INTRODUCTION

   Thanks to high demand there's nothing stopping the gaming peripherals market from expanding to all directions and leaving out the usual keyboards, mice and headsets which help gamers all over the world to enjoy gaming it's because of the somewhat recent introduction/arrival of gaming chairs that they can now spend many hours in front of their screens without getting as tired. Of course good ergonomic chairs predate gaming models by at least over a decade but we all know how much gamers care about looks and nothing really beats a chair based on a bucket racing seat. Still when the first gaming chairs made their debut 2-3 years ago we all asked the obvious question which was what about a gaming desk? Well it did take a while for that to happen but our friends over at Arozzi did announce and release their very own solution called the Arena Gaming Desk which has taken its place in our lab for the past 2 months.

   Arozzi is a Swedish company founded in 2013. Arozzi gaming chairs are built in the spirit of Esports and feature ergonomic design with high levels of comfort. Our products have a refined aesthetic that draws inspiration from the world of motorsports. Each Arozzi chair can be finely adjusted to your needs to ensure you are in the best position to achieve your next victory, whatever the game!

   Since the Arena Gaming Desk by Arozzi is just that (a desk) don't expect anything out of the ordinary so we're basically talking about three large pieces of medium-density 20mm thick fiberboard (MDF) placed and secured on a steel frame that has two height adjustable legs. The metal parts are powder coated (they should last for many years) and a single cutout (which can either be used for cable management/routing or for monitor arms) is placed at the top front of each of the three MDF boards (a cloth net located just under them can be used to "hide" cables). The Arena Gaming Desk is currently available in 5 colors (red, black, green, white and blue) and gets shipped with a very large (by large we mean it covers the entire top surface of the desk), rather thick (5mm) and heavy (3.2Kg) mouse pad that features a water resistant and machine washable microfiber cloth surface. This mouse pad comes in two different designs so depending on which color you choose you can have it with an almost entirely black surface or with a large red Arozzi logo (check the outro/conclusion picture if you want to see exactly what we're talking about). So Arozzi has done well in the past since their gaming chairs are very good but what about their very first gaming desk?

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The Arena Gaming Desk arrived inside two large boxes the main box contains the metal frame, metal feet and mouse pad and weighs roughly 28Kg.

As you can see packaging is perfect with each metal piece placed inside cardboard, plastic bags and surrounded by pieces of foam.

The second box contains the three MDF boards and weighs roughly 20Kg (that's right, the entire package weighs over 47Kg).

All three MDF pieces are placed in plastic bags and inside several pieces of foam.

After you take everything out from both boxes you will have two tall legs, two metal feet, 3 MDF boards, 6 metal rails, mouse pad, cloth net, installation instructions and 6 plastic bags with screws and anything else you will need to assemble the Arena Gaming Desk.

ASSEMBLY - FINISHED LOOKS

Let's start the assembly by taking a look at the powder coated legs of the Arena Gaming Desk (quite sturdy and heavy).

A metal sticker with the Arozzi logo is placed on the exterior of both legs.

Before you mount the feet you will need to release the tubes inside the legs (via the two Allen screws placed on the sides) take them out and align them with the feet (otherwise you will get the above result).

Both feet attach to the legs via a total of 8 Allen screws (4 each).

Next are the 4 long rails which are held together with two shorter ones.

The shorter rails get attached to the longer ones with a total of 8 Allen screws (4 on each side). Just make sure you align them correctly.

Here we have both the front and rear rails ready to be mounted on the legs.

Each of the rails attaches to each of the legs with a total of 4 Allen screws (2 on each end as seen above).

Once the frame is complete you will need to either place it someplace where you can get underneath and attach the MDF boards or place the MDF boards on the ground and place the frame on them by inverting it (we did the first).

This is how the Arena Gaming Desk looks like with the 20mm thick MDF boards attached (also notice the cable management holes at the front of each board).

Once that's over with you will need to mount the 6 screws beneath each MDF board and the two legs on which you will hang the cloth net.

The cloth net is far from perfect since heavy cables may not be hidden easily, overall however it does help.

Last thing on the list is to place the 5mm thick mouse pad ontop of the three MDF boards (looks nice doesn't it?).

CONCLUSION

   The Arena Gaming Desk by Arozzi may be the most exciting gaming peripheral in the market today but still it’s a very interesting product not only because of its rather large size for a gaming desk (160cm long, 82cm wide and up to 81cm tall) and the huge and thick mouse pad but also because of its sturdy construction. Of course much like with anything else the only way to really know just how sturdy and durable it is will be to use it for many years and so for now we can just speculate based on what we see and what Arozzi says about it. Overall we’ve enjoyed using the Arena Gaming Desk for the past 2 months but we think it could be better. For example Arozzi could sell it with one, two or three monitor arms in the bundle (for a reduced price of course compared to getting them separately), with ambient lights which people aiming to use it with their PC/TV screens will probably find very useful (some will most likely also want RGB lights to come with it since after all this is the Golden era of RGB lighting) and why not with an even better cable management solution than the bottom net. The sky is really the limit here so since sales have also been good I’m positive Arozzi may already be planning to release a second gaming desk soon enough.

   So how much does Arozzi ask for their Arena Gaming Desk? Well currently you can find the Arena Gaming Desk for USD401.92 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 299Euros inside the EU (directly from Arozzi) a price tag which is quite balanced especially in the EU (obviously shipping fees up the price in the US). Overall the Arena offers at least most of the things one would expect from a Gaming Desk (feels somewhat basic in design but we’re certain Arozzi will improve on that if they make more), there’s still room for improvement of course but for a first try Arozzi has done quite well and their product is certainly worth our Golden Award.

PROS

- Overall Build Quality (20mm thick MDF Boards / Powder Coating)
- Size (160x82x81cm)
- 5mm Thick XXXXL Mouse Pad
- Cable Management / Monitor Arm Holes
- Cable Management Net
- Adjustable Height
- Available Colors (Black/Red/Green/Blue/White)
- Price (EU)

CONS

- Price (USA)
- Tiny Allignment Issues
- Design (Too Basic?)