EDGE GX1 overview: a severely snug gaming chair, however not £1,000 value of snug

Are you sitting comfortably? Maybe you’re. But you can at all times be sitting extra comfortably. And not solely that, you may be sitting in a manner that isn’t going to provide the nightmare posture and backbone of an 87 year-old girl by the point you’re in your early 40s. Which is the place the EDGE GX1 gaming chair is is available in; providing a substitute for the ever-present racing seat gamer aesthetic with an ergonomic bent.

The ~£900, hand-crafted EDGE GX1 gaming chair has been created particularly to help all gaming types, whether or not you’re so laid again you’re chest isn’t freed from a light-weight dusting of Cheetos, or pitched thus far ahead your monitor has grease spots the place your nostril brushes the display screen.

With the EDGE acronym standing for Ergonomically Designed Gaming Equipment, the GX1 has apparently been created to “enhance gamers’ performance, health, and wellbeing.” Which is a lofty aim, although contemplating the sticker value I’d prefer it to be selecting the proper shares for my portfolio and possibly providing a pleasant therapeutic massage too.

The predominant rivalry across the GX1 is that the present racing seat customary isn’t an important selection for a gaming chair. The entire design of the racing seat has been created particularly to maintain the motive force in a single place, ensuring that when the automotive is drifting round a pointy nook the motive force stays stationary. While that’s nice for if you’re hurtling alongside the tarmac, as 1000’s of tiny explosions assist spin your wheels, it’s not so scorching for avoiding repeated again ache.

Read extra: The best gaming headsets to strap to your cranium

As players, tethering ourselves to our PCs usually for hours at a time, we want help but additionally a chair that doesn’t prohibit our actions. Not solely does the bucket seat design power your legs collectively however EDGE contends that the shoulder helps of ordinary gaming chairs can even prohibit arm actions to the detriment of your gaming prowess.

The GX1, nonetheless, has been designed with an open seat, permitting you to sit down all bizarre and cross-legged – as I do – and ditches the shoulder helps usually sprouting like wings from most different chairs. The non-compulsory headrest has additionally been created to cradle your bonce and help your neck on the similar time by being totally adjustable.

You may also discover that there’s no apparent lumbar help. It does exist however has been constructed into the GX1 reasonably than serving as a floating further cushion, and is slightly bizarre. It’s bizarre as a result of the lumbar help is inflatable. Yes, there’s slightly hand pump which you stow beneath the seat and squeeze to inflate to suit your ever-arching backbone.

The remainder of the chair is nearly endlessly adjustable too. EDGE has highlighted three predominant seating positions – ‘relaxed’ and leaning again into the chair, ‘engaged’ and leaning ahead, and ‘upright,’ which is basically simply sitting up straight. Depending on which of these you end up in essentially the most you’ll be able to modify the GX1 to suit utilizing the myriad management levers and switches at your disposal.

That’s fairly customary however the GX1 additionally affords a ‘gravity-driven free-float feature’ which signifies that you don’t need to have something locked in place leaving you free to transition between relaxed and engaged with out having to the touch a single management. That’s a laudable characteristic in precept, however in apply meant I ended up flailing round in my seat unable to discover a place that was both everlasting or snug.

Though I did entertain myself for a day getting random members of the PCGN staff to sit down down on the GX1, watching them battle to a cushty sitting place and/or cease themselves falling to the ground. We have enjoyable right here…

Once locked in place although I discovered the EDGE GX1 an immensely snug gaming seat. The Noblechairs I often park my behind on within the workplace is a high quality chair, however the way in which I sit, usually crossing my legs beneath me, means I’ve worn out a bit from one facet of the bucket seat the place my foot finally ends up resting. With the flatter seat of the GX1, nonetheless, that gained’t occur, and it really permits me to sit down that manner comfortably.

The huge, flat seat, supportive again, and adjustable headrest all play into the consolation of the GX1, and the hand-crafted nature of it makes it appear a really properly put collectively peripheral. Which is what you’d hope given the uncomfortably excessive price ticket. EDGE does say that it is going to be making a lower-spec design – although with the identical core beliefs – for a extra price-conscious crowd, however proper now the GX1 is the value of some entire PCs.

The most simple model, sans headrest, is available in at £810, whereas if you need all of the extras – akin to exhausting ground castors and a footrest – the EDGE GX1 can price as much as £1,037. EDGE will argue that the supplies it makes use of are top-class, from the breathable overlaying to the interior padding, and that being handmade in Britain provides it a sure luxurious really feel.

But personally I nonetheless discover it a tricky case to argue for. The £270 Noblechairs seat I take advantage of within the workplace I don’t discover as snug because the GX1, however the £360 EWin XL I take advantage of at dwelling caters for each my ultrawide posterior in addition to my penchant for sitting crosslegged. But even then that looks like an enormous amount of cash to drop on a chair on your gaming PC.

I’m hopeful EDGE’s lower-priced various does make an look this yr, as I’m completely down for the racing seat aesthetic to be pushed off the street, however it’s going to wish to hit a genuinely aggressive value level to have the ability to drive dwelling the design’s advantages. At between £800 and £1,000, nonetheless, I can’t in all good conscience advocate the GX1 regardless of how comfortably it cradles my butt or how pretty the stitching is. No chair can actually be value that a lot, absolutely?