Cubii JR2 review: the under-desk elliptical people actually keep using

Is the Cubii JR2 worth it?

Yes, if what you want is to keep your legs moving through a workday. Most under-desk exercisers get used for a week. The Cubii JR2 is the one people describe still using a year later, and the reasons are mechanical: it’s nearly silent, it’s heavy enough to stay where you put it, and the pedals move in a flat ellipse instead of a circle, so your knees don’t come up and hit the desk. Those three things decide whether a seated pedal unit becomes a habit. It typically costs $199 to $299.

Don’t expect a workout. At an easy pace it’s about the effort of a slow walk, and the calorie number in the app is a guess. The point is hours of gentle movement on a day you’d otherwise sit still.

We haven’t bench-tested our Cubii yet, so this review is built from the specs and the design.

Living with it

Setup takes about two minutes: attach the pedals, set the resistance dial, push it under the desk. It measures 23 by 17.5 inches and stands 10 inches tall, and at 19 lb it’s heavy for its size on purpose. Creep is what ruins this category. A light pedal unit inches across a hardwood floor as you pedal, until you notice you’re stretching to reach it. On tile, a thin rubber mat is cheap insurance.

The pedal path is the other big difference. A round pedal stroke lifts your knee at the top, while the Cubii’s flatter elliptical path is designed to keep it low, so most people with a normal desk and chair have room. Measure anyway: most adults need about 26 inches from the floor to the underside of the desk. If you’re tall and your desk is low, you’ll know on the first stroke.

Noise should be a non-issue. A magnetic-resistance unit at a steady pace is usually quieter than the background sound of a room, and we’d expect nobody on a call to hear it. Some units rattle, though, so we’ll measure ours.

Your chair matters too. A chair on wheels rolls slowly backward as you pedal until you’re a foot from the desk. Lock the casters, wedge the chair or put it on carpet.

Using it

There are eight resistance levels on a dial. The low ones are a gentle spin you forget about. The high ones are a slow, deliberate push that makes typing harder. Most people settle in the low levels while working and turn it up while watching TV.

What the JR2 adds over the JR1 is Bluetooth and an app that counts strides, estimates distance and guesses calories. The stride count is handy if you like a number. You don’t need the app for anything.

Where it falls short

It doesn’t do what a walk does. If fitness is the goal, a walking pad under a standing desk does more per hour, and a full-size elliptical does more per minute.

Knee clearance and rolling chairs, as above. Both are fixable, and both will decide whether you keep using it.

The price. At $199 to $299 it can cost up to $100 more than the Yawza and ObiTrek, which list at $199, and more again than the no-name pedal units. We think that gap is the difference between a unit that gets used and one that ends up in a closet. Our tests of the cheaper units will show whether that holds.

Against the cheaper units

The Yawza, the ObiTrek and a dozen others sell the same idea for less. Check them on the three things the Cubii is designed around: whether the unit creeps on a hard floor, whether the pedal path lifts your knee into the desk, and whether you can hear it. If a cheaper unit passes all three, buy it. We’ll test them the same way and say which do. Our under-desk elliptical picks list the options.

What we’ll measure

With our retail unit under a standing desk set to sitting height, we’ll measure noise at 50 strides a minute from three feet, creep on hardwood over an eight-hour day against a floor mark, knee rise at the top of the stroke with a tape, and how each resistance level feels, then use it at a desk for a month. How we test explains the method. If you’re torn between this and a bike, see elliptical vs bike.