DXRacer is THE original gaming chair. Every streamer had one and every gamer I knew wanted one. Not content with being the company that launched a thousand ships, so to speak, DXRacer has unleashed a fully customizable, luxury chair. But is the juice worth the squeeze? Find out in our review.
Specifications
- Current Price: $479 (DXRacer Always Lucky)
- High-Quality Leather Material
- Memory Foam
- Heavy Metal Frame
- Ultra Premium Molded Foam
- Recommended Height/Weight: 5’7”/200lbs
- Maximum Load: 250lbs
- Maximum Height: 6’0”
- Gas Lift Class: 4
- Base: 27.5” Aluminum Base
- Casters: 60mm Caster/PU
- Adjustable Back Angle: 135
- Adjustable Headrest: Yes
- Adjustable Lumbar Cushion: Yes
- Package Size: 31.89”L x 28.94”W x 14.37”H
- Net Weight: Approx 56.04lbs
- Meets/Exceeds ANSI/BIFMA Standards: Yes
For those of us that have spent time on the internet researching for our first (or fifth) custom PC build we know that in addition to CPU and GPU the bread and butter of your interaction is the mouse and keyboard. Wars have been fought over which brand is better, which keyboard switch is better, which keycaps are better, etc because they make up the overwhelming majority of our tactile interaction with the gaming rig. Yet for people that will argue into the wee hours of the knights about red vs blue and Kaihl vs Cherry we spend remarkably little time worrying about what we’re going to park our butts in - literally. Whether it be long or short gaming sessions, doesn't our behind deserve to be treated just as well as our fingers? Why should keycaps be the only things you get to visually customize with your own personality? DXRacer is here to answer that question with a resounding “not on my watch”. Enter the new line from DXRacer: DXRacer Craft - the result of 20 years of developing chairs and the knowledge of a number of top professional players and gaming companies.
For this review we were sampled from a pre-designed chair selection to take for a test ride - after all it doesn’t matter what the design IS since we are asking some questions that deal more broadly with the Craft’s features. Is it comfortable? How adjustable is it? Are the materials high quality and how are the logos and designs integrated into said material? While I’ll admit it would have been absolutely amazing to have the opportunity to design my own chair from the ground up I’m by no means unhappy with the chair provided from their ready-to-go catalog; in my case the “Lucky Always” design which is what you’ll see pictures throughout the review.
Before getting to the meat and potatoes I want to give a quick shout-out to DXRacer on the ease of assembly. I’ve put together a couple of different racing chairs from numerous other companies and this was, hands down, the absolute easiest time I’ve ever had assembling a chair. All the holes matched up perfectly, the handles were already attached to the base and, my absolute favorite feature, the metal hinges that attach to the backrest have small slats in them to perfectly line up the base with the hinges. If you’ve put together a chair before I’m sure you’ve known the struggle of getting the backrest to cooperate while you desperately attempt to secure at least one screw. For me, it usually would end in quite a few minutes of cussing, a scraped-up finger, some sweat, and a feeling of absolute loathing towards whoever made it. DXRacer has perfectly solved this issue and I sincerely hope it catches on with other brands - it’s a stroke of pure brilliance.
The first thing I do after finishing the assembly of a chair is to, well, sit in it. The primary concern for me is whether or not it’s comfortable. The quality of materials and aesthetics don’t matter if you can’t stand to be in the chair. I’m extremely happy to report that the DXRacer craft is perhaps the most comfortable chair I’ve had the pleasure of sitting in. They’ve truly taken the idea to heart that if you’re going to spend hours in a gaming session you deserve to be comfortable while doing it. This is the first computer chair I’ve owned with adjustable lumbar support, for example, and it’s a feature I never knew I needed until I had it. As someone with a complex back injury I’ve found that while something is comfortable one day it may be awful the next. I find myself adjusting the lumbar support day to day and wondering how I ever lived without the feature. The seat cushion is just soft enough to not hurt after a long gaming session and just firm enough to where I don’t feel like I’m sitting on a pillow. As an all-around tall and solid individual, it can be difficult to have a cushion to maintain comfort after a while and I have yet to find that endpoint with the DXRacer Craft. The memory foam neck pillow is just icing on the cake at this point and the wildly adjustable armrests (four points of control) are the sprinkles
Settling on the fact that my backside is quite pleased with its portion of requirements, it was time to move on to how my eyes and skin (creepy I know) felt about it. The armrests are made from a black rubbery material that seems to be pretty decent at resisting the oils and sweat that come off the skin. With previous chairs, I’ve found it tends to become clear exactly where your arm was - especially after a long gaming session - and that does not appear to be the case with the Craft series. The vast majority of the chair is made from soft leather material. It’s quite comfortable on the skin and visually pleasing on the eyes. It lacks the hard sheen of traditional leather and simultaneously retains the visual quality of genuine leather.
The cream of the crop, however, is the embroidery. Typically you’ll see some stitching where two colors meet but DXRacer has taken it a step further and has crafted all the text and designs on the chair with various color stitching and the effect is absolutely breathtaking. If there was a single feature that points to the quality of the product it would be the stitching. Scouring the chair I’ve yet to find a single stitch skipped or out of place - a fact that lends a huge amount of credibility to the luxury claim. I sit in awe whenever I look at the rear of the backrest and the level of detail DXRacer has been able to achieve with simple stitching over decals. There is nothing that I know of on the market like it - it’s truly one of a kind.
Final Thoughts
DXRacer has blazed the trail yet again and I doubt it will be long before we see other companies following suit. Not only is the readily available catalog featuring designs that everyone can enjoy but the fact that you can contact DXRacer and work directly with them to create your own custom chair simply blows the mind. DXRacer sacrifices nothing in the name of customization and aesthetics and delivers a truly premium and luxury product - every aspect of the chair screams quality workmanship. Circling back to the original question in the article summary, “Is the juice worth the squeeze?” I can say without reservation - absolutely.
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes.
