Hexcal Single Monitor Arm and Desk Mat Bundle review – Attractive, Functional, and Comfortable

By Kathleen Chapman @TheGadgeteer

-

REVIEW – When you work at a desk for many hours a day, you want to be as comfortable as possible. The Hexcal Single Monitor Arm and Desk Mat Bundle are tools that help you in that regard. How well do they work? Let’s find out.

What is it?

The Hexcal Single Monitor Arm is a vertical support bar with articulating joints that supports monitors up to 24.2 lbs. (11kg), which equates to approximately a 35″ monitor.

The Hexcal Desk Mat Bundle is a desktop pad for your keyboard and mouse. The wrist rest has memory foam and magnetically adheres to the desk mat.

NOTE: The monitor arm and desk mat bundle are sold separately.

What’s included?

Single Monitor Arm includes:

• Single Monitor Arm
• Quick-release VESA mount plate
• Desk clamp/grommet pieces
• Screws, washers, and Allen wrench tools
• User Guide

Desk Mat Bundle includes:

• Desk mat
• Wrist rest

Design and features

Assembly, Installation, Setup

The Hexcal Single Monitor Arm is made of aluminum, steel, and plastic. It feels robust and well-made and comes with clamp and grommet pieces that allow you to attach it to your desk. It also comes with a quick-release VESA mount plate, which is made of plastic, that screws into the back of your monitor (first photo above).

You can use the clamp or grommet mount to attach the monitor arm to a desk. We used the clamp because it was easier. Assembling the clamp pieces was straightforward as was attaching the clamp to the back edge of our desk (second, third, and fourth photo above). The clamp can accommodate desk thicknesses of 10-80mm (0.4″ – 3.2″) and needs about three inches of clearance to slide the clamp over the desk and 1/2″ of clearance after installation.

Using the grommet mount requires you to drill a hole through the desk (unless your desk already has one). The grommet mount can accommodate a thickness range of 10-35 mm (0.4″ – 1.4″). This mount is useful if the desk is right up against a wall with no space for a clamp or if the desk can’t be moved away from the wall.

Once the clamp is installed, the monitor arm then slides onto the top portion of the clamp (shown in the first photo above). The vertical section of the monitor arm has a removable plastic cover that allows access to screws that you tighten to secure the arm to the clamp (shown in the second photo above).

Next, you slide the monitor onto the end of the arm (as shown in the third and fourth photo above) until the VESA plate locking tab clicks in place. Since the VESA plate is plastic, the locking tab might be a weak point that could break in the future.

The arm also contains cable guides in each of the three sections. Beneath the plastic cover on the vertical section of the arm, there are cable guides to route the video and power cables internal to that section. On the middle section of the arm, there is a plastic guide on the underside that can be easily removed if necessary to facilitate routing the monitor cables. The last horizontal section of the arm has a guide on the underside that isn’t removable, but you can easily push the cables into it.

The final step to complete the monitor arm setup involves tensioning the internal springs properly. To test this, we tried to see if the arm could hold the monitor horizontally. If the arm sags and doesn’t stay horizontal, you need to increase the tension. The horizontal arm tension is adjusted at the back of the joint with the vertical arm. Remove the plastic cover to adjust the nut with the provided Allen wrench. Tightening this will allow the arm to support a larger monitor, but will also make it a little more difficult to move. We opted for tighter adjustment since the monitor will not likely be adjusted up and down very frequently.

The second tension adjustment point is at the joint right at the VESA mount and should be tightened to ensure it can maintain the screen in the vertical position, or at the desired angle. Again, we tightened this up quite a bit to keep the monitor in place at the expense of making adjustments easier.

The Desk Mat Bundle comes in two pieces: the desk mat and the wrist rest.

The desk mat measures 800 x 400 x 3.5 mm (31.5” x 15.7” x 0.14” ), is covered in vegan leather, and stitched along the edges. The mat contains internal metal pieces on both the front and back edges for the magnetic wrist rest to adhere to and has non-slip silicone dots on the underside to keep the mat from slipping. The mat is also semi-rigid.

The memory foam wrist rest measures 780 x 80 x 28 mm (30.7” x 3.1” x 1.1” ), is covered in vegan leather, and is stitched along the edges. It has three internal magnets to adhere to the desk mat’s internal metal pieces located along the long edges of the mat.

Performance

The single monitor arm has several articulation points allowing you to raise the monitor up or down for a better view, swing the monitor out or in (as shown in the first two photos above), tilt the monitor up or down, or orient the monitor in a portrait position if needed (as shown in the last photo above).

As described above, we tightened the two adjustment screws to make the mount a little more rigid. Our Single Monitor Arm currently supports a DELL 21″ monitor, so even more tensioning would likely be required if supporting a larger monitor. We preferred the stiffer tensioning adjustments to help the monitor stay put. But there is some play in the joints so sometimes it takes additional position adjustments when raising or lowering the monitor to get it in the right spot. However, once the elevation is set, the rotating adjustments work quite well and don’t require too much force.

The weak link is the plastic VESA plate attached to the back of the monitor. You can see it flex when changing the monitor’s viewing angle. Since you grab the monitor to adjust the positioning, the VESA attachment will always be exposed to loads (stresses) when moving the monitor around. Thus, frequent adjustments (especially of the monitor tilt angle) may eventually crack the plate – only time will tell.

It is also important to know that the tilt and swivel ranges are limited (tilt range: +60° ~ -60°, swivel range: +90° ~ -90°).

Altogether, the setup is attractive. The Single Monitor Arm helps free up space on the desk and allows for easy repositioning of the monitor, and the Desk Mat Bundle helps to make using a mouse and keyboard more comfortable.

My concerns about the desk mat bundle are that vegan leather often wears out, so time will tell if the mat and wrist rest last.

What I like about the Hexcal Single Monitor Arm and Desk Mat Bundle

• The arm is strong and made up of mostly aluminum and steel
• The arm frees up space on our desk
• The arm has several articulation points to adjust the monitor
• The desk mat is rigid and comes flat in a box
• The wrist rest adheres to the mat magnetically and has memory foam for comfort

What needs to be improved?

• The single monitor arm and desk mat bundle are expensive
• The plastic VESA monitor attachment piece and locking tab need to be much more robust or made from aluminum
• A greater degree of tilting and swiveling would be beneficial

Final thoughts

The Hexcal Single Monitor Arm and Desk Mat Bundle are nice tools that make working at your desk more comfortable.

The monitor arm is robust and well-made, frees up space on our desk, and has several articulation points that allow adjustment of the monitor to the most comfortable position. It’s easy to move the monitor around, but a bit more challenging to get the elevation and display angles set exactly (because of the need to tighten the monitor arm’s tensioning screws). The plastic quick-release VESA plate is a weak link that flexes during certain adjustments. Additionally, the VESA mount is a little loose when clipped to the monitor arm thus allowing the monitor to wiggle a little and the tilt and swivel ranges are limited (tilt range: +60° ~ -60°, swivel range: +90° ~ -90°).

The desk mat is nice because it’s semi-rigid and was delivered in a flat box so there are no creases or rolled corners. It also has a non-slip surface underneath to keep it from moving around. The wrist rest adheres magnetically to the desk mat and is made of memory foam making it very comfortable.

The Single Monitor Arm and Desk Mat Bundle are expensive but well-made and will elevate the look of your desk setup.