With plenty of office, ergonomic and gaming chairs on the market, FlexiSpot gives it a go with the oddly named BS12B-Pro, let see what makes it stand out from the rest of the crowd.

Having used this chair for over two weeks now after using an old 11-year-old Ikea Markus office chair here are my thoughts on the FlexiSpot’s take and how it compares to the best office chairs we've reviewed here at TechRadar Pro.

The chair arrived in a large plain cardboard box which was a bit beaten up by the courier, the outside informing you what it was, model and colour with the “FlexiSpot” branding and motto in blue, at least some color.

FlexiSpot BS12B-Pro: Assembly

Opening up the box, everything appeared to have been either haphazardly thrown in the box or the courier gave it a bit of a tumble around. Not much was securing anything in place like you would find on a monitor for example being in case in foam. It appears that FlexiSpot knew that this was the case as each component of the chair had its own plastic or cardboard wrap or foam added in places likely to be pointy.

Removing everything and laying it out flat allows you to see how it all goes together; I noted that the seat and backrest are made of a mesh like fabric to enhance breathability where it’s needed the most.

The wheels are notably plastic castor wheels which were freely spinning, both the wheel and spindle. They appeared sturdy enough for the chair but I do wonder about their longevity and how they fair on my laminate flooring.

Inspecting the part that will take nearly all the combined weight of the chair and the seat, which is the spider-like legs, I saw that they were made from plastic. Coming from an Ikea Markus Chair which for £100 less has a steel base that provides both better strength, material quality and feel as well as weighing the chair down so that it should be hard to tip over.

Putting it together was rather quick and easy. FlexiSpot provides some Allen keys and a small spanner to get the job done if you have absolutely no tools whatsoever, but with proper tools I had this chair up and assembled in about 15 to 20 minutes. One good thing I noticed was that the screws used to assemble the chair all had a blue coloured thread glue already applied to prevent the screws from backing out, a nice touch.

The one-part I found a bit fiddly to put together was the head rest, this was a bit difficult as the space for your fingers is very narrow

FlexiSpot BS12B-Pro: In use

The main seat of the chair is almost a 50 x 50cm square (51 cm wide by 49cm back to front) pad contoured at the corners and edges with a front curve for under thigh comfort. The seats minimum height is 46cm and at max is about 54cm. The seat can be moved forwards and back about 4cm of movement depending on how much or little under thigh support you want or need to have. Lastly the seat can be tilted from a flat 90 degrees to a backwards 135-degrees, there is no forward tilt which is a miss as some people do prefer seating slightly forwards.

Adjustments are all done by the use of three buttons or mini levers on the front right-side of the chair. Made of metal for the premium feel, they are a nice touch, rather than having to reach under the chair for a lever to make adjustments. Furthermore, I feel like they can be used blindly, no need for me to look at them. Nonetheless the symbols are quite self-explanatory from left to right, back and forth seat, tilt lock and seat height up and down. Tucked underneath is the tension adjustment but this is something seldom adjusted.

The seat itself is covered in a mesh like fabric to allow breathability and prevent a sweaty backside, it is stretched tight over the frame of the seat to give it that “bounce” but it does mean that the edges of the seat are sharp corners on the sides and back, the front however does a have a small foam insert for under thigh support. Long term use will see if this fabric can hold up to daily use.

I expected more of the lumbar support; the fabric of the chair is so tight that fully leaning back I don’t even touch the lumbar support most of the time. It is also limited to 3 different heights and 0 front to back options.

The armrests appear to be the standard shaped, plastic structure with firm foam tops, they can be adjusted using the lever under the arm rest from 16cm high (from top of seat to top of arm rest) to 23.5cm high. They can be rotated 1 click in and out from the straight and about 9cm of forwards and backwards movement, the rotation, forwards and backwards movement cannot be locked into place so bumping into the chair may move the arm rests.

The headrest is where I was a bit disappointed by this chair a bit when comparing it to an Ikea Markus chair. The Markus headrest height was comfortable for me (at 6’1”) so that my head rested on a cushioned part at the top of the chair. The BS12B-Pro doesn’t have this, instead it feels like the headrest, at its maximum height setting, is jamming into my neck or shoulders giving my actual head no support. Any lower setting and it's now jamming into my shoulder blades. I suppose this chair would work well if you were 5’8” or 5’10” tall.

FlexiSpot BS12B-Pro: Final verdict

In the end the headrest being so low forces me to sit in a slouched position (i.e. not ergonomic), or if I sit in a proper position, my head has nowhere to rest. Right now, sitting bolt upright in the chair gives my lower and upper back support, but the headrest is below my lower neck. The headrest has no other tilt or rotation adjustments that can be made.

As for the price, at the time of writing this review the FlexiSpot BS12B-Pro is shown available for £399.99 but seems to be suspiciously on sale permanently for £249.99 which leads me to believe that this is the actual cost of the chair, £249.99 is the actual cost. Also I noted that save for the box and manual, nowhere on the chair is any FlexiSpot branding.

For more workspace essentials, we tested the best standing desks for the home and office.

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Working away at a standing desk in the office was once thought to be an odd practice, but standing desks are now believed to offer some health benefits, helping us to be less sedentary at our desk and reduce strain on our backs when working.

With current work from home practices still going strong (despite employers asking staff to return back to the office), more and more people are looking to outfit their personal work space or home offices with the best standing desks.

This is where FlexiSpot has come through with a range of standing desks with different desktop finishes, capable of lifting 100kg for the budget friendly E1 to 180kg for the flagship E9 and accessories to boot.

Today we are reviewing their flagship FlexiSpot E9B-UK which comes with a 140cm x 80cm white laminate desktop.

The desk was delivered in two packages with the FlexiSpot branding displayed proudly and model numbers. The desktop box was a little battered by the courier which left me somewhat worried about it knowing that laminate tops can be chipped or cracked if mal-handled. Point two note that the Standing Desk Frame box was very heavy and ideally you need two people for this job though I managed by myself.

FlexiSpot E9B-UK: Assembly

Starting with the Standing Desk Frame box and opening that I was greeted by ample packaging with all items wrapped or in soft closed cell foam. Lifting foam out revealed the two standing desk legs which were the main culprit of the heft. All other bits and bobs were in the small boxes you see tucked in between. Removing the second layer of foam brought me to the Standing Desk Frame which is the part that holds the legs and desktop all together, it is inside that where we find the control box, the brains of the desk effectively. Along with some rubberised, height adjustable feet pads.

Taking everything out of packaging and boxes shows all the components of the desk, which gives you an idea of how it’s put together. FlexiSpot provides two little hex keys to assemble the desk, whilst these are a welcome for those with no tools, I on the other hand was armed with a combi drill and an assortment of bits.

Assembling the desk was quick and easy, starting with screwing the desktop supports to the frame then the legs followed by the feet all upside down before (and make sure you have the space) opening the desktop box. The legs are what make this desk, they are made of a solid steel construction with a column front to back thickness of 95.6mm.

On opening the desktop box, I was pleased to find that the desktop and fully intact with no damage to it. It appears that FlexiSpot knows how couriers sometimes treat boxes, especially one as heavy as this. I noted that FlexiSpot had placed hard plastic corner protectors. We have opted for the 140cm x 80cm desktop.

There are already pre drilled holes on the underside of the desktop which line up to the screw holes of the standing desk frame and control panel. It is simply a matter of placing the frame on the desktop, locating the holes, screwing it together before flipping the entire desk over so that the desk is the right way up.

FlexiSpot E9B-UK: Operation

Once completed, the desk will be at its lowest setting, too low for my liking. Checking the control panel, we have the usual “up” and “down” buttons. Next to them is the “M” button which has two uses, lightly pressing on it will allow you to set a memory setting, pressing and holding it will lock the desk height preventing accident height adjustment.

Between the cluster of buttons is the height display. The cluster of buttons to the right are memorised heights of “1” and “2” as well as a memorised “standing” and “sitting” heights. These are adjusted by setting the height first, say 114, pressing the “M” button then the “standing” button. Thereafter every time you press the “Standing” button, the desk will raise itself to 114.

Lastly, at the end of the control panel is a USB-A port for charging various items, I don’t have any equipment to test the wattage of the port, but trying to charge the Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga laptop didn’t work, which requires at least 65W. Plugging my Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in showed it as fast charging, this leads me to believe that it is capable of 25W. It would have been nicer to see a USB-C port as that’s becoming the standard with at least 100W output, a missed opportunity.

About the display, the numbers do actually mean height. At say 110, it means that the bottom of the desktop will be 110cm from the floor. The numbers tick up in centimetre with anything under 100 shown as 99.9cm, anything about 100 shown as whole centimetres. Minimum height is 68.5 and max height is 128cms.

Playing around with the desk on initial setup I was presented with an “E01” error, on reading the manual, it appears that this desk doesn’t like to be adjusted too often and it appears I “overworked” it. This despite the desk being empty. Switching off the desk at the mains and then switching it back on after a few minutes solved the issue, I haven’t seen the error since then for over two weeks of use.

FlexiSpot E9B-UK: In use

After assembly, I loaded the desk with a very light load of a laptop, monitor and a few other bits and bobs. The desk performed flawlessly, silently, swiftly and most importantly, smoothly too. And it should do too as this desk has brushless motors which have better longevity, speed and weight capacity when compared to their brushed brethren.

Confidence gained, I loaded the desk with my main set up, whilst I knew that the desk would have no issue in lifting my 25Kg+ desktop PC, I decided not to place it on the desk for the sake of cable management. It did however have to lift and lower the Innocn 49Q1S monitor which we reviewed a few months back, this weighs in at a not heavy but bulky 12Kg as well as a few accessories.

I set my sitting height at 74cm and standing height at 114cm, I found desk had no issue lifting the entire setup as shown with little to no wobble from the monitor. I have noted that the desk also has a collision detection system where if any part of the desk encounters resistance whilst going in either direction, the desk will stop and back off a few centimetres.

On to cable management. The cables for the desk such those that connect the legs and control panel to the central box in the frame are a little too long so had to be tucked away. Thankfully, FlexiSpot provides a little magnetic cover that hides those cables. For my desktop PCs cables I used a cable sleeve for the cables and then from there used lots of sticky cable tacks to hold them against the underside of the desktop neatly.

FlexiSpot E9B-UK: Price and availability

Lastly, the cost at time of writing the frame of the E9B-UK alone costs £499.99, our combination to white laminate desktop at 140 x 80cm brings this to £629.98. the most expensive combination coming in at £749.98 for a 180 x 80cm desktop made from Bamboo. And, that’s before we add any accessories such as a cable management tray, power plugs or drawers. If that’s too costly, then FlexiSpot also sells the E1 desk, with the same desktop colour finish and size it retails for £239.98 but with a lower load capacity and missing some features.

FlexiSpot E9B-UK: Final verdict

So, what’s the verdict of the FlexiSpot E9B-UK standing desk? Overall, a well-made, sturdy, smooth and hefty desk with a heavy load capacity. There's not much to dislike about this desk if you’re in the market for a standing desk then this should definitely be on your shortlist.

For more workplace essentials, we reviewed the best office chairs.