Maximizing Flexibility – HEXCAL Single Monitor Arm Review

Written by Dasun H. , WorkSpaceHero

Monitor arms are an essential desk accessory for anyone who cares about desk space. You throw out a bulky factory monitor mount and reclaim a ton of space while making your monitor much more flexible.

Today we’re going to be reviewing one of the more premium monitor mounts out there from HEXCAL, the HEXCAL Single Monitor Arm.

One Minute Review

The HEXCAL Monitor Arm clamps to your desk edge (or via a grommet mount) and can hold onto VESA-compatible monitors. You can learn more about VESA compatibility here. The HEXCAL arm supports both 75x75mm and 100x100mm VESA mounts.

Like many monitor arms, this supports your monitor via an internal spring. This spring supports the weight of your monitor and allows it to be lifted and positioned around more easily.

This monitor arm can hold monitors up to 35″ (curved monitors included) and up to 24.2 lbs. I was excited to test these limits as I am currently using a 34″ curved ultrawide monitor. (Spoiler: It handles my 19 lb ultrawide monitor very well.)

Unboxing the HEXCAL mount, I first noticed that the main components were all made from steel and aluminum. Everything felt very high quality. Only a few accent pieces and the VESA plate were made from plastic.

The most challenging part of the installation was that the internal spring came completely unloaded. This means once I attached my monitor, there was no lifting support from the spring. Tightening the spring tension took a ton of revolutions to support my 19 lb monitor, which was the only pain point.

This monitor arm has a generous capacity for cable management routing. I chose not to use these management channels because the exit direction of the cables was still visible when my monitor arm was close to the wall.

The stability and smoothness of using and manipulating the monitor arm were fantastic, even with my heavier monitor. Usually, I worry about the strength of the tilting mechanism when using heavy curved monitors, but this monitor arm handles it like a champ.

The link system on this monitor arm has some serious length and flexibility. Here are some images from HEXCAL on how flexible this arm can be. Overall, this monitor arm will be confidently holding my ultrawide monitor for a while.

Pros & Cons of the HEXCAL Monitor Arm

HEXCAL Monitor Arm Pros

• Metal core design, high-quality materials
• High screen size and weight capacity
• Long arm extension and very large positional flexibility
• Quick-release VESA plate for monitor
• High-capacity cable management pathways
• Compatible with desks up to 3.2 inches thick!
• Optional rotation limiting feature

HEXCAL Monitor Arm Cons

-Gas spring setup is cumbersome, but is a one-time issue.
-Cable management exit position is not ideal

Unboxing & Setup

The HEXCAL monitor arm was packaged very safely and all parts came in great shape. Right when you open the box, you have your monitor arm setup instructions.

The first step with any monitor arm install is to disconnect your current monitor stand and clear up the clamping location for the new mount.

My monitor comes in at 17 pounds, but I keep the BenQ ScreenBar Halo on top, along with some Govee Light Bars mounted to the back. This adds 2 pounds which means my total weight on the monitor arm is around 19 lbs.

Here’s what the back of my monitor looks like with my accessories attached.

Installation Process

Clamping Base Installation

The first few steps of the installation involve setting up the clamping base. HEXCAL has a very clever design here which allows them to have such a large desk clamping range.

The bottom bracket of the clamp can be reversed to increase the clamping capacity from 45mm to 80mm! Thick desk users will love this compatibility.

After installing the clamp, you are left with a steel pin that is ready to accept the rest of the monitor arm. Sliding the monitor arm is very straightforward.

Another neat and convenient feature added by HEXCAL is an optional rotation limiter. Notice how the large pin in the image above has a notch? This acts as an optional rotation stop so your monitor arm doesn’t crash into the wall behind your desk.

A rotation limit like this can be extremely helpful if you don’t want to damage your wall, window, or whatever is behind your desk. Not all monitor arms have this capability.

VESA Plate Installation

The next step is to install the VESA plate onto your monitor. This is going to make installing our monitor onto the arm much easier.

HEXCAL provides us with a VESA mount that can support 75x75mm or 100x100mm VESA hole patterns. You can see in the image below that I use the 100x100mm pattern.

Another thing you can tell is that the VESA plate is not too large and fits inside my Dell monitor’s inset mounting area. Some VESA plates are too large and run into issues here. Fortunately, that’s not the case as HEXCAL made this plate nice and compact

After you mount this plate onto your monitor, you can now lift your monitor and slide this plate onto the monitor arm’s connection. Easy peasy.

The locking tab on the VESA plate will automatically engage and lock with the monitor arm so there is no way it can accidentally come loose. To remove the monitor, hold down the top tab and lift the monitor up and away.

Spring Tension Adjustment

The entire installation process up until this point was smooth sailing. However, once I had my large ultrawide monitor latched onto the arm, I noticed it was completely unsupported by the internal spring and it sat at the lowest position.

According to the instructions, you are supposed to adjust the spring with the monitor on the mount and you must keep the spring arm horizontal.

I had to essentially hold up the monitor while adjusting the spring tension screw. Then I found there were two more issues when adjusting the spring tension screw.

First, it takes a ton of revolutions for the spring tension to support a 19-pound monitor. And second, when using the included hex key, the long arm would collide with the wall behind my desk.

This means I could only get a half rotation or so every time unless I moved my heavy desk far from the wall. These issues made adjusting the spring tension very difficult and cumbersome.

I had to use my own hex keys while holding up my 19lb monitor and rotate the tension screw seemingly hundreds of times. It would have been much simpler to adjust the spring tension to an approximate level before installing the monitor arm onto the base.

This was the only hiccup in the installation process. After dialing in the spring, the mount install process was complete.

Usability & Functionality

The base of the HEXCAL monitor mount is much smaller than my previous monitor arm base. This means I get some more desk space back and have an even more minimal-looking desk setup. This is a huge plus for me.

The theme of this monitor arm is very sleek and slender. There is no excess material anywhere, and all core components seem to be made from metal. There is plenty of confidence in the mount once you complete the installation process.

I also noticed that the monitor arm is very long. You can extend your monitor very far compared to other mounts. My monitor cables limit me on using the full distance because I have a few short runs of cables.

Other folks with no cable length limitations can take full advantage of the positional flexibility of this monitor arm.

This arm can give you all the positional range you need to dial in those monitor placement ergonomics. It goes much lower than I need and much taller than I need, it’s very flexible.

Cable Management

The natural next step is to get your monitor cable managed. The HEXCAL monitor arm comes with decent cable management capabilities.

More budget-friendly monitors do not give you enough space to route cables. I usually am only able to fit one or two cables. I found that this HEXCAL monitor arm had a much higher capacity which was a nice feature to see.

I have a bunch of cables coming from my monitor so I always have trouble with monitor arm cable management. Here’s the full list of cables coming out of my monitor.

• Monitor power cable
• HDMI Cable
• DisplayPort Cable
• AUX cable
• Light bar power cable
• USB downstream cable
• Stream Deck USB cable

I conceal all my cables in a split cable sleeving to make them look nice if they are ever exposed. Look at how well this cable bunch fits in the vertical column of the monitor arm. Nearly perfect!

There is one drawback of the cable management of the vertical column. If you want the cables to exit directly backward to the wall, the horizontal spring arm has to be pointing forward.

This means your monitor has to be much closer to your face. If I want the spring arm parallel to my wall, the cables exit out the side, which makes the cables very visible.

For this reason, I chose not to use the integrated cable management system. I instead used two small velcro straps to hide my cable bunch behind the vertical column.

You can see the result is a completely cable-free appearance! Below is the image of the full desk setup with the HEXCAL monitor arm installed. The monitor arm base is super sleek and minimal and not a single monitor cable in sight.

Monitor Arm Adjustability

Overall, the adjustability of this monitor arm is very straightforward with no complaints from me. Each of the pivot points operates very smoothly and can easily handle the weight of my 19-pound Dell monitor with accessories.

The entire assembly with my monitor mounted feels very stable, and there is no visible sagging of the arm under the weight of my monitor.

Because this monitor arm is rated for curved monitors up to 35″, I was eager to test the tilt pivot point specifically.

Curved monitors are harder to mount because their center of mass is further out than flat monitors. That means the tilt hinge has to be a lot more robust. My old monitor arm’s tilt hinge had to be tightened down extremely and uncomfortably tight.

The HEXCAL mount did not disappoint once I mounted my Dell 34″ ultrawide monitor. I simply snug down the tilt hinge bolt until the monitor no longer tilted downwards by itself.

If you’re an ultrawide curved monitor user, this is one of those monitor arms that you can actually trust to not sag.

Pricing & Value

This monitor arm comes in at a base price of $150 on the HEXCAL website. This puts it very close to the other higher-end monitor arms like those from Ergotron.

However, if you want to save a bit of cash and still want a premium monitor arm, this HEXCAL monitor mount can be a good option. It has a solid build quality and can handle a large range of monitors. The positional flexibility of this mount beats many others on the market while looking very minimal when installed.

While the installation and cable management systems have some room for improvement, this monitor arm will be living on my desk for the foreseeable future.