Secretlab Magnus Evo review: iconic gaming desk gets sleeker, simpler, better

Everyone loves a nice desk. In fact, we on Creative Bloq have made it our business to find the best goshdarn desk around (especially if it can let us stand up, gotta keep those limbs fresh and active) and to pair it with a nice ergonomic chair.

One of the best deskmakers around, especially if you like your aesthetics a bit on the gamer side, is Secretlab. Their line of Magnus and Magnus Pro desks in particular have been a huge hit with PC gamers and creatives alike, not least due to their sleek design and ergonomic cable management.

Now there's a third member of the Magnus clan: the Magnus Evo. With a simpler design and (slightly) less bulk overall, paired with a lower price tag, it's likely intended as an entry point into the Secretlab Deskonomic Universe, but one that contains all the key Magnus benefits.

And after having this bad boy in my office for the last two weeks, it might be my new recommendation for not just gamers, but creatives too as their WFH desk of choice.

Secretlab Magnus Evo: Key specifications

Design & features

If you've read PC Gamer, watched GamesRadar's Future Games Show, ever opened a stream on Twitch, or been to your gamer friend's house, you will likely have seen Secretlab's desks and chairs. The Magnus line of gaming-focused desks is a cornerstone product for the Singaporean company, and the Magnus Evo bears an immediate family resemblance.

There are two size options available, with the 150cm wide Magnus Evo being my review unit while a Magnus Evo XL ups the desktop size to 177cm. The 150cm one fits much nicely into my compact office space at home, and thanks to its clever design choices, offers all the desk space I need.

With an all-black, almost-all-steel construction, the Magnus Evo is uncompromisingly attention-grabbing, but also neutral enough for each user to put their stamp on it via the kit they place on it. The back and side panels have magnetic steel surfaces, and concealed underneath the back is a steel cable tray that is screwed in on one side and magnetically attached on the other.

That means you can open it up slightly to access your power strip (after raising it using the standing-desk motors) and then tuck it away again to keep the cables out of view. On top of that, you can use the cable-management frame covers and magnetic cable tidies to minimise any clutter both underneath and on the desk surface itself.

It certainly helps me keep things tidy(ish, look, I'm not perfect) and the little 'thwock' sound the tray and the cable tidies make when they snap to the magnetic steel is supremely satisfying. Clean desk, clear mind, isn't it?

It would be nice to have access to the tray without having to raise the desk and/or crawl under it, but unless you're changing devices at the desk every few days (like I have to) that's not going to be a huge problem.

On the front you'll find a touchscreen to control the height, with a simple up-down button next to 3 programmable preset buttons. That means I can program a preset standing height for consistency while keeping a different sitting preset to my wife, who for some reason likes sitting as close to the floor as possible when gaming.

Very helpfully, there's also an on-off switch on the panel, so I don't accidentally send it moving up or down via accidental touches when working or playing. This is an issue with some other desks with front-mounted control panels, so Secretlab earns a point for this simple but helpful feature.

There are a number of optional accessories available too, at a cost ranging from £29 for a magnetic headphone hook to £89 for a monitor arm. I chose those two and a PC mount that is cleverly placed out of sight underneath the desk, attached to either of the table legs of your choice and adjustable for most types of PC towers. My large Chillblast Creator tower fit in there, freeing up valuable real estate on the desktop itself.

Also, because I'm a child in a man's body, I have now lost count of the number of times I've taken the magnetic headphone hook off the desk just to hear the thwock of it snapping to the underside of the desktop.

Assembly

Like with any serious desk, the Secretlab Magnus Evo is a heavy unit. Feet, components and desktop combine to weigh over 60 kilograms, but the assembly is straightforward, with the detailed, well-illustrated and clearly written assembly guide helping me every step of the way.

With that weight in mind, It is obviously recommended that two people handle the desktop together when laying it down at the start and flipping the finished desk upright at the end, but with all tools provided and clearly labelled individual bags for each type of screw, along with removable sticker labels on each larger component, the fiddly bits in between start and finish are made considerably less painful. Everything snaps satisfyingly into place and feels reassuringly firm and solid when assembled and fastened.

It took me 45 minutes to assemble the desk from start to finish, and that was with the handicap of my clumsy fingers, trembling hands (a condition I've had since I was six) and the compact home-office space I was manoeuvring around. This is on par with previous desk builds, made easier with the packaging prep work done by Secretlab.

Pricing and models

As the Secretlab Magnus Evo is literally just being launched as I'm writing this, pricing information is fairly sparse at the moment. All I know at the moment is that pricing starts at $749/£599/€699 and that it will be readily available for orders on Secretlab's website.

This is considerably less than the Magnus Pro, which comes in at a much steeper $988/£899, and considering that almost every feature from the Pro is present here, apart from a slightly less range in height adjustment and no top-down access to the cable tray, it marks the Evo out as a real value proposition. Unless these two points are dealbreakers for you, I'd even go so far as to recommend the Evo over the Pro, for the incredible value for money you're getting.

Buy it if...

• You want a tidy desk
• You like the colour black
• You want a $1000 desk for much, much less than that

Don't buy it if...

• You prefer warmer or wooden design
• You want a lightweight desk
• You need a desk drawer