A closer look at the Ergotron LX Pro
The new king of monitor arms for the home office
There’s a lot of upgrades I can recommend to someone building out their home office. A monitor arm is often high on the list. It’s also the advice people seem most likely to ignore.
I get it. A monitor arm is not exciting, and people looking to buy one for a home office face a lot of bad choices. Amazon is packed with awful monitor arms destined for landfills. More expensive arms will last, but pricing puts people off. I like the Humanscale M2.1…but $350? That’s more than many people spend on a monitor!
However, there’s a new option that finds a nice middle ground: The Ergotron LX Pro. Here’s why I like it.
Installation is easy
Putting together a monitor arm doesn’t require a licensed engineer, but it’s often not simple. Monitor arms are heavy, awkward, and most use Allen key screws or bolts. Putting an arm together can take a bit of strength and a lot of crawling around on the floor under your desk.
The Ergotron LX Pro does everything it can to solve that problem. Installation isn’t exactly tool-less, but certainly tools-light. The clamp has a comfortable hand grip and thumb screws are provided for use with the VESA bracket that mounts a monitor to the arm. You can have the monitor arm on your desk and function without touching a screwdriver or Allen key.
You do still need tools to fine-tune the monitor’s lift and tilt but, with the arm I received to test, I found that was only needed with heavier monitors. And it’s a simple process. A few twists of an Allen key will do the job.
I also had to use spacers with one of the monitors I used with the arm, and that meant I could not use the thumbscrews. That shouldn’t be common, though. It’s actually a fault of that monitor, which needs unusually long screws for use with VESA mounts.
A clamp Bender would be proud of
I want to nerd out about the Ergotron LX Pro’s desk clamp and base, ‘cause they’re great.
As mentioned, the clamp has a hand grip. This, you might be shocked to learn, isn’t all that common. I’ve used plenty of arms that require an Allen key to adjust the clamp. The Ergotron LX Pro’s hand grip is larger than most, too, so I found it easy to adjust.
The clamp’s lower plate (the part that clamps the underside of the desk) is larger than normal. That’s important, because it spreads the force of the clamp over a wider area. Some clamps have small lower plates that are likely to crush softer desks (like most from Ikea) if the clamp is over-tightened.
I can’t guarantee the LX Pro won’t harm softer desks, as it all comes down to the desk’s construction and how much muscle you point into it, but I know this style of clamp makes it less likely.
The base of the arm is small, too. That good! The way a monitor arm frees up space on your desk (so you can use it like, uh, a desk) is among the top reasons to buy one. Keeping the base small maximizes that perk.
Cable management is pretty great
Monitor arms are good for many things: ergonomics, ease of adjustment, freeing up desk space, and so on. But cable management? That’s often fussy. It can still be fussy with the Ergotron LX Pro, but it’s about as good as I’ve seen.
The LX Pro channels cables through the underside of the arm’s two articulating pieces. Like the rest of the monitor, these don’t require tools to access, yet they remain tightly in place when the monitor is in use.
The only problem is that the channels that route the cables aren’t that large, so you won’t be able to fit more than few cables in them. But that’s fine for most people, and most monitors arms have the same issue.
I like the look
I think the Ergotron LX Pro looks great.
The look was, in fact, my biggest gripe about Ergotron’s older LX arm. It was among my top recommendations, as it had many features and was reasonably priced. But I thought it looked a bit…industrial. Fine for a corporate office, but not so much for a home office.
The Ergotron LX Pro is more cohesive across the base, arms, and bracket, the bolts and screws are less obvious, and the tilt/swivel mechanism is less exposed.
Ergotron also ditched the polished aluminum model (which I thought was so 2015) in favor of a dark gray color. That’ll go down well with Mac users into the company’s Space Gray colorway.
Oh, and it appears Ergotron now offers a white VESA bracket if you order the white colorway. The old model had a black bracket with the white colorway, which would ruin your day if you’re going for that super-crisp vibe.
The price is right
Despite its name, the LX Pro isn’t positioned as an alternative over the Ergotron LX but, rather, as a replacement. Ergotron still appears to sell some LX models (and I’m sure you’ll find them on Amazon for years). But the LX Pro is now top-of-the-fold on the company’s website.
The LX Pro also starts at about $210. It’s actually less expensive on Amazon than the older LX, which goes for $220.
A few small downsides, but no huge flaws
The Ergotron LX Pro is excellent, but nothing is perfect, and the LX Pro has a couple downsides.
The LX Pro can support a bit less weight than its predecessor (at 22 pounds, down from 25 pounds). It also ships with a shorter pole on the base, which means it offers a bit less vertical articulation (the pole is 5 inches, vs. 8 inches). The LX Pro offers a longer pole as an option, but choosing that raises the price by about $80.
Those flaws are minor, though, especially if you’re buying for a home office. I expect most home offices to have one or two monitors, and most won’t need to place the monitor in unusual positions (like two monitors stacked vertically, one above the other).
I also expect most home offices to equip a 34-inch ultrawide, 32-inch widescreen, or smaller, and most such monitors weigh far less than 22 pounds. The Dell Ultrasharp U3225QE is a pretty beefy buy as monitors go (because it’s packed with Thunderbolt and USB connectivity), but still weighs less than 15 pounds without its stand.
An easy recommendation
I also like the Ergotron LX Pro because it makes my job easy.
Recommending a monitor arm can be tough. Different people have different needs and there’s a lot of subtle changes that might make on arm better than another, depending on how you plan to use it.
The Ergotron LX Pro, though, nestles comfortably into the home office niche. It looks nice, it’s easy to install, it offers plenty of adjustment for a home office, and its $209 price tag reasonable. That makes it a good choice if you want an entry-level single-monitor arm.
Ergotron does offer dual-arm versions of the LX Pro, by the way, though I’ve not tested them. I expect they’re also good, but you’ll have to pay at least $400.
Ergotron sent an LX Pro arm for me to evaluate. The arm will be sent back to Ergotron after evaluation or donated to a local organization.