday desk for working from home and PC play for a period of multiple weeks. I made sure to play around with the memory storage and height settings while also setting up and re-setting up many different peripherals to test the cable management.

Using it for both work and play ensured I put it through its spatial and functional paces with the desk coming out brilliantly in all cases. Testing it just after using the Herman Miller X Logitech Nevi desk also meant that I could directly compare it to a competitor.

You can read more about how we test gaming desks and chairs as well as how we make all our recommendations in the full 12DOVE Hardware Policy.

Remember you'll need a top machine to go with your new desk so check out our guides to the best gaming laptop and best gaming PC money can buy right now.

Reviewed in conjunction with an Acer Predator X38 supplied by Acer, and a Razer Blade 15 laptop supplied by Razer.