Geek’s Workspace Evolution / U Board Monitor Stand Review

I picked up a U Board Smart Monitor Stand from Amazon earlier this week to help organize my current workspace. My desk setup has changed quite a bit over the years and I think it has a lot to do with the design of the Mac. No, I’m not saying that to be an Apple Fanboy but there is something so elegant about a minimalistic setup and it makes a lot of sense having less clutter on your workspace. You know the phrase “less is more?” It’s exactly that.

Let’s take a look at my previous setups…

 

This is what my desks looked like back in the day. This was about 5 years ago before I completely switched to a Mac. I actually miss that HP laptop! It was really thin and light with decent performance.

And here comes the Apple invasion! One of my first Macbooks was a 13-inch MacBook Pro.

I moved out of a one bedroom “dorm” apartment to a 2-bedroom townhouse. I used one of the bedrooms as a man-cave / office. If you noticed, that old HP tower is still there collecting dust and wasting space!

I had a 15-inch MacBook Pro connected to a Hengedock back at the time and I thought it was the most amazing thing ever. The concept was great but the way I had it setup was still messy and the execution of the Hengedock was somewhat clunky.

Upgraded my old HP monitor to the Apple Thunderbolt Display.

A notebook connected to a monitor? Too many cables and movie parts! I finally picked up an iMac 2011 (maxed out) for a great deal and still use it today.

I took apart the desk removing the tower and the printer stand. Now my desk looks really tidy! However, there was still something missing and I was getting tired of having to reach behind the screen to plug in a USB device.

I was searching monitor stands on Amazon and this came up. I purchased mine for $46.99 and it was delivered next day. There was no way I was paying $80 for a simple stand from Twelve South!

Putting it together took about 5 minutes. Really easy to assemble even for me, and I hate assembling stuff!

And this is my desk today! Love the design and now I have more space on my desk to physically write on! Also the keyboard and mouse tuck neatly under the stand! I can also now play games using a gamepad without anything in my way!

Pros:

• Well built, low price
• Easy to setup
• Works as advertised

Cons:

• Comes with a dock and cupholders for the stand, useless.
• USB ports support only 2.0. Not meant for hard drives too

Overall Rating: 4/5