There can be no better proof that people select an office chair based mostly on looks than the proliferation of ‘gaming chairs’ in offices.
So what is a gaming chair and is it suitable for desk base office work?
Gaming chairs are generally designed and sold around an aesthetic, so they tend to have high bolstered sides, long backs that incorporate a head rest. Many even have slots for seatbelts, but of course don’t actually have seatbelts, such is the importance of ‘the look’ for these customers.
That doesn’t mean that some gaming chairs aren’t good, but even the very best ones rarely offer up the seating experience of a well designed office chair.
Many gamers will spend long hours in their chairs, so while there are some differences to the way they work and how the chair will be used, the long distance gamer should be looking for many of the features that are found in the best ergonomic chairs.
Very few gaming chairs have adjustable seat depth. Some offer different sizes of chair, but in office chairs, an adjustable seat depth is fairly standard, and so it should be. Gaming chairs often lack the level of support that the lumbar spine needs, and many gamers insert a small pillow behind their bottom which wouldn’t be necessary if the chair had the right amount of support in the first place. A good office chair will have some adjustable lumbar support, and a height adjustable back rest so that support can be put just where it’s needed, which will be a different place on a 6 foot tall adult than a 5’ tall youngster.
A good office chair will have surprisingly short armrests. If the armrest is too long, or mounted too far forward on the chair then the user will not be able to get close enough to the desk to work in a relaxed and supported position. Gamers generally won’t be as concerned about that, but even then some of the best office chairs now come with a 5D armrest that can be raised at the front to support a player holding a controller. I’ve not seen this on a gaming chair.
And the quality is often nowhere near good enough. A good office chair will typically have a maximum user weight of 150kg and at least a 5 year warranty. We’re not seeing much of that in a gaming chair. If my backside is going to spend hours in one place I want a natural breathable textile, like leather or wool. Too often gaming chairs are finished in garishly coloured polyesters which fall apart about the same time as the limited warranty expires.
So to our favourite chairs for gaming. We don’t like to call them gaming chairs as we don’t want you to assume they’re the same poorly built limited feature chairs that usually wear that tag. But the Ergohuman Elite, complete with neck rest and footrest we think makes as good a gaming chair as you can buy. With its cool mesh, it’s got ‘the look’, its mechanism reclines further than most office chairs and it has an adjustable headrest and foldable foot rest. And it has large soft topped 5D armrests.
And we also love the Rh Mereo 220 chair. Rh make some of the best ergonomic chairs in the world and the Mereo has been designed to allow you to move about more in the chair, hence it’s a little smaller in the back than most so your shoulders and upper back feel more free. It can also be had in a massive choice of fabrics and colours, which can be combined to allow the user to create a truly individual chair.