What We Would Buy
As usual, everything comes down to preference. The Devoko ergonomic is the best chair under $100 overall because of its good price, high-quality comfort levels, professional design and easy assembly. On the other hand, the Vitesse Gaming is a great affordable gaming chair with great value thanks to its full customization and sturdy upholstery despite the low price.
If your preference is strictly on racing style gaming chairs, then the Homall Ergonomic is cheap as it is effective while retaining a professional gamer look. If you prefer a more traditional office chair but with a gamer flare, the Furmax is a solid choice – an office type with a racer aura. Lastly, if you have a few more dollars to spend in order to reward yourself with a premium gaming chair, the GTRACING is a good option.
Buying Guide
Office or Racing Style?
There is a huge divide within the gaming community whether an office chair or a racer seat suits better for a gaming set-up. Generally speaking, it all comes down to looks: if you like simplicity but with the tenacity of a hardcore gamer, go with a subtle office style gaming chair. If you prefer a sporty look, the racing style is an obvious choice.
Office chairs (or at least the subtle ones) have limited customization but have a lot of leg space and provides the best comfortability and ergonomics – especially the ones with back mesh to keep air circulating around where you sit.
Meanwhile, a lot of gamers like the racing style chairs beyond its design that makes you fit the status quo; it offers the best in personalization and customization – and it generally turns your gaming set-up better no matter the brand you buy.
In the end, it all depends on what you want and what you need.
Best Gaming Chair Brands?
The most common high-profile gaming chair brands such as Secret Lab, Razer, HyperX, DXRacer and CLUTCH CHAIRZ deliver competent racing and office-style chairs. However, these cost a fortune – much like anything that screams out “GAMER”.
But if you are planning for low-cost yet effective brands, we highly recommend sticking to the chairs mentioned in the top 5 – especially Devoko and Furmax who are known for affordable yet very durable chairs.
About Ergonomics
Gaming chairs – especially racing style types – are always a double-edged sword: on one hand, a gaming chair makes you look like a true gamer and you can customize your seat to tailor your needs and preferences; while the other always bring up comfort issues, hardened seats, constricted leg space and back sweating.
Office chairs get a free pass since their only flaw is limited customization. But as for racing style, you will need to do some extreme research before you buy; some may cost as much as $399 but does not live up to what Pewdiepie said, others are selling at an expensive price for the sake of its high profile name while others cost less but offer more than the triple-A companies.
Size
Most of the time, gaming chairs are fully adjustable from the backrest to the armrest. It is mostly tilting and leaning action with some occasional flipping and bending. Other gaming chairs – especially the expensive ones – even have a flippable feet rest in case you want to treat the gaming chair as a fully-fledged recliner. Depending on your height, you may need to do strict research on the gaming chair that you like – maybe the backrest is too short, the armrests do not have cushions or the leg space is too narrow.
Materials
The most common gaming chair material is PU leather – Durable and comfortable enough while retaining a reasonable price; this leather is one of the major determining factors of the chair price. Cheap to mid-range chairs use PU leather and plastic but higher-end seats add some fabric and memory foam into the mix in order to showcase a more premium product that promises optimal comfort and great value.
Value
You are buying a gaming chair for several other reasons besides long gaming sessions: maybe you are a content creator on YouTube or any live streaming service, or maybe your PC is your source of income and recreation at the same time and you need a chair that will keep you on your seat for hours without feeling any body aches. To get the most value out of the chair you are planning to buy, it must address these issues.
Although, if your purpose is to stick to the status quo of rich gamers with NASA-tier PCs, then you will need to buy a gaming chair that costs more than the $100 range.
FAQs
Are Gaming Chairs Worth It?
That honestly depends whether you want to showcase how much of a gaming nut you are. Most people that buy gaming chairs are for the sole purpose of representing their gamer nature with the occasional displaying of their set-up either on social media posts or on live camera.
Quite frankly, gaming chairs are expensive – much like anything else labeled as GAMER. But if you insist on showing your belongingness to the gaming community then a gaming chair is truly worth it.
Gaming Chairs vs Office Chairs
You may think there is a huge difference between a gaming chair and an office chair. Most of the time that is true but take note that gaming chairs exist for the sole purpose of showcasing the video game culture. Most gaming chairs are built as racing seats because it claims to immerse you into games even more.
However, there are some unnecessary elements to a gaming chair – particularly the grooves and the bumps along the backrest and seat rest. The reason why a car seat has pads on the sides of the backrest and seat rest is so that you experience minimal shaking when you collide or when your car is turning. In the case of a gaming chair, these are just for show. Reality speaking, would you be shaking and sliding while playing? No – you would just lean forward and focus on the screen.
Office chairs are simple: they are chairs made for computer-related work and recreation. And since PC gaming is technically computer recreation, an office chair works fine as a general-purpose seat.
Can gaming chairs be used as office chairs?
You can use a gaming chair for work but it can only be good if you bought the right seat – even if it is not in the list of the best chair under $100. A lot of gaming chairs are culprits of body aches and back sweating but if you find a proper one where over more than 95% of the community likes it, then yes, a gaming chair can be used as an office chair. As long as it keeps you sitting comfortably for hours on end, it is good enough.