One of the things on my to do list with my working at home setup was to get some new monitor arms. I am pretty tall and also have had some back issues in the past, so was keen to have my monitors up at the right height to encourage good posture.

After doing a fair bit of research I settled on a Brateck Single Monitor Full Extension Gas Spring Single Monitor Arm(17" - 32" Up to 8Kg). But I was still a bit unsure if it would completely meet my requirements. How far could it stretch and how high and flexible would it be? So I decided rather than ordering 3 (one for each monitor), I'd play it safe and just start with one, and then if it turned out ok I'd go ahead and order the other two.

I ordered from CPL and it arrived a couple of days later. You can also find them on Amazon (sponsored link).

Box just opened

Nice when they include all the tools you will need to assemble it.

Parts

What impressed me was they included screws to cater for all needs. Obviously you don't want to use a screw that's too long. LCD displays don't take kindly to a metal screw piercing through them!

Screw options

My monitor VESA mounts already had screws in them, so I was able to take those out and compare them against the Brateck ones (slightly longer as they'd need to go through the bracket and washer). In my case, the screws from the "M-A" packet were suitable for my Dell monitors.

Dell VESA mount

And here's the monitor up on the arm. I needed to adjust the tension in the screw that sits on top of the flexible joint so that the monitor stayed up in the air (instead of slowly sinking to the table)

Monitor mounted on arm

With that I was able to confirm that it did have enough height and flexibility to suit my purposes, and I've now got two more on order (which should arrive after the long weekend).

It will be great to reclaim some desk space and move the stack of books that have been temporarily supporting the monitors back on the bookshelf where they belong 😊