If you’re someone who spends a lot of time sitting for work, or gaming then you should seriously consider getting yourself a good quality gaming chair. It can’t be underestimated how much difference a good chair can make to your wellbeing, and by extension, your ability to get on with work productively or enjoy your gaming sessions.
For full disclosure, I am someone with a lot of back issues. I had an accident when I was 10 and hurt my back and it has been weak ever since. Additionally, in the time since then I have slipped discs three times and had surgery on my back twice. For the most part I am still able to get on with life in a normal way, but always do have to avoid heavy lifting or putting pressure on my back where I can.
It’s been unfortunate then, that over the last year as so many people have had to work from home that I have found that I can add sitting and computer based work to the list of things that make my back worse. I had what I considered to be an OK gaming chair which I used for streaming, video editing and doing live podcast streams, but I reached a point where I was considering that I would have to reduce the amount of computer based work I was doing. It was at this point where I decided that rather than give up I should try to make improvements, and a better chair with improved support seemed the best route.
Enter the Secretlab Titan gaming chair!
I looked at many options for chairs, and without much knowledge on gaming chairs overall I could mostly go by pictures and reviews. Many of the chairs I looked at seemed like they had fancy features such as built in audio or cool designed based on video game franchises, but none of this mattered for my needs. Comfort and support is what I am looking for. If you are someone who has any kinds of back issues, or are someone who doesn’t want back issues in the future, comfort and support should be your main criteria too.
The Secretlab Titan chair has a few features which make this chair by far my favourite gaming chair I’ve ever sat in. Most importantly, the chair has a built in adjustable lumbar support feature. My old chair came with a lumbar pillow which you could attach to the back of the chair and whilst I did use it at times I was never convinced it was actually helping me. A detachable lumbar support is good in many ways, but it can easily shift as you move, will inevitably have some amount of gap around it which means it doesn’t fit exactly to your shape and as it attach them yourself, it may be that you haven’t positioned it correctly to give best support yourself.
The lumbar support on the Titan is different in that it is built into the chair and is adjustable with a dial. It’s easy to reach back as you sit in the chair and increase or decrease how much the lumbar support pushes forward, and you can fit it to your own back by this method. It’s definitely not as pronounced as the detachable pillows I have used on other chairs, and for me this is a good thing. The shape of the support feels natural and fits snugly to the natural curve of a human back which is so much better than the one size pillow which would cause a gap in the middle of where my back was resting between the pillow and where my shoulders met the chair.
This one feature of the chair is a complete game changer for me, but I do acknowledge that if someone else was a different size/height to me, or had different back issues, they may not have the same experience. One good thing on this front is that there are several different models of the chair available in the range, and they are designed for people of different heights and needs. In this sense I should imagine that someone much taller than me would get on better with the next size up. As it is I am 5’9” and the Titan fits comfortably for me.
In addition to the adjustable lumbar support a great feature is that the seat can tilt. Many chairs will have that the backrest can recline, but this chair goes the extra mile and you can also tilt the actual seat itself. When you have this feature unlocked it does feel a little like you’re in a rocking chair which has a relaxing feeling to it. It doesn’t rock as naturally as a rocking chair as it’s not designed that way, but with your foot resting on a stool you can easily rock yourself back and forth. The purpose of this is to allow you to find the best position so that your weight doesn’t always have to go straight down your vertebrae and a tilted position felt very comfortable and when I felt I had been in one position for long enough it was easy to change.
Of course, if you are using the reclining features of either the seat or the backrest it does make it slightly harder to sit to type at a desk, but if you’re looking for this chair to use with a game controller or handheld mouse with a roller ball this can make a huge difference to your comfort.
The chair comes with the most incredible neck pillow I’ve ever used. It’s so comfortable I wish all of my pillows and bed were made of the stuff. For back support it is the case that slightly firmer chairs and bed are better then ones that are too soft, but this pillow is so relaxing and comfortable to use there is part of me that wishes I could try a chair where every surface was made of this same material. This would probably only feel that comfortable for a short while, but for the neck support here, it is very very good.
The seat on the Titan is big enough for you to sit crossed legged on if you so choose, and this is positive, but if there’s one area of the design I wasn’t quite as happy about it is that the ridge around the edge of the seat where your legs overhang did start to feel noticeable under my thighs. After a week of using the chair I do feel happy enough with the seat, but can understand that some may want something slightly softer. It’s not bad at all, but slightly softer wouldn’t have been bad either.
The arm rests are adjustable to make them taller, closer together or further forward or back which like with the lumbar support means you can get these adjusted exactly as much as you need.
Conclusion
This is by far the best computer or gaming chair I’ve ever used, and after a week of use I have noticed significant improvement in how I’m feeling in my back. My old chair would leave me feeling in a lot of pain after a short amount of use, and as yet I’ve not reached a point in this chair where I haven’t been completely comfortable. The ability to make many adjustments mean that changing your position to remain comfortable is easy and it’s a practical chair to use for computer based work such as video editing or typing (as demonstrated by me writing this article) and also for relaxing back into for gaming. This is an excellent chair for gamers and I’d recommend a high quality chair like this if you have a bad back and need support.
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