AK Racing eSports Gaming Chair – Unboxing & Assembly

A good quality chair is an essential accessory for many gamers and desk bound workers sitting in front of their screens for hours at a time. One of the most popular choices of chair is an eSports gaming chair. An eSports gaming chair combines comfort, quality, adjustability and sports car design looks to offer a chair that makes you feel like Ayrton Senna whilst gaming or home office working as well as the perfect complement to a modern office.

For the last couple of years there have been two front runners in the eSports gaming chair arena, DX Racer and GT Omega. DX Racer has made its name by sponsoring major eSports teams and eSports tournaments whereas GT Omega has primarily targeted YouTubers. Over the last 12+ months two newcomers have come to the party, Maxnomic (manufactured for NeedforSeat, a former DX Racer reseller) and AK Racing. Maxnomic has taken the DX Racer approach by sponsoring eSports teams and eSports events whereas AK Racing has taken a more stealth approach. All the eSports gaming chair manufacturers primarily sell direct except for AK Racing which has chosen to take the traditional route, selling through distributors and online gaming specialist websites across Europe. In the UK, the main reseller is www.overclockers.co.uk.

Video reviews of the GT Omega and DX Racer chairs abound but reviews of the AK Racing chairs are fairly rare so here at Buzzpods, we got hold of the AK Racing Player Gaming chair. We thought an unboxing, assembly and review of this chair would be useful for potential purchasers who like the look and price point of the AK Racing chairs but wanted to find out more.

A full video of the Unboxing and Assembly is available at the end of this article.

UNBOXING

The AK Racing Player Gaming eSports chair was delivered to us from Overclockers on a next day delivery service, always welcome when you buy a great new toy and can’t wait to get your hands on it.

The box is pretty big and weighs approx. 25Kg so consider getting someone to help you move it.

Inside the box, everything is well packaged and partially constructed, we were happy with this but those of you that like the Ikea/Airfix approach to assembly may be disappointed.

Essentially there are 4 main components in the box:
– The Seat
– The Back
– The Star Base
– The lifting mechanism
The other parts included are the wheels, some bolts, two allen keys, a few plastic trim parts, the gas strut, removable head rest, lumbar support and the assembly instructions. One surprising addition to the contents is a pair of pristine white gloves to ensure you keep your new eSports gaming chair clean and grease free during assembly.

 

First thing we did was inspect the quality of the Seat and the Back, paying particular attention to the faux leather and stitching.
We were impressed with the quality of the stitching in particular as this seat has quite a lot. Stitching on our Player Gaming chair is used for both the construction and for design effect, such as the red stitching on the seat base.
In all cases, the stitching was ruler straight with no broken stitches or fraying.

The AK Racing Player Gaming eSports chair has a metal construction with foam inserts to provide the comfort. The foam in the seat base is just right. It is not soft so that you sink through and not too hard to make it uncomfortable.
Beneath the seat are elasticated straps as you would find in a real car seat or your home furniture, to provide additional support for your behind.

The only gripe we had, if pushed, are the ugly brass clips connecting the faux leather at the bottom of the back. We can see they are an essential part of the construction but we would have preferred an alternative method to connect these, maybe a zip, or at least cover them by extending the faux leather slightly further to form a flap over the clips.

ASSEMBLY

The assembly instructions are clear with nice colour photos showing all the steps.
The assembly was straight forward with some of the bolts coming in a bag whilst others are already bolted to the chair and the Seat. The ones already bolted need to be unscrewed in order to attach the parts and then screwed back in again. No additional tools are required for the assembly, other than an extra pair of hands at some points. The only confusing part was when removing the bolts on the Back, where the washer and retaining ring should be positioned when reassembling. We opted to place the washer and retaining clip on the outside.

The chair is assembled in 4 main steps:
1. Attach the wheels and gas strut to the Star Base.
2. Attach the Back to the Seat along with the plastic trim to cover up the bolts
3. Attach the lifting mechanism to the assembled chair from step 2
4. Attach the Star Base from step 1 to the seat in step 3

… and you’re done.

 

CONCLUSION

The AK Racing Player Gaming chair is every bit as good as the chairs from its competitors. It is easy to assemble with clear instructions and good quality stitching and feel.
The AK Racing eSports gaming chair, coupled with the good level of customer support traditionally provided by Overclockers makes this a chair a good buy and one we would recommend.

If you are interested in an eGaming chair and would like to find out more about the AK Racing chaire, check out our full review including our impressions and quality of the AK Racing Player Gaming chair and a full comparison of the AK Racing, DX Racer, GT Omega and Need for Seat/Maxnomic chairs.

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The AK Racing range of gaming chairs are available to buy in the UK from Overclockers
Prices range from £180 to £240. The chair reviewed here is the AK Racing Player Gaming chair and retails at £229.99.