I upgraded my home office with this great L-shaped desk, and now it’s an early Black Friday steal at $150 off

Expectations vs reality

So let me be up front about what you actually get here. It’s a cheap desk, and you do feel that a bit on the wooden surface. The wood veneer starts to wear off around the edges slightly, but not to the point that it looks overtly less premium. The darkened shade used here does disguise the veneer nicely.

As for the setup itself, it’s a simple process, but make sure you follow the instructions. There are some awkward screw placements that you need to ensure you get just right — particularly at the joint between the main portion and the L part of the desk.

Multi-purpose versatility

This was critical for me. Because not only is this a place for me to get stuff done, but also for my sim racing too, which the room down the side of this desk and my multi-monitor mount is ideal for.

The shelf down the bottom side hides my PC tower perfectly, and the additional room allows for the clutter that comes with the job like additional laptops to test or my go-to notepad for keeping on top of tasks.

Surprisingly, given the thinness of the desktop and the frame itself, none of it bent or crumpled under the pressure of the clamps of my monitor mount or the power strip holder.

Work to be done

That’s not to say it’s perfect… I’m ashamed to show my cable management here, but as you can see, there isn’t really much built into the desk itself to tidy the chaos of wires that come from the monitors, the sim rig, the docking station and everything else.

And to be honest, that’s what you kind of expect with a cheap desk like this. It’s always going to be a “bring your own cable management” affair, but awkwardly the legs are too skinny for anything substantial. So I’ve already set up my Black Friday shopping list with a key desk leg cable management option.

Provided you can work around these downsides, though, a nicely-sized L-shaped desk for $160 is a steal!