Gaming Chair Vs Ergonomic Office Style Task Chair

I am a pretty good candidate for a person who spends too much time in chairs. I do all of my work at my desk in my chair, and then I spend the vast majority of my downtime at my desk in my chair. Having a good chair is massively important to me for my health and comfort as I sit at my desk. Previously to this I have been sitting in a human sizeFreedom Chair. This is a $1,000.00 – $1,200.00 ergonomic task chair that was gifted to me by some friends. This is going to be really difficult to measure up against, and previous to this chair I also had a one of those IKEA Marcus chairs. It’s time to break down what I liked about it, what I didn’t, how it stacks up against my current chair, and what my recommendations are for a gaming chair for people of different budget points.

So let’s start by rewinding to the day that I unboxed and assembled the Homall racing chair so that you know what to expect. This is a big box. Start to finish it took me about 40 minutes to get it all put together with what I am hoping was about an average amount of confusion. One thing that got me a bit is that if you look at the assembly instructions instead of reading left or right or right to left they alternated in a zig zag. They had lots of arrows, so I eventually figured it out. But as a Western reader that was strange. A few things that I liked about the assembly process was that it was more or less doable alone. They included these nifty gloves, which actually helped a lot when it came to hex key turning time, and some parts were actually already installed out of the box. If you are better at reading than me, and know what you’re doing, you can probably have this thing together in 20 minutes or less. Although useable, the hex key left a lot to be desired. There are manufacturers of excellent hex key sets such as Stanley, Klein, Irwin, Tekton, and Tech Team https://techteamproducts.com/. We liked the Tech Team set  https://www.amazon.com/Tech-Allen-Metric-Folding-Pieces/dp/B07CV12XQT/ref=sr_1_248?ie=UTF8&qid=1539525950&sr=8-248&keywords=tech+team best because of it’s high quality, ergonomic grips, and it included metric, inch SAE, and torx keys.

Like most racing style gaming chairs the Homall comes with a lumbar support pillow for your lumbar, and a head pillow, both of which you can reposition. The first time that I sat in this chair I immediately hated it until I figured out the right spot to have the lumbar pillow for my back. The head pillow can also be repositioned. If you could get it right behind your neck when you’re kicked back watching something, it’s probably great, but I found it was kind of forcing my head forward, and my neck is bad enough without help. By comparison the task chair doesn’t have any included pillows, but every piece of it is adjustable. I find that my back feels better supported by the task chair, but the racing chair still does a commendable job that’s much better than what I got from the IKEA Marcus. If you are currently sitting on a kitchen chair or a beanbag chair or like a ball or a sturdy dog, a proper gaming chair like the  this is going to be a great upgrade.

I am a little bit tall and I was worried that the racing chair might be too small for me, but this flash model is perfect. It’s got a really deep seat that supports my legs almost all the way to my knees, which very few chairs managed to do. The whole chair is high density memory foam, and that’s really best felt here in the seat, which is my favorite part. It is both satisfying and sturdy enough to kind of plop into, which is my preferred way of sitting down. It’s supportive, and I have not once had any kind of numbness in any part of my leg or butt. The armrests on this chair are not padded but they’re not quite plastic either. They’re polyurethane, which will not scrape your elbows. I’m not much of an armrest person myself so I just slide them all the way down so that I can slide right under my desk, and then rest my arms there. For adjustments there is a typical height adjustment up and down with the lever underneath. You can recline back as much as you like with the lever on the side. The armrest can adjust in a variety of directions to fit any kind of arm, leg, cat, or tentacle that you might want to drape over them. And we have both tilt lock and tilt tension control if you’re right tilting kind of person. Because of how deep the seat is I found that reclining was typically better than just straight tilting back, because when you tilt back, if you have legs any shorter than mine, which many people do you’re going to find your feet lifting off and just kind of being in space as you tilt, so reclining was a little better.

That’s the new chair, but how well does it stack up against a proper high end chair. The short answer is about as well as you can expect given the price point. This is a $1,000.00 chair and that is a $400.00 chair and it’s also very much worth noting that on Devoko’s website they carry a variety of chairs like this with very few noted differences in the descriptions for a variety of prices that actually start at $259.00. Price wise this is a much more affordable option, and I think performance wise it stocks up fairly well considering the huge price difference. The one thing that’s going to prevent me from swapping over to this as my full time forever chair is that while it’s really comfy, my back just misses the human size freedom chair. It was calling out to me the whole week. This one isn’t bad for your back. The lumbar pillow especially, once you figure out the right spot for it, definitely supports your back very well. Much better than most  of the chairs people are using, but it can’t quite compare with a proper high end ergonomic task chair.

The rest of it however is very, very close. It’s very comfy to sit into and to plop into and the memory foam on the chair seat doesn’t move or migrate in the same way that the memory foam from the other chair does. I would say that both chairs have more than enough options to adjust your body to make you comfortable.  The Devoko gaming chair actually has more options when it comes to choosing your color and choosing your size, so if you need an extra small or an extra tall kind of chair, something like this is going to have more options to accommodate you. I will still say that for long term, eight plus hours a day, every day sitting, you can’t beat something like this. It doesn’t have to be the human size Freedom Chair. I’ve heard that the Herman Miller air on chair is also very good. Those go for about $800.00. Obviously it’s a lot of money, but if you can afford it safely, I would say it’s a worthwhile investment. If you can’t swing the $800 to $1000 for a chair like that, nobody is going to judge you. Something like this is more than a perfectly good option. It is very sturdy is a very high quality, and if you’re a gamer that still sitting on a kitchen chair or a second hand cheap office chair, like many people are, something like this is going to be a huge quality of life upgrade for you. Honestly I think that if you are in the market for a chair, and this is your budget range, you can’t go wrong with one of these. If you already have a gaming chair, I do not think that switching to one of these is going to change your life. And then if you can’t afford it, I do think that you are better off going with a more expensive ergonomic chair such as a Herman Miller.

One practical upgrade is a set of roller blade chair casters. This type of chair wheel has rotational and rolling ball bearings for a really smooth ride and large polyurethane wheels.  They are made by several companies such as Zitrium, Slip Stick, Office Owl, and Tech Team https://techteamproducts.com/. We like the Tech Team office chair caster set https://www.amazon.com/Caster-Replace-Broken-Office-Casters/dp/B07GT9ZHB3/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1539526561&sr=8-1&keywords=tech+team+chair+casters the best because of it’s sleek appearance, ease of installation, and great function.