TL;DR

Looking for a mobile stand for your new Surface Hub 2 on a budget and don’t want to spend the absurd ~$1,400 for the Steelcase Roam Stand? The VIVO Mobile Premium TV cart is an incredible value. While it doesn’t have a tremendous amount of features, I don’t believe its price point can be beat.

The Path to the VIVO Mobile Cart

As part of my organization’s pilot placement of Surface Hub 2’s into director and executive spaces, we wanted to find a stand that met the following criteria:

• Less than ~$1,400
• Supported the Surface Hub 2’s 300x300mm VESA mount configuration (obviously)
• Mobile
• Support a 0* tilt orientation (we planned on having these used in front of a small office table at times and the default, titled orientation that the Steelcase Roam stand positioned the Hub in was no conducive to this use case).
• Built in tray to support a wireless mouse and keyboard (this was a nice-to-have)

For some reason, it took a while for me to actually stumble upon this stand. Maybe my Googling skills were lacking, but I eventually stumbled upon this item on Amazon and didn’t blink when I saw the price.

First Impressions

The packaging of the product didn’t give me the warm and fuzzies when it arrived. It looked as it had been thrown around, was a bit torn up, and I could hear the metal parts banging up against one another. My co-worker (who also had one shipped to his location) didn’t report the same experience, so it was just my first impressions that were tainted.

Once we took the parts out of the packaging and began assembling the unit, we were began feeling reassured that this could work for us.

The Good

The stand does its job. We were looking for a stand that was sturdy enough to support the Surface Hub 2, enable it to be mobile, and have a fixed, vertical orientation. This checked the box for us at an incredible price point. For those companies pinching pennies (especially after shelling out the money for a (or multiple) Surface Hub 2 devices), this was an incredible value. The wheel locks are solid enough to keep the Hub in place, and the overall weight distribution is fairly balanced (due to a wide leg base) when you do need to move the Hub.

The stand does enable you to chose a 7 degree or 0 degree (vertical) orientation when initially configuring, and the supplied tray provides enough space for a wireless mouse and keyboard or even a smaller camera (if you forego the standard USB-C camera that comes with the Surface Hub 2). Additionally, the primary steel tubes supporting the stand also serve as a cable management solution to ensure wires don’t get too messy.

NOTE: The instructions advise you to mount the tray facing towards the back of the stand. After setting it up, we decided to have it facing the front so that the wireless mouse and keyboard we paired with the Hub were more accessible. It does fit in the forward-facing position.

The Not-So-Good

This incredible price-point comes at the expense of several items or features. To list a few:

• The steel is not the best quality
• While sturdy enough, I don’t have the same confidence when moving the Surface Hub 2 as I do when paired with the Steelcase stand
• The supplied tray is small and there is no placement for the optional Surface Hub 2 battery pack
• The orientation of the display is not adjustable
• The wheels feel “cheap”

Overall Impressions

Overall, this is an incredible value. We’ve ordered a few to support our limited pilot deployment of the Surface Hub 2. These have been working well for us and I have faith that they will serve their purpose.

If we were planning on making extensive use of the Surface Hub’s portability, this likely wouldn’t be a good choice.

Firstly, there isn’t any built-in storage location for the optional battery pack, so you’d undoubtedly have to jerry-rig the placement of the battery pack. Additionally - and more importantly - while the stand is sturdy enough, we haven’t stress tested the stand with tons of movement.

As noted previously, the Steelcase Roam stand just feels more solid and gives me confidence that quick movements, pulls and pushes at various points of the stand won’t risk falling. It feels though as if the VIVO stand on the other hand requires a bit of extra caution and prudence when moving.

Please feel free to reach out via email or Twitter if you have any questions.