It’s been over a year since Secretlab released the original Magnus gaming desk. We were very impressed by it, especially the magnetic ecosystem of accessories.

Despite it being one of the best gaming desks out there, we were confused as to why such a comprehensive desk with a million different features was not height-adjustable.

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Well, Secretlab heard our confusion and has created the Secretlab Magnus Pro. They claim that it’s the ultimate gaming desk, but how does it really hold up? Let’s put it to the test.

Secretlab Magnus Pro review video: The best features explained!

Of course, not everyone has the time to read an entire review, so for those of you who are short on time, Miranda has made a quick video showcasing the main features.

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Secretlab Magnus Pro

Surface size

1500mm x 585mm (Excluding hinged lid of cable management tray)

Surface thickness

20mm

Height range

650mm – 1250mm

Max load

120kg (Including the desktop itself)

How We Review

Pros

Supreme build quality
Large adjustment range
Convenient power passthrough and cable management tray

Cons

Not as deep as we’d like
Expensive

Tech Specs

Surface size

1500mm x 585mm (Excluding hinged lid of cable management tray)

Surface thickness

20mm

Height range

650mm – 1250mm

Max load

120kg (Including the desktop itself)

Motor speed

30mm per second

motor noise level

<50db

Materials

Steel, MDF, Aluminum

Unboxing & Assembly

The Magnus Pro comes in 2 separate boxes, one containing the legs, and the other containing the actual desk section.

Everything is packaged with copious amounts of thick, high-density foam and it’s all layered in such a way that nothing will grind against anything else, so it’ll all arrive scratch and dent-free.

Additionally, Secretlab even went to the length to reinforce the corners of the boxes with stiff rubber brackets that prevent the corners from being caved in during transit.

So, while the exterior of the boxes might be a bit beaten up, As they were in our case, the actual pieces inside will arrive in pristine condition.

The unboxing and build process was fairly simple. Normally when chairs and other such furniture recommend a 2-person assembly, we normally throw caution to the wind and do it solo.

This time, however, we actually recommend you to find a friend to help you as every piece of this desk is very heavy. You could probably manage it alone, but not without damaging the desk or, more likely, your back.

That being said, the Secretlab Magnus Pro went together pretty smoothly. The legs need a bit of persuasion to slot into the receiving grooves on the main section, but the benefit of this is that they stay put while you grab the screws.

The biggest annoyance of building the desk is flipping it over at the end, even in the lowered position it’s still very bulky and can be easily dropped or scratched during this section of the build.

For this reason, we’d strongly recommend thinking about where to build it before starting the process, we were lucky enough to build it in a large studio so it didn’t matter, but will be cumbersome if your space is limited.

Design

You could call the visual design utilitarian, imposing, or authoritarian, and you wouldn’t be wrong. However, the first word that came to our mind was clean, after all, you could never call a desk with two motors inside ‘minimalist’.

We also noticed a consistent theme throughout the Secretlab Magnus Pro’s design of parallel lines. If you find a line at an angle, chances are that it’ll appear somewhere else.

This lends a touch of cohesive asymmetry to the desk that prevents it from looking boring, while still preserving the sleek professional look.

One aspect of the design that we really like is the hinged rear cable cover. The front-facing side is sliced off at a 45-degree angle.

This allows for more space to maneuver cables and gives Secretlab an opportunity to show off its logo, which is especially cool to look at with the optional MAG RGB strip diffusing its light across it.

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Build quality

As you’d hope from a ~$800 desk, the build quality is excellent, with every nut, bolt, and component going together and feeling rock-solid.

A particularly commendable part of its construction is the hinged back cover we mentioned earlier. the hinges in question are super chunky and provide a nice level of resistance that makes it feel good.

Additionally, this resistance means that you can really clamp the cables down into the cables management tray when they’re misbehaving. The aforementioned diagonal slice allows monitor stands to clamp onto the solid section of the desk with room to spare.

Another aspect of the desk that we’re very happy with is the legs. Yes, they’re unwieldy during the build process, but they are super solid, even when fully extended in standing mode.

One downside that we noticed is how easy it is to scratch the top surface of the desk. If you don’t purchase the optional MAGPAD desk pad, we recommend slapping the biggest mousepad you have down on there to protect the surface.

The underslung cable management tray feels less robust by comparison, and feel’s like it could bend, especially if it’s handled carelessly during the building process.

However, given that it’s not structurally integral to the desk and only had to hold a power strip and cables, we give it a pass.

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Features

This is where the Secretlab Magnus Pro sets itself apart from the competition as it’s capable of a lot of cool things, some superfluous, some game-changing.

Sit-stand height adjustment

This is the main selling point of the Magnus pro over the previous Magnus, the motorized height adjustability.

We aren’t super-experienced with sit-stand desks here at WePC, despite this, we can tell that the Magnus Pro is a great example, both in terms of performance and ease of use.

The desk’s height range goes from 65cm at the lowest, to 125cm at the highest. During our testing, we found that this range is perfect for someone topping out at around 6’3″.

For people any taller the maximum height is a little low for comfortable standing usage. However, given that 6’3″ is well above average height, this is more than good enough in our opinion.

The motors that power this adjustment are easily able to max out the range of this desk, even while lifting a fully water-cooled PC gaming setup.

The height is controlled by a set of capacitive buttons on the right side of the front edge of the desk and there’s a physical on/off switch to prevent accidentally brushing past the buttons and inadvertently adjusting the height.

Secretlab Magnus Pro 15 — Note that the weird bloom effect of the display isn’t present in real life, our camera was just having a moment.

The Secretlab Magnus Pro was also able to lift our CPU and Motherboard Product Specialist Jack without issue. However, his weight is still under embargo so your product specialist-lifting milage may vary.

Additionally, the cable that powers the motor and the power passthrough to the cable tray plugs in at the bottom of the left-hand-side leg. This means that there is no risk of any cables being yanked out or broken during adjustment. Speaking of which:

Integrated cable management tray

This is carried over from the previous Magnus desk and it works just as well here.

We don’t know the exact volume of the cable tray, but it’s massive, easily accommodating all of the cables for our gaming PC test setup.

Cable management systems aren’t new though, people have been bolting glorified baskets to the undersides of their desks for decades.

The Secretlab Magnus Pro desk does it better than most, though, and this is due to two specific features that have been cleverly thought out.

The first is that hinged lid. It allows for very easy access to the management tray. Other solutions typically required clambering underneath the desk like a cable-management goblin, this one allows you to retain a little more class.

The next feature, which is arguably more useful, is the power pass-through. Essentially, there is a plug socket on the left side of the desk that’s powered by the cable that powers the motor.

This allows you to connect a power strip directly to the desk and hid it in the tray. This means that you will only have a single cable running to the desk, and with some careful cable management, only that one cable is visible.

Secretlab Magnus Pro magnetic accessories

We feel compelled to note that none of the following come with the desk as standard. They are all optional extras.

However, as is the case with optional extras, some of them are genuinely worth the money, and some are very optional.

The MAGPAD is much the same as the previous generation. It’s a very high-quality desk pad that magnetically adheres to the surface of the desk and covers the entire surface area.

Don’t make the mistake of confusing this for a mouse pad replacement, however. It’s simply a nice covering over the bare metal surface. We highly recommend this one to avoid scratching the annoyingly delicate surface of the desk.

Secretlab also makes a magnetic headphone hanger for mounting to the front edge of the desk. It works well, but wherever you position it, it’s strongly at risk of being slapped by the careless spin of your chair.

Secretlab Premium PC mount

One of the coolest accessories that Secretlab sell alongside the Magnus Pro is their PC mount. This attaches to the underside of the desk and securely holds an entire PC within its anti-scratch felt-coated grip.

It’s very scary to watch a gaming PC worth thousands being hoisted off of the ground as the desk rises, but it’s a deceptively secure system. Just be careful to avoid accidentally kicking the poor thing in the face.

Additionally, mounting your PC to the desk significantly reduces the chances of it getting dusty, and provides the best opportunity to beautifully manage your cables. With a little bit of extra effort, it’s entirely possible for the cables to become entirely invisible.

Secretlab Magnus monitor arms

They also sell monitor mounts that are a perfect fit for the Secretlab Magnus Pro. These come in single or double-monitor variants and we actually really like them.

They are fully articulated and have a similar grudge against cable visibility, allowing you to snake the monitor’s power and video cable through them.

They have the same matte black and vivid red color scheme as the overall desk. This means that they perfectly fit in and easily clamp to the mains section of the desktop, however, if you go for a special edition MAGPAD, the color scheme might be a little compromised.

We recommend these a lot too, as the Magnus Pro, despite its advanced features, isn’t quite as deep as we want.

This is particularly annoying as modern curved gaming monitors can come with some pretty intense stands that seriously eat into the available desk real estate.

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Secretlab Magnus Pro Gaming desk – Final Verdict

Secretlab has done very well with the Magnus Pro. They’ve taken their original Magnus desk and improved it with sit-stand functionality, a new range of accessories, and a power passthrough-equipped cable management tray that finally takes the hassle out of hiding hideous cords.

There are some downsides, however. The depth is disappointing at a somewhat paltry 585mm, which isn’t a lot to work with given the size of some monitors, PCs, and peripherals these days.

Secretlab does sell an XL version of the Magnus Pro that measures 177cm x 67cm, which gives you some additional breathing room. Whether the extra $100 on the price tag is worth it? We’ll leave that up to you.

We were initially perturbed by the price, however, when comparing it to other top-tier motorized sit-stand desks from brands like FlexiSpot and UPDESK, the price started to make sense

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