I’m not someone who spends a lot of money on furniture; garage sales and picking up my friends’ old couches when they get new ones is more my style. The only significant pieces of furniture I’ve actually purchased are my wife and I’s bed and my desk. Even then, we didn’t get too extravagant with it. So when I get asked to review a new chair and realize that the nearly ten year old hand-me-down chair that I’m currently sitting in has holes in it, the padding is flat, and the height control tends to sink and needs to be reset every hour, I respond, “yes please!” The RapidX Carbon Line Gaming Chair is going to be quite the upgrade for me, and my rump is eagerly anticipating what awaits.
The first thing I noticed when the package arrived was just how big and heavy the box was. I felt a little bad for the FedEx driver as he carried it all the way to my front door from the street. At nearly seventy five pounds, it is a bit of a workout to get the package where you need it. Opening it up and following the instructions were easy enough. Parts and tools are all included to ensure that it can be put together straight out of the box. All the pieces feel really solidly made, but a bit heavy and awkward to handle for assembly. Some may find this harder to put together than others because of this. Since this is (hopefully) only ever done once in the chairs lifetime, it is minor.
Again, the instructions were easy to understand, and reading a couple lines usually cleared anything I wasn’t sure of. All in all it took between thirty to forty five minutes to put it completely together, with only one mishap. I had to take about ten minutes to fish the provided tool out of a small space on the chair’s back control that it had accidentally fallen into. Considering how close this is to where bolts are required to be inserted, this may be somewhat common. It fell in there quite nicely and required some work to get back out. Aside from that it went pretty smoothly, and I had myself a chair.
First impressions, (at least compared to my previous chair) this thing is big! Easily a foot taller, a good size wider, and heavy! It also looks really nice, the texture on the chair is pleasing to look at and the stitching on the seams is tight and smooth. The green pops off the black nicely, adding a touch of cool that I didn’t know whether or not I would like seeing it as I pulled it out of the box. Once assembled though, this thing looks really nice and adds to the aesthetic of my office!
There is a headrest and adjustable lumbar support that can be added, the armrests rotate and adjust up and down, the back reclines (to a ridiculous degree), and it can be tilted back or locked in. After adjusting everything to my size and personal preferences, this chair is really comfortable straight out of the box. No breaking in required like I had expected. I thought for sure I’d have to get used to the feel of it before it became truly comfortable. This doesn’t seem to be the case, after a couple of weeks I can easily sit in this chair for hours and not feel uncomfortable at all! This is important as I work from home, and spend more time than I probably should at my desk. Compared to my old chair, however, this is certainly a step up. Before I would have to get up to get blood flowing in my legs again, loosen them up, and feel normal again, then reset my chair and sit down. This was every few hours, minimum. I’m realizing that some of the pain I had been experiencing in my lower body was a direct result of the chair I had, and this RapidX Carbon Line Gaming Chair seems to have alleviated some of that.
I’ve mentioned a couple times now the size of this chair, and it really is a bit of a beast, this is actually a point of concern for me. At five feet eleven inches, I’m of a pretty average height. In order for my feet to rest on the floor flat and comfortably, I need to have the chair set as low as it can go. This essentially means that anyone shorter than that may not find this chair nearly as comfortable at best and completely unusable at worse. I’m not even a tall person and I know a lot of people shorter than me, and I find this to be fairly disappointing in an otherwise wonderful piece of furniture.
There also seems to be an Extra Large version of this chair available, which I think is mostly an increased weight limit, and I’m curious what options are available by RapidX for smaller people. Also I feel lucky that the entrance to my office has double doors, as that is really the only way I can wheel this sucker out into the living room for some TV gaming.
The RapidX Carbon Line Gaming Chair is a fantastic product, offering a lot of little things to help maximize comfort while doing, well whatever you would like to do while sitting. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t fallen asleep a couple of times while tilting back watching a movie. It doesn’t take a lot oftime to put together, and provides a wonderful place to sit down and rest after it is all assembled.
Comfortable fresh out of the box, it also looks really nice adding to the room it is in instead of just being “the chair”. Everything feels and looks quality made. I do have some concerns about the sheer size of it and people shorter than five foot eleven inches sitting as comfortably as I do in it. As for the $400 price tag, I think time will really be the indicator here as to if the RapidX Carbon Line Gaming Chair is worth that much. If it stays comfortable and holds together for a good number of years, RapidX would be the first place I turn to for future desk and gaming chair needs.
Not to mention the box it comes in makes a pretty sweet fort!
