Beds, shoes and chairs – things that conventional wisdom tells us we should never cheap out on. If you’re not in one, you’re in the other, after all. And if, like me, you spend an inordinate amount of time playing MMOs, you need a good chair.
The market is dominated by a range of high-end options all vying for your attention. Premium brands carry premium price tags, though, and you may not be willing or able to part with a month’s rent for a nice place to park your posterior.
That’s where smaller manufacturers get a chance to shine, offering a similar look and feel for a fraction of the price. Buying cheaper is a bit of a minefield, though – you don’t know if you’re dropping £70 on something that’ll last, or something you’ll have to buy again in a couple of months. Let’s narrow it down a little and take a look at JR Knight’s Racer chair.
ASSEMBLY
Assembling the JR Knight racer chair was one of the easiest builds I’ve ever completed. The whole thing took about 25 minutes by myself, and the different pieces come together with minimal effort. An allen key is provided to tighten the screws, of which there are only twelve. I did need to spend a little bit of time clearing loose fabric out of the sockets with some tweezers, and it’s easy to scratch the finish on the armrests if you don’t exercise some caution when attaching them to the two chair panels.
The manual is straightforward but if you’re not used to sticking these things together I’d suggest recruiting a friend or hiring a local mercenary to help you keep it all level as you go. This is about as simple as building furniture gets, though, and it’s a real point in the chair’s favour that the construction is so solid. Once the main body of the chair is screwed together, fitting it to the base is easier than Lego.
COMFORT
For the asking price, the JR Knight racer chair is comfortable, but it has a few design choices that make it impractical for us wider, heavier people. For a start, it’s not that big. My head was hanging over the top of the chair by a generous margin which made reclining a bit less pleasant.
The armrests can be shifted up and down to accommodate lounging and that trademark intense forward-slouch. Unless you’re of a smaller frame it’s unlikely this will be your favourite spot to sit – I had a particularly tall friend take a seat on it and it looked like a depressing modern retelling of Gandalf the Grey attempting to get comfy in Bilbo’s tiny hobbit house.
The faux leather covering is of decent quality, and the stuffing does the job. It’s a weighty, decent piece of furniture, there’s no creakiness or shakiness to the chair’s frame – it’s really well made, just a little on the smaller side. It’s not mindblowing, but it does what it sets out to do, and is well made enough to bear the weight of many a session.
If you’re looking for something a little bigger, they do offer a larger, more cushioned variant for extra comfort, although we haven’t had the opportunity to review that model.
VALUE
The JR Knight racer chair is currently £69.99 with free delivery on Amazon, and it’s arguably worth it as a cheap desk chair with flair. The adjustable height, armrests and reclining features work as intended and aren’t often seen on chairs of this price. It’s easy to build, well made, and reliable. As previously mentioned, if you’re tall, you might struggle to get comfy, but for average-sized humans, you can’t go wrong.
4/5
We were provided a review unit of this product which you can find on Amazon. FULLSYNC does not make profit from this referral link, but if you choose to purchase this product, thank you for supporting companies that support us!
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