Blacklyte Atlas review

pcgamer.com:

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as the saying goes, and in Blacklyte's case, it's flattering the heck out of Secretlab. The Blacklyte Atlas gaming desk—from the product's webpage to the actual desk itself—appears to me as being very heavily influenced by the Secretlab Magnus Pro desk.

The Atlas isn't a direct 1:1 copy but it's pretty close, and for some people that actually might be a good thing. After all, getting a Secretlab desk for a not-Secretlab price would be awesome. Except that's not the case here, as Blacklyte is asking $999/£899 for its gaming desk, more than the base version of the Magnus Pro. Even if you add optional extras to the latter, such as more cable management, a PC mount, and a headphones hanger, it's still cheaper.

Now, if the Atlas was noticeably better than the Magnus Pro, that would be understandable. But it's not. Don't get me wrong: the Blacklyte Atlas is a pretty goodgaming desk but the China-based company has missed the mark with how it's set the price.

So what exactly are you getting for your thousand dollars bar a buck? It's a motorised, height-adjustable fully steel desk, replete with RGB lights, a big cable management tray, and a full-desk mouse pad.

Dimensions: 150 x 70 x 72~138 cm (59 x 27.6 x 28~54 inches)
Load capacity: 120 kg (264.6 lbs)
Total weight: 28.5 kg (62.7 lbs)
Materials: Steel, ABS Plastic, MDF
Controller: Height display, 2x memory slots
Lighting: Front+side+corner RGB, switchable modes
Collision detection: Yes
Price: $999 | £899 | €999

I have to say that my first impression was of great concern because the two boxes (one containing the desk surface and tray, the other for the legs) looked as if they'd made their way through four war zones, a hurricane, and an industrial car wash for good measure to reach my office. Fortunately, the contents were in good fettle, so I set about putting it all together.

The instruction manual suggests using two people and having lots of empty space to build the Atlas, but I