AK Racing eSports Gaming Chair – Review
Well, I hope you’ve all seen the unboxing and assembly for the AKRacing Player Gaming Chair but now, as promised, it’s time for the review. A video review is at the bottom of the page but a full written review is also provided below.
I have now been using this chair for approximately two weeks, for about 6-7 hours a day so feel I now have a good perspective on the chair.
Firstly, from the minute you sit in the chair you experience comfort like I have never experienced before, compared to a cheap, standard office chair. The padding on the chair is thick, with a medium to high density, making it suitable for prolonged use. The arm rests are adjustable further adding to the comfortable experience and the versatility in the height, tilt and rock axis is impressive.
Secondly,the general build quality of the AKRacing Player Gaming chair is great and feels like it should last a long time. The stitching is well done both aesthetically and from a construction perspective. The eSports gaming chair we chose, the AK Racing Player Gaming, has red stitching on the base as part of the design and it is ruler straight. The stitching on the seams is also excellent.
The height of the back is large, actually it has the tallest back height of nearly all the major eSports gaming chairs on the market, making it particularly suitable for people from approx. 5’10” and taller, as demonstrated in our video below. However, this could mean that shorter people may find their heads not quite reaching the head pillow or hitting the plastic holes at the top of the back. Saying that, we had an 11 year old sit in the chair who is approx. 5’5″ and he loved it, also finding it comfortable despite his head not reaching the head pillow. We have done some analysis on the dimensions of the chairs from all the major eSports gaming chair suppliers and compiled it into the table below. The measurements should be pretty accurate and comparable although it was difficult to fully compare as different suppliers measure some parts differently. I have omitted those measurements that were particularly hard to compare.
Comparison of major eSports Gaming Chairs
Note: For DX Racer and Need for Seat, prices include shipping and were converted from EURO to GBP at a rate of £1=€1.295
Moving on, the back width is wide enough to accommodate almost any build whilst the seat width is adequate for most people although if you have a particularly wide backside, you may find it a little tight. The depth of the seat is very deep compared to other chairs but even then, taller people using the lumbar support cushion may find that the seat is a little on the shallow side which is interesting considering the AKRacing has one of the deepest seats compared to it’s competitors, as shown in the table above. Without the lumbar cushion, the seat depth is perfect and provides adequate depth and leg support for taller people.
As mentioned and shown in the unboxing, one downside to the build of the AKRacing Player Gaming chair is the exposed, rather ugly looking clips located on the underside of the chair which could have been better concealed. Fortunately, once constructed, these are less visible and in our opinion, could be lived with.
Finally, the packaging was good with the chair and its contents packed in a large box with a clear assembly sheet in glorious technicolour. The total assembly time for the AKRacing Player Gaming Chair was around 45mins which isn’t too bad in my opinion. It can be assembled quicker if you don’t need to continuously reference the assembly sheet like we did. All the parts were individually packed in protective film and arrived without any missing parts or defects.
The box contents:
For more information, check out our unboxing and assembly guide!
Conclusion:
There are a number of eSports gaming chairs on the market and making a choice between them can be difficult, particularly as it is difficult to visit a store and compare them. Generally all the eSports gaming chairs are close in price, look similar and have similar features such as adjustable height, elbow rests, reclining backs and tilt mechanisms. The choice really comes down to aesthetics, if one supplier has the colours you want compared to another and their dimensions. As you can see from the comparison table above, the major differences between the chairs are the heights of their backs and the widths of their seat and back. In our opinion, this is probably the main reason for choosing one chair over another.
When it comes down to quality, we can confirm that the build quality of the AK Racing chair we reviewed is very good and probably equal to, if not better, than some of the other chairs on the market. Another factor to consider is customer support should you be unfortunate enough to experience a problem with your chair. Many of the suppliers are based outside the UK so having to return parts could be expensive. AK Racing use local suppliers making support simpler which in our case was Overclockers UK, a reputable supplier of PC and gaming peripherals we have always had a good experience with. Another UK based supplier of gaming chairs is GT Omega which has priced their eSports gaming chairs very competitively but we are unable to comment on the build quality of these as we have not seen them.
Based on the AK Racing Player Gaming chair, we can highly recommend this chair for its quality, dimensions and Overclockers UK support.
We hope you enjoyed the review and be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel and leave a comment down below with a suggestion for any other reviews you’d like us to do 🙂
Video Review, enjoy:)
RATINGS:
Build Quality: 8/10
Comfort: 9/10
Affordability: 7/10
Looks: 9/10
Overall Rating: 8/10
The AK Racing range of chairs can be purchased in the UK from Overclockers UK. Prices range from £180 to £240. The chair reviewed here is the AK Racing Player Gaming chair and retails at £229.99.
Overclockers often include their gaming chairs in their daily or weekly deals so it is worth keeping an eye on these for an extra discount.