Desk shopping is mostly about matching dimensions to how you'll actually sit or stand at it — a beautiful desk that's the wrong height undermines the ergonomic benefit of everything else in the setup.
Standing desk height is personal, not universal
For a sitting desk, a commonly used starting point is elbow height when seated with shoulders relaxed — roughly 28 to 30 inches for many adults, though this varies with chair height and individual proportions. For a standing desk, the same principle applies while standing: the desktop should sit at about elbow height so forearms rest roughly level while typing, not so high that shoulders shrug up or so low that you hunch forward. This is genuinely individual to your height, which is why an adjustable-height desk removes a lot of the guesswork compared to a single fixed height.
Weight capacity is about more than the monitor
A desk's stated weight capacity needs to account for everything that will sit on it at once — monitor arms, a monitor or two, a laptop, speakers, books, and anything else that accumulates over time, not just the heaviest single item. This matters even more for standing desks with a moving mechanism, since exceeding the rated capacity can strain the lift motor or gas-spring mechanism over time, not just risk a wobble.
Motorized vs. manual height adjustment
Motorized standing desks make changing height between sitting and standing effortless enough that people actually do it regularly, which is the main practical argument for paying more for one — a manual crank or pin-adjustment desk technically offers the same height range, but the friction of manually adjusting it means many owners simply stop bothering after the first few weeks.
The one thing people forget
Check the desktop's actual depth against your monitor setup, not just its width. A wide desk that's too shallow can leave a monitor uncomfortably close to your eyes, or leave no real room for a keyboard and mouse in front of it without crowding the edge — depth is easy to overlook next to the more prominently advertised width measurement.