After I had recently chosen the Recaro RAE as my new personal reference in terms of office chairs, the young manufacturer SecretLab felt compelled to send us its latest creation for testing. With solid construction and high-quality material appeal, they want to knock Recaro off its throne, and even though the two chairs are in a completely different category, it has become a very exciting duel. Whether a clear winner emerged from this battle, you can read in the test.
We already explained in our last review that gaming chairs regularly trigger heated discussions, which often completely miss the point. Basically, most of the criticisms of gaming chairs are quite appropriate, because in very many cases, looks are placed above ergonomics and healthy sitting, which can have fatal consequences for the buyer in the end. The Recaro RAE followed a different philosophy and quickly established itself as a “crowd favorite”. It has also become my preferred seating furniture in no time at all. There’s only one thing the RAE consistently prevents, and that’s chair-like “slouching.” When I make a statement like that, you have to keep in mind my heavy weight, of course, but when I want to get “comfortable” on the RAE, lean back and slump a bit, I immediately feel the construction of the seat on my tailbone and have to straighten up after just a few minutes. There’s no question that this is the best thing for my back, and that’s exactly why I don’t want to use any other chair at work. But in the evening, when I might even want to lean back comfortably with the controller in my hand and deliberately sit for an hour not healthy, then the RAE reaches its limits quite quickly.
With most gaming chairs, the exact opposite is the case: they are only trimmed to look cool, may let you comfortably slouch and sit unhealthy, but cause me problems with my back after a relatively short period of sitting. So far, the old Office Comfort from Maxnomic has managed the best balancing act between healthy sitting and slouching for me. With an adjustable lumbar support instead of those awful support cushions and a fairly firm upholstery, you could sit on the chair reasonably healthy, but also lean back in the evening without any problems. Unfortunately, however, it destroyed the inferior leatherette quite quickly, so that the chairs already looked like the Flodders’ bulky waste after a few years and you had to be ashamed regularly when someone came to visit.
The attentive reader may have wondered at this point why I am writing such a long introduction and have not yet written a word about the SecretLab chair in question. The idea behind it was to explain why the Recaro is the current reference for me and why other gaming chairs still have a right to exist in my opinion. With that in mind, I’ll finally get to the Titan Evo, and since pictures are worth a thousand words, let’s start with the unboxing.
Unboxing
Already with the delivery of the box it was clear: The name TITAN is program. With dimensions of 88x78x38cm and over 38kg weight, the chair from SecretLab trumps all other chairs tested so far.
When opening the carton, a kind of “cover sheet” with a seal awaits the buyer – apparently, each chair is inspected by an employee before packing.
The assembly instructions (English) come on a huge, sturdy sheet of cardboard and are clearly illustrated.
Under the instructions I found a heavy envelope.
This contains the user manual/technical data. Great presentation!
The manual is written in English and some Asian languages and goes over the materials and features of the chair once again.
After another thick layer of protective foam, I found the first component: the backrest.
So if anything should ever break during the transport of a SecretLab chair, it must happen almost wantonly, as much padding material as the guys pack into the box.
The other side of the coin is, of course, the twelve tons of plastic waste..
The remaining components freed from the box:
What a hulk! The base is not only big and heavy:
But also extremely massive! Die-cast aluminum, reinforced with an additional strut.
The smaller components are once again packed separately in an accessories box.
The manufacturer of the gas strut is not mentioned. According to SecretLab, the XL version of the chair uses a “Heavy Duty Class 4” gas spring. The product is SGS and TÜV certified.
The rocker mechanism is also solidly constructed and should outshine anything I’ve had my hands on in terms of weight.
A first look at the cover reveals perfect seams/stitches and haptically high-quality materials.
The armrests are already pre-assembled and these also make a very high-quality impression. The magnetic and replaceable upholstery is softer than most competitor products and the levers/buttons for adjustment are made of metal.
Well thought-out down to the smallest detail: Even the washers and locking rings are already preassembled and cannot fall off the screws – you don’t have to worry about the correct order.
The embroidered lettering on the back of the backrest is flawless.
Besides a sample of the imitation leather (probably for testing cleaners), there is also an NFC chip for identifying or checking the authenticity of the product.
A soft headrest cushion made of memory foam rounds off the backrest later. I will go into the special feature and further details on the following pages.
32 Antworten
Kommentar
Lade neue Kommentare
Urgestein
Mitglied
Mitglied
Mitglied
Urgestein
Veteran
Mitglied
Mitglied
Mitglied
Mitglied
Moderator
Mitglied
Mitglied
Urgestein
Veteran
Mitglied
Mitglied
Mitglied
Urgestein
Alle Kommentare lesen unter igor´sLAB Community →