I Wrote This While Trotting On a Dozen Different Walking Pads

Most Versatile

If you’re not keen on buying a standing desk, check out the Lifesmart 3-in-1 Treadmill. You can wheel the lightweight machine into any room, place the desk attachment across the handrail, and get to working and walking. The desk’s height won’t accommodate everyone—it was lower than I’d like, and I’m 5’4”. But for quick, basic work like answering emails or sitting in on a meeting, it got the job done just fine.

The 3-in-1 Treadmill gets its name from its ability to serve as a walking pad (with the rail down, the speed tops out at 3.7 mph), a treadmill (with the rail up, you can run up to 7.5 mph), and a workstation (with the rail up and desk attachment on).

It’s easy to set up, and transitioning between the walking pad, treadmill, and work modes is quick and simple (you just need to use a small tool to adjust the rail, which is magnetized so it can live on the rail and never get lost in a junk drawer). You can adjust the speed with buttons on the rails or with a Bluetooth remote, and a screen on the front of the machine cycles through your workout metrics. The sleek, modern design means you won’t be embarrassed to have it out in your living space. The only drawback is that it doesn’t have any incline options.

Quietest Pad

This walking pad had the most intuitive setup of any on this list (likely thanks to its lack of a companion app, which oftentimes isn’t really necessary). I was able to set it up in minutes, and the remote connected right away, no Bluetooth pairing required. Like many walking pads, this one has a screen at the front that shows you your workout metrics. If you pause the machine to step off, you can pick right back up where you started, building on those metrics until you turn the machine off. One downside: It doesn’t track steps.

The Auto Incline Walking Treadmill offers a great incline range, going up to a level nine, or 12-percent incline. It’s one of the highest incline capabilities I’ve found in my testing. You can walk up to 4 mph on this machine, and you can connect your phone to play music through the speakers. The remote allows you to take on 30-minute, preprogrammed walking workouts, too, where the machine auto-adjusts the speed throughout (though not the incline). Otherwise, you can use it in manual mode and adjust the settings to your liking.