I recently bought my first high-end desk chair – and dang, this new chair is an experience.
With my recent decision to work from home permanently, I felt it was time to buy a higher quality desk chair for my office. The chair I was using most recently was one I bought to replace the desk chair I borrowed from the office during the pandemic.
Simple and inexpensive, this chair was… okay to work from for an entire day. I had to buy a lumbar pillow for extra support, though – that didn’t come with the chair.
It was inexpensive, but I thought it’d be okay to get a cheaper chair since I thought I would be working from the office more often. That, however, was not the case, and with me working from home permanently, I set out to find a newer, better desk chair.
While I love the chair at my old desk at the office, I also I knew I wouldn’t be able to just buy a chair like that one. If I wanted to get an ergonomic chair similar to what I had at the office, it’d cost somewhere around $1200. That’s a lot of money for a chair. I mean, if it were a computer? I’d happily spend twice that much – but for some reason, spending over $1000 on a chair seems like too much.
So, rather than looking at fancy ergonomic desk chairs, I ended up looking into gaming chairs, as a couple of my friends have them and really enjoy them. I started out my search on Amazon but couldn’t find one in a color that I liked or that had the right combination of features I was looking for – specifically, I wanted a chair with lumbar support, an adjustable back, and if possible, I wanted a chair made with short people in mind. (I’m barely 5’1”. Most chairs are too big for me.) Additionally, the chairs I saw came in a wide range of price points, and I wondered about some of the cheaper ones with extra features like massaging lumbar pillows – how long would those last? Would they even be comfortable?
After performing a Google search and doing some research about the best gaming chairs for short people, I stumbled across Secretlab’s offerings. And from there, I found the perfect chair for me: the TITAN Evo 2022 series.
About the TITAN Evo 2022 series gaming chair
The TITAN Evo 2022 chair comes in three sizes and an almost overwhelming amount of different color/fabric combinations. The available sizes to choose from include small (shorter than 5’6”), regular (5’7” – 6’2”) and XL (5’11” – 6’9”) – and while you frequently see chairs made for large/tall folks, you don’t often see ones for short people. Seeing a chair offered in Small? That got me excited.
For the chair’s upholstery, you can choose between NEO Hybrid Leatherette and SoftWeave Plus Fabric, and there’s a variety of colors available for each upholstery type. You can even get special edition licensed chairs for lots of different games and pop culture properties, like The Witcher, DC comics, Game of Thrones, and more. Even the armrests are swappable, too – the PlushCell Memory Foam armrests are currently on preorder, but they definitely look cushy.
Price-wise, this is not a cheap chair. In fact, the TITAN Evo was the most expensive gaming chair I’d seen while doing my research, starting at $549 for the Small and Regular size chairs. It’s not $1200, but it’s definitely more expensive than the $150 task chair I bought previously. Secretlab does have sales from time to time, though, and they also offer financing through Affirm, Katapult, and PayPal Credit.
After thinking about it for a while and reading lots of reviews, I decided to take the plunge and buy myself a high-end gaming chair. I ordered the TITAN Evo 2022 edition in small, with SoftWeave Plus fabric upholstery in mint green (unsurprisingly). I also picked up some fabric wipes to help keep the chair clean – considering how much the chair costs, I want it to look nice and last a while. Also, I have a cat that drools all over everything when she’s happy, so I’ll likely need to clean up after her if she sits on this chair. I thought about ordering a set of the memory foam armrests, but I’m going to wait and see if they release them in mint to match my chair. (If you’re reading this, Secretlab folks: please make some in mint!)
Then, I anxiously awaited the delivery of my chair – it arrived pretty quickly, three days after buying it.
Unboxing and chair assembly
Sadly, I was way too excited about getting and building the chair that I forgot to actually take pictures of the unboxing and assembly process. Oops.
Anyway, the chair itself comes in a very large box that proudly proclaims what style/size/color chair you’re receiving – I don’t know why, but seeing the giant box with the chair type and color on it made me ridiculously happy for some reason.
This chair is HEAVY. Peter and I had to unbox the chair and bring it up to the attic piece by piece, because there was no way it was getting up two flights of stairs still in its box. Thankfully, the packaging was really well done – all parts labeled and packaged very carefully, with no mystery parts – which made transferring all the parts up two flights of stairs an easy process. The back of the chair, for example, comes in a bag with handles on the top, which not only made it easier to get it out of the box, but also made it easier to get it upstairs. The instructions for building the chair were also very clear; everything was printed on a large sturdy piece of paperboard with plenty of pictures to help make sure everything goes where it’s supposed to.
This is a screenshot of the assembly instructions, because I am a goof who forgot to photograph them before recycling the box and its contents.
The chair went together very smoothly. Assembly was a 2-person job, although most of what the second person did was hold parts in place or lift the heavier pieces for me so I could guide them into position. With the assembly chart and clearly labeled parts, building the chair was a frustration-free process. After about a half an hour or so, I had a chair!
First impressions
I love this chair. Seriously, I do. And not just because it’s my favorite shade of green.
After sitting in the TITAN Evo chair for the first time, I wrote down my first thoughts about my fancy new desk chair. My first thought was that this chair is amazing. I’ve never owned a chair specifically designed for short people, and this thing fits me perfectly. It has the lumbar support I was hoping for, as well as a reclining seat back and swappable arm rests – I swear, this chair has it all. It even has a pillow that magnetically attaches to the chair back! (I might try to make a little Crafty Nerd cover for it – it feels like a good idea for a blog post.)
I may need a cheat sheet to remind me of what all the levers and knobs do. I know the knobs on the sides of the back adjust the lumbar support, for example, but which one changes the position, and which one increases the curve of the support? I had to dig up the assembly instructions to help me figure out which knob did what. (Thankfully, the instructions are available on their website – which is good, since I threw the instruction chart out as soon as I was done building the chair, thinking I wasn’t going to need it. Oops.)
The seat is firm, but not uncomfortably so. After so many years of sitting on squishy desk chairs, oddly enough, the firmness actually feels good. The armrests are also a little firm too, so I might eventually upgrade to the PlushCell Memory Foam armrests, but the existing armrests aren’t too bad.
Another thing about the TITAN Evo is that it actually looks nice. One of the things I noticed when researching gaming chairs is that there are some pretty ridiculous looking chairs out there. I saw chairs with LED lighting on the sides, bunny ears attached to the headrest, all sorts of ridiculous attachments, and all sorts of ridiculous branding all over the chair. The TITAN Evo, on the other hand? In my opinion, it’s an attractive chair. The branding isn’t so ridiculous that I’m embarrassed to have it show on screen in a work meeting. The variety of colorways available makes it so you can find your perfect chair, and this was one of the few mint/teal green chairs I found. I like the overall design of the chair, and the black accents look good with the mint green fabric. I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that people out there may like some of the more ridiculous gaming chairs out there, but for me? I love how this chair looks.
In general, I have never been so excited about getting a new chair before. Usually, when I get a new chair, I build it and then that’s it. With this chair, when I first got it, I kept finding things to do on the computer so I could keep sitting at my desk. I’ve never had that experience or excitement with other chairs.
Two weeks later
At this point, I’ve been using the TITAN Evo for two weeks now, and I’m still loving it. I’m still making excuses to stay at my computer desk even after work is done. It’s very comfortable, and I actually rather like how firm it is. It feels good and does a great job of supporting my back and helps me have better posture while sitting at my desk. I’m actually able to lean back in my chair and still be in a position where I can type and use my mouse comfortably, which is not something I’ve really been able to do in my other chairs.
The TITAN Evo is definitely a big chair, though. I’m still not used to how much space the chair takes up, and I keep bonking the armrest into the side of my corner desk. It makes me miss how the armrests on my old chair would lift out of the way – however, those arms weren’t anywhere near as adjustable as these are, so I’ll be fine without the liftable arm rests.
I also found that the chair gives my lap a little bit more stability for holding a cat in my lap, which is an unexpected bonus. I can also tuck one leg up comfortably to make a bigger lap for a cat to sit on. Hannah loves to sit on my lap, and she spends a lot less time trying to adjust herself and keep her balance when sitting on my lap in this chair.
Okay, so you can’t actually see the chair in this picture, but trust me, it’s there. I mean, why else would Hannah decide to camp out in my lap when it’s 80 degrees in my office?
Sadly, I haven’t had the chance to actually use the chair for its intended purpose: gaming. With everything going on lately, I haven’t had the time or energy to play Final Fantasy XIV, which is a bummer. I can say, however, that it is very comfortable to use for lengthy video editing sessions – I’ve been working on a couple of detailed videos for work lately, and the TITAN Evo makes it a much comfier process.
Final thoughts
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I love this chair. It’s expensive, yes, but it’s worth every penny in my opinion. It’s comfortable, supportive, and attractive. If you’re in the market for a gaming chair and have extra money to spend, or are looking for a supportive work-at-home chair that doesn’t entirely break the bank, I highly recommend the TITAN Evo 2022 series chair. It’s worth it.