If you’re looking for a great gaming chair on a budget, then this could be a great option for you. In this GTRacing gaming chair review, we’ll cover everything you need to know to make an informed purchase. All the good points, as well as the bad, and the things you might not even think about until they start to annoy you when you’ve already bought the chair. Our quick summary of the GTRacing gaming chair is as follows, but read on for a more in-depth review.
Affordable gaming chairs are few and far between. To find one as good as the GTRacing gaming chair for the price of $170 is astounding. While the build quality isn’t quite as good as you’d see in more expensive chairs, it doesn’t harm the product for normal use. The seat and pillows are comfortable for long hours spent gaming, and the adjustable seat back and arms make for a completely customizable experience that suits anyone’s needs.
GTRacing Gaming Chair – Build Quality
Pros
- High-quality materials
- Parts that matter are metal
- Feels secure to use
Cons
- Could be a higher quality build, though at an extra cost to the consumer
Materials
Much like the S-Racer gaming chair, this chair is mainly built from hard plastic. The parts that matter, the seat support, armrest supports, and tilt function, are all based around metal poles. However, the chair is plastic for the most part. This would be bad if the plastic was of poor quality, but thankfully hard, high-quality plastic was used in each piece of the product. As a result, it feels safe and secure beneath you as you sit in it and move around.
How Does it Feel?
The chair has a lot of movable parts to it. The backrest can tilt back to an extreme degree, the armrest angles change, the seat can tilt forward and backward, and you can obviously move the seat position up and down. With all of this, it more than meets the same needs of any office chair, but with the bonuses provided in the form of comfortable materials and pillows, it’s far better than many more expensive competitors.
Assembly
Putting this chair together is as easy as building any flat-pack chair you pick up online. It arrives in several parts, but they’re easily distinguishable, so there’s no confusion over what part goes where. All of the smaller bits and pieces are secured in their own boxes with instructions, so you won’t miss anything or somehow put the whole thing together without a crucial part. It also doesn’t take that long to build. You should be ready to use it within 15 minutes.
Complaints
The only criticism I have of the chair’s build quality is that I felt like more parts could be made from metal or recyclable material that isn’t hard plastic. This chair will last for a long time, and if more of it were made from recycled materials, it would be easier to justify over any cheaper products. As it is, though, it feels a bit more like a slightly more expensive version of the S-Racer gaming chair.
GTRacing Gaming Chair – Comfort Factor
Pros
- Very comfortable cushion
- Great angles on moving parts
- Easy to move around
- Support pillows are extremely comfortable
Cons
- Users on the heavier side might feel some discomfort in the pillows
- The height of seat could feel cramped for those over 6′ 1″
Base, Backrest, and Pillows
The GTRacing gaming chair comes with a fully cushioned seat for you to sit in. It’s extremely comfortable, and you can sit in it for hours without ever feeling any issues anywhere in your back or legs. However, the cushion didn’t feel thick enough to support those on the heavier side.
The chair boasts that it can cope with users up to 330 pounds in weight. I’d argue that at around 230 pounds though, you’ll start to feel like that seat cushion is a bit too thin. Similarly, the usable seat space is only 15 inches. This isn’t a lot, and anyone who requires more space than that will feel like they’re being trapped inside the chair. At that point, the arms could also start to dig into you.
As for the pillows, there are two. One is a neck support, which is brilliant. You don’t notice it’s there, but the benefits it provides are amazing. You feel like your head is resting back, but it’s fully supported at a great angle for gaming and comfort. The lumbar pillow isn’t quite as nice. It’s good for those who need something to make them feel supported, but I found that it was actually more comfortable to remove the lumbar pillow entirely.
Armrests
The armrests were a worry with this chair. I wasn’t sure that I’d find something that worked as well as a standard office chair, but I was pleasantly surprised. The chair’s armrest can be moved both up and down and in and out. The up and down movement is just like you’d expect to see in an office chair. It makes gaming at the right angle and distance to your desk a breeze. There’s also no worry about the armrests bashing your desk or needing to sit on top of it.
The armrests also move in and out by roughly 45 degrees to the left and right. This makes finding the perfect comfort zone a little bit easier. If you like to sit in a chair with wider armrests, you can achieve that by moving them out. If, however, you want to feel more enclosed, then moving the armrests in will meet your requirements. It’s a buffet of comfort options that you’d never think about in any other chair. Here though, they’re essential and very much welcome.
Seat Height
For any users with an average height, this chair will be fine. You can move the base up and down to a ridiculous level, and I even found my feet suspended off the floor at the highest point. I do feel that I need to point out that anyone who is particularly tall could feel uncomfortable in this seat though.
It isn’t that the chair’s height is too low, it’s more that if you’re too tall, this chair won’t be comfortable for long hours. If you’re over 6″1′, then you might want to look at a more specialized chair. Anyone under that should be fine.
Wheels
I can’t tell you that the wheels on this chair’s base are high-quality, but they do the job. They feel like they might pop out, but unless you’re racing it around, which you shouldn’t be, they’ll stay where they need to be. This was a big worry while making this GTRacing gaming chair review because the wheels can be so hit and miss. What I found was that you could move the chair around easily across most surfaces. A flat surface, without carpet, is probably the best though. It makes moving around your desk so much easier.
Tilt Features
Pros
- Lots of manoeuvrability
Cons
- Backrest tilting feels pointless, and wasteful
- Tilting forwards on the seat is precarious
Back Tilting Too Far
The backrest of the GTRacing gaming chair is ridiculous. It’s got a feature that allows you to tilt back to almost a full 180 degrees. At that angle, no one is gaming. They’re sleeping. The lumbar pillow and neck pillow become uncomfortable at that point, and you need to sit back up again.
If you need a cheap bed, there are better options than this chair. Healthier ones too. The only reason I could think of for needing to tilt back this far is for streamers. If you want to create an over the top reaction to something, it’s perfect for anyone feeling dramatic on camera. Otherwise, it’s useless for the average gamer.
As I found with the S-Racer gaming chair, this feature feels like it’s part of a non-standard piece of equipment used for the chair. It doesn’t make the chair feel specialized. In fact, it makes it feel like a secondary idea. If the time and money that went into that backrest’s tilt feature had gone somewhere else, then the chair could be incredible. As it is though, it’s a poor gimmick for enticing you to believe that it’s a useful feature.
Seat Tilting
The GTRacing gaming chair’s seat tilts forwards and backward. It doesn’t do it by much, but it’s enough to help you into or out of the seat. I found this to be a very nice feature that I think most people will appreciate, even if they don’t initially want it.
I can see the seat tilting forward, being a massive benefit to older gamers. Those who need to use their arms to get out of deep seats. While the GTRacing gaming chair isn’t particularly deep, all of this functionality comes together to make it much more accessible for all kinds of gamers. While making this GTRacing gaming chair review, this was a real highlight. Not enough products for gamers take everyone’s age into account. This one does though.
The only downside of the seat tilting is the fact that when you sit in the chair and get up again, the seat creaks. This happens whether you’ve only just assembled the chair or if you’ve been using it for a long while now. I’m not sure why this happens. It could have something to do with the grease used in the seat parts. Regardless, if you’re not one for creaks in your seat when you initially get up or sit down, this could be a dealbreaker for you.
GTRacing Gaming Chair Range
There’s not one GTRacing gaming chair, but four. In this section of my GTRacing gaming chair review, I’ll cover a little bit about each chair’s differences and similarities. The price doesn’t move too far from $170, so no matter which one you get, you’re still in for a bargain.
Pro Series
The Pro Series is the gaming chair that this review is based on. It’s a reliable chair that does exactly what you need it to do. It might not have additional features like the other two chairs below, but it doesn’t exactly need to. When looking for a gaming chair, I’m after something that I can sit in for hours without feeling uncomfortable. This chair meets that need and goes a little bit beyond meeting it as well. If you’re after a standard gaming chair, this is the model to pick.
Music Series
The music series has a subtle difference, it’s got built-in speakers. The speakers are Bluetooth, so you can connect them to your console or PC and hear your game’s music and sounds through the chair. The specifics of the chair itself are exactly the same otherwise.
I would say that this model feels a bit pointless, much like the 170 degree backrest tilt. The speakers are placed on the back of the chair’s shoulders. This means that while you’ll be able to hear your game, it’s not going to be optimal. There are chairs out there with speakers on the inside of the shoulders, and even ones with built-in headphones. If your game’s audio is important, I’d suggest wearing headphones over relying on this chair. The speaker quality won’t be nearly as good as you need it to be.
Footrest Series
You should know what’s coming next. The footrest series has a footrest on each chair. This is a small cushioned section that folds out from beneath the chair. You can fold it away when you’re not using it and fold it out for when you want to put your feet up.
I like the idea of this feature. It works for reclining armchairs, so why not have it on your gaming chair? Well, I can give you two reasons that you might not like it.
First, this footrest isn’t going to be great if you’re gaming in a small space. It probably won’t fit under your desk, which means you need to angle yourself differently. This could then affect the way your neck is twisting and cause all kinds of issues. If you have the space to stretch out and wheel back for gaming, this chair could work.
The second issue I can see is when the footrest is folded away. I like to tuck my feet under my chair while I’m gaming. This isn’t possible with a footrest in the way though. It’s going to be something that you bump with your feet and could make you feel uncomfortable. At the worst, it’ll put you off your game, which isn’t what anyone wants.
Luxury Series
This chair doesn’t quite fit in with the others because it’s slightly more expensive. It’s also completely unavailable in the UK. The main difference here is the quality of the chair you’re getting. The fabric has been upgraded with a more breathable fabric, and the cushions used throughout are padded to be thicker and more comfortable.
What you’re paying for here is what you’d get with many other gaming chairs, added comfort. The more breathable fabric makes sitting in a chair for hours, even on hot days, a breeze. That extra padding will also allow you to sit for even longer without feeling any sort of discomfort.
The lumbar and neck pillows are bigger and more supportive. For the neck pillow, though, this could result in some discomfort since the standard size with the basic model is just right for most users. If you’d like a thicker neck pillow though, the option is there.
As for the lumbar pillow, it looks more like a standard cushion that you might find on a couch at home. If you want something bigger to stick behind your back, I can recommend one of those as a cheaper option. With that said, this one appears to be ergonomically designed, which is only a good thing for gamers who spend hours sitting in the same position.
For the sake of this GTRacing gaming chair review though, the Luxury Series feels like an unnecessary expense. Something that you pay for because you have the money. If you’ve got a larger budget, there are other chairs out there that can meet your needs better for the same price as this premium version of the GTRacing gaming chair.
Verdict
I’ve tried to be fair in this GTRacing gaming chair review. Buying a gaming chair isn’t something that should be done without some proper research. There are several factors to consider, and I hope that I’ve covered most of them here for you.
The GTRacing gaming chair is great overall for the price, but you can get a much better chair if you’re willing to spend more money. Therein lies the key selling point for this product. It’s far cheaper than anything else you’ll find on the market, but that doesn’t mean you have to buy it. The flaws I’ve pointed out can be largely ignored if you don’t have a decent chair to game in at the moment.
If you need something that’s going to be comfortable for long nights spent gaming, then the GTRacing gaming chair is perfect. Regardless of what model you pick up, the basic structure is enough to keep you happy for hours every day. If you want to pick up one of these chairs, check out the official website here.
