I’ve spoken about it in a few previous reviews but it’s really important to remember that there are a few things beyond your PC itself that will really improve your gaming experience. A few of the obvious examples are your keyboard and mouse but there are others that you might not even consider. A perfect example of something that most people skimp on is their chair. The ironic thing is that your chair is used more than any other product at your desk. As someone who spends both their work and recreational time in front of a PC, a high quality chair is even more important. I have been using the same “racing” style office chair for nearly 10 years now, after being repaired multiple times the chair has seen better days. When I came across the chairs from a company called DXRacer they fit the bill perfectly. Let’s see if their M-Series Gaming Chair can keep me gaming for the next 10 years.
Product Name: DXRacer M-Series Game Chair
Review Sample Provided by: DXRacer
Written by: Wes
Pictures by: Wes
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Specifications |
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Model |
OH/MY07/NO |
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Color |
Black and orange |
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Cover |
PVC |
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Armrest |
New 90 degree adjustable |
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Base |
Aluminum |
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Mechanism |
Deluxe |
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Adjustor |
Twin |
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Weight limit |
330 pounds |
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Accessories |
Headrest cushion and lumbar cushion |
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Feature |
Quality and Security |
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Functions |
Raise and Lower |
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Warranty |
lifetime on frame 2 years on parts |
Packaging
The poor UPS guy that had to deliver the M-Series up only my porch really deserves a raise. This chair came in an extremely large box that tips the scales at around 56 pounds. Not only was it large and hard to hold on to but with that weight I really have no idea how he got it from his truck to our house without dragging it. For scale I put a full ATX motherboard on top of the box to show just how large it was. The box itself isn’t to flashy, you have the DXRacer logo in red and just an outline of the chair itself on the side. With this getting shipped in its main box (as expected) I think anything more than this might draw to much attention to what is inside anyhow, not that many people could take a box this sized off your porch without someone noticing.
Inside the M-Series is broken down into pieces and DXRacer used a heavy duty foam in between parts to keep everything in good shape. Our chair came in without any damage or issues related to packaging/shipping.
All of the M-Series parts come wrapped up in plastic to prevent them from getting any rub marks during shipment. As you can see, the base comes in complete with the arm rests already attached as well.
Inside of the small box in the previous pictures, I found all of the other goodies needed to build the M-Series. You have all five of its large locking caster wheels, the hydraulic piston that you set the height with, the two paddle controls and the five matching orange footrests that go on the end of each of the chairs legs. The instruction manual is bagged up and included in this box as well.
Photos and Features
The DXRacer M-Series (Max Series) is an extremely good looking chair with in our case a black and orange PVC upholstery. As expected, it has a racing styling, but that was obvious with the DXRacer company name. What I was really surprised with though is that the M-Series doesn’t have the hard side bolstering that racing seats have. This is why I went with the M-Series over some of their smaller seats, as a larger guy I have to be mindful of how wide I am (lol). You do still get the same racing shape in the top of the chair although they did drop the holes that a racing chair would have for its 5 point harness.
When shopping on DXRacer’s website I really like that they include full dimensions of every aspect of each chair. This really helped me pick what seat would work best for me.
In order for the M-Series to support the additional weight and still offer such a great warranty (lifetime on the frame) DXRacer had to overbuild everything about the chair, especially the base. This means the base of the chair is forged out of metal for durability unlike most other chairs include the AK that I have been using for years. In comparison to the Playseat, I can say that Playseat spent a little more money in this area because their base was slightly heavier duty and polished. I am all for keeping costs under control when possible and I think this was a good decision for DXRacer that allows them to be able to offer a quality product without needlessly running the chair’s price up.
The metal base also includes what they call a footrest shaped base. This is because of the five footrests that you attach to the base. This should keep the base in great shape, even if you are like me and love to put their feet on the chair’s base when sitting. The M-Series uses ABS plastic casters on all that also include a built in lock on each caster. This chair isn’t going anywhere if you lock all five down!
To go along with the all-metal base DXRacer made sure to use a heavy gauge steel on the two support brackets on the underside of the chair. The front support beam is even larger to help support all of your weight when adjusting yourself on the armrests. The green nylon support straps do a great job of spreading the weight out over the entire chair as well.
Where the M-Series really stood out from both our Playseat and the AK chair here in the office was with its armrests. The shape of the padding was oddly squared off compared to the other chairs with very rounded ends. The gun trigger style of button that allows you to adjust the height of the armrests is a MUCH better solution that the odd twist action on the Playseat and the normal push button style that most other chairs. It was perfectly out of the way but still easy to use. The armrests were also spinable, locking into place in 45 degree increments.
Along with the adjustable armrests, the M-Series also has an adjustable back. Our Playseat had this same feature as well and it is just like the adjustable back on your cars seat. You can change the angle of the back using the lift up handle on the right side of the chair. This is perfect for setting your seatback a little farther back than normal for a relaxing Friday or kicking it upright when you need better posture to get you working.
DXRacer went all out with the orange and black theme all the way to the head and lumbar support pillows. Additionally they made sure to embroider their logo on the head pillow and the Max Series logo on the lumbar support. The head pillow attached to the top of the chair with an elastic Velcro strap that goes around the chair. The lumbar support pillow is a little different, it has an elastic strap with a plastic clip. It attaches around the back padding and allows you to move its height up and down to what is most comfortable to you.
With the head pillow and lumbar support installed on the chair the orange and black styling really catches your eye. I prefer the slightly cleaner look of the chair without both pillows installed but I will talk about how well the two pillows performed in the performance section later.
I did notice a small issue in the PVC upholstery in the seat base. As far as the cuts and the fit goes everything was fine but I did notice that the two horizontal seams across were especially crooked. The truth is I will never see it when I’m sitting in the chair but it was just interesting because overall the rest of the upholstery seemed to be reasonably straight. The other interesting thing about eh base for the M-Series was how deep the seat itself actually is. Considering it is made for a larger person, this wasn’t too big of a surprise but it was noticeably deeper than any of the other seats around the office, I like it!
Assembly
Unless you buy used or pick up a chair from a store that offers free assembly you are more likely going to end up stuck putting them together from time to time. This is the case with DXRacer as well, especially considering they have to ship the chair too you. After I pulled everything out of our extremely large box I pulled the instructions out and compared everything to make sure I wasn’t missing any parts. I had a little bit of a scare thinking I was missing the bolts listed, but it turns out DXRacer pre-installs them into the chair for you.
With everything ready to go I started with the 5 point base. Installing the five caster wheels was as simple as pushing the peg into the hole. Next I put it on the floor and snapped all five of the orange foot rests into place as well. Next I just had to sit the hydraulic piston in the hole in the base and our base was good to go.
Up until now I hadn’t even had to deal with a screw or a bolt, but the next step was installing the lean assembly to the underside of the chair. To do this I had to bolt it down using the allen wrench that DXRacer included in the box. With this installed I just had to sit the chair base on the hydraulic piston and the M-Series was starting to finally look like a chair. All that was left to do on the main assembly was to install the seat back onto the seat base. Doing this by myself required a little work to line things up but once I did installing the four bolts was easy. Once tightened up I just had to install the plastic covers using two screws and the allen wrench that had a screwdriver end on it.
I kind of covered the installation of the head and lumbar support pillows in the previous section. I found installing and removing the head pillow to be extremely simple with its Velcro design. The lumbar support pillow on the other hand was a little harder to install. You have to pull the pad on the chair back out and run the strap around it. The back pad doesn’t detach at the bottom or the top so you have a very limited amount of space to be able to run your arm around the back to strap it down. Once installed it was easy to move the lumbar support up and down to get the location just right.
Performance
For performance testing a chair I had to spend HOURS and HOURS in the Max Series while writing, gaming, and even watching TV. Lucky for me, that is what I do anyhow. The timing couldn’t be better considering just a few days after the chair came in I had a group of friends over for an in office LAN. This gave me a chance to test it out with extended gaming sessions as we as have a few other people give it a sit and let me know what they thought. Even before I got to the weekend of the LAN I knew that I liked the M-Series when I fell asleep sitting in it the first night I had it. Unlike most other “gaming” chairs this chair was wide enough for me to sit comfortably and if I wanted I could prop a leg up across the seat without any issues from high bolstering on the sides like most chairs with the racing/gaming theme. There is a considerable amount more padding in the base of the M-Series when compared to the Playseat as well.
Part of the reason the chair is so comfortable is its adjustability. You are able to adjust all of the normal aspects like the chair height, armrest height, and if the chair leans back. But on top of that you can set the angle of the seatback, just like in a car seat and you can also turn the armrests to an angle as well. The armrests do only lock into place at 90 and 45 degree increments, I do wish there were a few more options in between 90 and 45 degrees as my preferred angle is around 70 degrees. Speaking of the armrests, DXRacer went with an odd shape for them. I would prefer them to be a little more rounded on the ends and less contoured on the tops, but in the end they got the job done comfortably.
What really did me in when I fell asleep in the M-Series was the head rest pillow that can be strapped too it. The lumbar support seems to depend on the person as I wasn’t a fan at all but my wife loved it so much she was using it on her own chair.
I did run into a few small issues after some time with the chair. First, the decision to put locks on each of the chairs five feet caused me a lot of trouble. The included wheels are large and roll around nearly as good as the rollerblade style wheels on the AK Octane. However, the locks on the wheels are large and easily flipped with your feet, especially considering the chair has footrests built into the base. I found myself locked in place far too many times. My other issue was with the PVC upholstery. It looks great and feels fine but it does breathe a little less than the fabric on my last chair and I started to notice this after the office warmed up slightly while gaming. It would be great to have a fabric option available as well.
Overall and Final Verdict
Anyone who has visited the LanOC office can vouch for the collection of “gaming” themed office chairs that I have sitting around. As I said earlier in this article, as gamers we spend more time in our office chairs than most people. For me this is doubly bad because I sit in the same chair all day (or night) working then stay up gaming after I’m done. Spending that much time in any chair you are going to want it to be extremely comfortable, fit you well, and hold up to your abuse. The other chairs in the office have fit the bill in 2 out of three of those ways. My AK Octane was comfortable and fit me perfectly but repairing it countless times along the way proved it couldn’t hold up to my abuse. The Playseat Office chair is amazing and of the highest quality, but it didn’t fit me well causing comfort issues over long periods of time.
The DXRacer Max Series surprisingly fit all three of my requirements very well. It wasn’t perfect, I did have an issue with the caster wheel locks constantly being bumped. I would have also preferred the seat to have a more breathable fabric in place of all of the black upholstery. But those issues were easy to overcome when considering how comfortable the chair was. I fell asleep in the chair the first night I was testing it! The color options are great and they even had a LanOC orange model, its only missing a LanOC logo right in the seat to make its styling perfect. Of course making a chair of this size isn’t cheap, at $449 it is priced up there with commercial office chairs, but there really isn’t anything comparable in the gaming market for a larger person or anyone who doesn’t want the high side bolstering.
DXRacer did also ask that we give everyone a headsup if they decide to go with a DXRacer chair. Be sure to pick up your chair from DXRacer or their authorized distributers. Apparently there have been a few knock offs being sold under their name (one of the examples shown to me even says they are an authorized dealer but I would prefer to not say their name and bring them traffic).
