Razer Iskur sold me on gaming chairs — after almost losing me

Razer Iskur sold me on gaming chairs — later on nigh losing me

(Prototype credit: Razer)

The Razer Iskur represents the peripheral manufacturer's first foray into gaming chairs. That's not a category we normally cover on Tom'southward Guide, but I was interested in checking out this high-end seat for two reasons. First, Razer makes some of our very favorite gaming gear, and I was incredibly curious how it might tackle a purely mechanical device, with no electronics whatsoever.

2d: My regular part chair was literally falling apart.

Buy the best gaming mouse
Complement information technology with the best gaming keyboard

My journey with the Iskur then far has been by and large comfortable, occasionally harrowing and, if cipher else, always interesting. While I can't necessarily recommend a $500 gaming chair to every reader, it'southward worth at least considering if you discover yourself spending a lot of time working and gaming at home.

Because believe me, if you bought an function chair with the intention of sitting on it for an 60 minutes or 2 at a time each night, that may not cut it anymore.

Replacing an old chair

Like many others, I started working from habitation in 2020. That means that my living room has become an impromptu function. Luckily, I had a powerful gaming PC and a spacious desk, which made the transition relatively easy. Unfortunately, my chair was, to put it mildly, past its prime.

When I moved into my offset NYC flat eight years agone, I bought a $50 Renberget chair from Ikea. Information technology'south not the worst chair I've e'er sat in, but it'southward fair to say that it'southward goose egg fancy. (There is actually no padding in the chair back; air force per unit area alone creates a cushion. It's about as supportive as information technology sounds.) I never really intended for it to last eight years, but I remember everyone knows how information technology goes: As long every bit a piece of furniture is non broken, there'south no huge rush to replace it. Earlier you know it, you're sitting on a chair that wore out years ago, but yous oasis't gotten rid of information technology because it hasn't physically fallen apart underneath you.

That's why my ears (and my back) perked upwards when Razer announced its Iskur chair. Gaming chairs have something of a mixed reputation amid both gamers and article of furniture experts. While they're generally a lot better for your dorsum than a cheap chair, gaming chairs don't claim to offer any medical benefits — and a 2nd-rate gaming chair has yet problems every bit a 2d-charge per unit office chair, merely with a much more garish design. And speaking of garish designs, gaming chairs are oft big, loud and angular — a far cry from the elegant, minimalist designs of upscale office chairs.

Razer Iskur pattern philosophy

For those who haven't seen the Razer Iskur earlier, it'south a big black chair with green highlights. Like an office chair, information technology has a high back, casters on the bottom for easy movement, a base of operations with adjustable height options and supportive arm rests. Unlike low-end office chairs, however, the armrests are adjustable in three directions; it also lets you adjust the tilt of both the dorsum and the seat.

The Iskur's unique characteristic, still, is its lumbar back up. Rather than a mesh build with adjustable tension, or a simple back up pillow, the Iskur has an extendable lumbar support cavalcade, which can exist flush against the chair back, or extended at an angle of more than than 30 degrees. It's an incredibly useful innovation — and it very almost compromised my whole Iskur experience. (More on this later.)

I spoke with Jeevan Aurol, senior manager of production marketing at Razer, to acquire more about the Iskur's design philosophy and potential benefits.

"Razer has always been a company that tries our best to look backwards on what has been done, and look forward in terms of what the manufacture needs," he said. "For chairs, it was really no different."

"A neutral spine position is what gamers need." — Jeevan Aurol, senior manager of product marketing, Razer

Interestingly, Razer'southward desire to make a gaming chair has a personal angle. Its CEO, Min-Liang Tan, had a dorsum problem, and went to a chiropractor to get it checked out. When Tan mentioned that he generally sat in a gaming chair, the chiropractor told him to get a normal chair instead. Tan believed that his company could create a product that married a gamer artful with generous dorsum support.

"Gaming chairs are moderately comfy, and they do the chore, but we dug deeper. Gamers really sit a lot on their chairs," Aurol told me. "Probably viii to ix hours a day, depending, especially because of the work-from-abode thing. This number has multiplied. We looked at how much back up gaming chairs actually gave, and the respond was 'not a lot.'"

To oversimplify a complicated ergonomics issue, sitting in a "neutral spine position" — where the spine gently curves three times, and the neck sits directly higher up it — is good for your posture. Skilful posture begets expert circulation, which begets less stiffness, which begets less pain, and and so along. A adept chair, office or gaming, promotes neutral spine position and, more than importantly, ensures that the user is sitting the same way each fourth dimension.

"When you lot sit down and play a game, competitive or not, you lot're e'er going to hold the mouse a certain way; you're e'er going to collaborate with the keyboard in a certain way. Information technology affects how you play," said Aurol. "If the chair is rickety or flimsy, you're always going to get into a bad position, all the time … A neutral spine position is what gamers demand. They should be aware that this is what they require."

The pros and cons of lumbar support

As mentioned above, the Iskur'south adaptable lumbar support apparatus is arguably the ane matter that sets the chair apart from competing gaming chairs. In fact, even among role chairs, I couldn't find a model that used a like mechanism.

While it's easier to encounter in activity than to describe, there's a small lever underneath the right side of the Iskur'southward seat. Pull the lever, and the lower part of the backrest angles out, putting pressure level on your lumbar vertebrae. You can push this all the manner in, if you want to lean back, or extend it all the way out, if you tend to play your games leaning forward.

"You lot want to attain a neutral spine position when you're sitting downwards," Aurol told me. "Iskur helps you achieve that because of its shape and the fashion it molds itself into your spine. That's the biggest benefit you get over a traditional system.

"[The Iskur] doesn't e'er support a lean-dorsum position," he continued. "Sometimes, gamers tend to sit forwards toward their screen, especially in the rut of the moment. They don't lean back." Because the Iskur's lumbar support extends and so far forrad, gamers tin still rest some of their weight on the chair, fifty-fifty if their rears are nowhere near the back of the seat.

With so much accent on the lumbar support organization, I was eager to endeavour it for myself. That'due south why I was devastated when afterwards putting the whole chair together (the process took almost an 60 minutes and required two people, but wasn't especially hard), my lumbar support system wouldn't movement at all.

Without going into specifics, a gaming chair is just about the last accessory you want to break. The box itself is huge, and contains other infinite-consuming boxes — but that's not even the biggest problem, since certain parts of the chair are impossible to take apart. (Specifically, the gas cylinder in the base of operations; once it's on, information technology's on for good.) Later on well-nigh a week of back-and-forth due east-mails, Aurol identified my trouble: an overtightened screw on the lumbar back up valve. Ever since I loosened it, the Iskur has worked absolutely beautifully, and the adjustable lumbar support is i of my favorite parts.

While I don't want to harp on a problem that was, in the end, easily fixed, information technology did make me wonder: What would happen if a customer without direct access to Razer employees encountered a similar trouble? When the chair was not functioning properly and in various degrees of disassembly, I didn't have plenty space to utilise my desk, or walk directly between my kitchen and my living room; this would exist a huge problem if it happened to multiple people.

Thankfully, Aurol assured me that while the overtightened screw was present in a few Iskur review units, information technology'southward been corrected in mass production, and no customer has run into a similar issue. Likewise, since the chair is designed to be assembled in one case and never taken apart over again, Razer has a slightly unlike repair procedure than for, say, a mouse or keyboard.

"[We] have a bunch of spare parts," he explained. "Depending on which part is working or faulty, we volition ship an individual part over, and you lot only send that part back. There is no demand to send the entire chair back to u.s.." The chair's warranty covers 3 years of mechanical wear and tear, and Aurol hopes that the Iskur tin last for four to v years — or even longer — under heavy use.

Why buy the Razer Iskur?

Now that I've used information technology for a few weeks, I tin can say that the Razer Iskur is one of the most comfy chairs I've endemic, and a huge step up from the falling-autonomously $fifty Ikea model. I can't say for sure whether I'd adopt it to a fancy part chair, merely that's partially because office chairs have such a wide range of design choices, whereas gamer chairs tend to share a somewhat similar aesthetic.

I asked Aurol how — or whether — the Iskur stacked up to expensive office chairs, and he said that "there is no black-and-white answer."

"I don't think there is any one answer to support an role chair 'winning' over a gaming chair, or vice versa," he said. "Information technology actually depends on the user's preference.

"When you sit down in an office chair, it's generic. It's comfortable. Information technology works. When you sit in a gaming chair, it makes yous feel plugged in. It makes you experience like you're sitting backside the wheel of a supercar … I'd say the biggest difference is the psychological mindset and the overall artful."

There's no denying that the Iskur has a clear "gamer" vibe, with its neon-dark-green stitching, prominent Razer logo and "For gamers, by gamers" written right on the seat. I'm admittedly positive that some gamers will detect this grating, but I'm as positive that some will detect it absurd.

For me, I'm neutral on the Iskur's aesthetics, merely I'm extremely happy with the lumbar support. And so is my back.

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you tin detect him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.