At this point, there is a whole list of companies who are now selling their one racing style gaming chairs and it is starting to make it hard to figure out who you might want to go with. One of the new companies that reached out to us about checking out their chairs is OPSEAT. Unlike some of the other brands, the OPSEAT has a brand name that is taken right from gaming. OP is a term used in games to describe a champion or weapon overpowered. Their Master Series is their first line of chairs, but I’m curious to find out if they really are overpowered. One thing is for sure though, they do seem to be one of the only brands with a chair priced where a lot of people can afford it. If the OPSEAT is good, this could end up being a good buy, so let's get it put together and see what it’s all about.
Product Name: OPSEAT Master Series Gaming Chair
Review Sample Provided by: OPSEAT
Written by: Wes
Pictures by: Wes
Amazon Link: HERE
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Specifications |
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Weight |
51.0 lbs |
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Material |
Metal Frame, Synthetic Leather |
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Colors Available |
Red, White, Green, Yellow, Blue, Black, Purple, Grey, Orange, Light Blue, and Pink |
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Warranty |
1 Year Limited Warranty |
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Chair Weight Limit |
350 lbs. |
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Height |
44 in. to 47 in. |
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Width |
25 in. |
Packaging and Assembly
As always, before I can test out the new chair, I do have to get it built. BUT before I can do that we have to get it all out of the box. The OPSEAT wasn’t any different than the other chairs in the fact that its box is huge and your delivery driver isn’t going to like you when it comes in. The box doesn’t have anything crazy for artwork and it is just a brown box with black art on it but they do make sure it stands out with a big black area with OPSEAT and #GAMEOP right on the side.
Inside when you first open it up there is a piece of cardboard across the top to help prevent someone from cutting the chair when opening the box after you ignore the do not cut right on the top. The chair back it up on to then there is foam before you get to the main assembly where they have the armrests and the chair base altogether. Then there is a lot more thick foam protecting everything with plastic on every component.
Next, I got the instructions out, they are a single page with diagrams for each step. I also pulled all of the parts out and took the plastic off to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.
You won’t need the pillows until the end so set them aside.
Along with the big parts, you also need all of the smaller parts including the bolt bag where they include an Allen wrench to help you get everything put together.
I like to get the base done first to get it out of the way. You have to press each of the wheels into the base one at a time. They go in really easy and lock in once you get them all the way in. Then normally you then put the hydraulic cylinder and I did that but I had to go back because I missed the cover for the center of the base. Most other chairs don’t have the cover, so many sure you don’t forget it. It slides right on with fingers that slide down between each leg. Then from there you put the hydraulic cylinder into the base and put the plastic cover on over it.
Next is getting the tilt assembly attached to the chair. This is really the first time you have to attach any bolts. The wrench and bolts are both in the small tool bag. You use the bolt, a locking O-ring, then a regular O-ring on each of the four corners of the assembly. You also need to make sure the big round adjuster is facing the front of the case. I had a little trouble at first getting the bolts in here. The bolt holes are cutout of the material but the material flaps back into the way so you will need to get each started y hand carefully to make sure they are in correctly. Then crank them down.
Next, you need to take the chair base with the installed lean assembly and drop it on top of the base we put together first. This is just press fit so you line the hole in the bottom of the chair with the top of the hydraulic cylinder. Once in place, the pressure of you sitting in the chair locks it into place.
The last part to add is the chair back. This is best with a second set of hands but one person can do it alone as well. You have to line up the two holes on each side with the two brackets sticking out of the bottom. It is best to attach the bolts to the right side of the chair because this is the bracket that holds the chair back up. Like the bottom, you need the bolts, lock washers, and regular washers. The bolts are cool because they support the included Allen wrench with the hex hole in the middle or you can use a socket on the outside. Like the bottom bolts, you do have to get them started first because the fake leather covering the seat gets in the way and likes to keep you from getting the bolt in the hole. Once you have both sides together you then just have to screw the plastic cover on each side and you are done building the chair.
Photos and Features
With everything together the OPSeat Master Series does follow the same look that all of the other gaming chairs are doing with a racing inspired design. Their design has a V shape across the black section on the seat back and little more use of the accent color to give it a little different look. It is comparable to the Arozzi Mezzo that I reviewed last month or something like the F-Series from DXRacer. This means it is designed for an average frame size, big guys like myself are going to find it a little tighter, especially with the side bolster supports on each side of the bottom, just like a racing seat. Lucky for me, my wife is tiny so for testing, she could do more of the testing to keep things fair.
The back has the OP Seat logo up on top and I have to say I’m a big fan of their logo. It's simple but looks good on the chair, its also not tilted like a lot of the other gaming chairs from the material being stretched. There are two holes in the back to imitate the holes in racing seats for 5 point harnesses. The base color is black on all of their chairs currently and then they use accent colors up the sides. It’s a little weird that the accent has a sliver of black that runs up from the bottom but you don’t really see that area when sitting in the chair. The black back then has a V shape cut in it and black on the corners of what I like to call the wings. The shoulder braces. For our accent color, I decided to go with something a little calmer this time around. The gray looks great and gives just enough accent to give the chair style without being as flashy as the orange and blue chairs we have had in the past.
Around on the back, there aren’t any accents. This is in line with what all of the other gaming chairs do but I always have to wonder why they don’t. When you are sitting in the chair, this would be the only areas that other people would even see the accents really, beyond a little at the top of the chair.
The bottom of the chair has a little less of the accent color but they did use some at the end of the side bolsters and two sections up under the front where your legs will be. This view gives us a good look at the side bolsters. This design is a carryover from racing as well to keep you from sliding in your chair when going around turns. For office chairs, you don’t have to worry about sliding around like that, at least not how I use chairs, but it does give a nice snug feeling that most people like. This does limit the chair to the width of the person's hips like I said this one fits an average to slightly larger frame.
The armrests are par for the course for gaming chairs. They have a nice curved top shape with a little padding. They also have height adjustment but no side to side or camber adjustments. You get a total of about 3 inches of range as you can see in the photo below, one is all the way down and the other is all the way up.
I think the base is where OPSeat stands out the most when compared to all of the other racing styled gaming chairs. Most have redesigned their bases with aggressive styling, grips, and other gimmicks. OPSeat went with a base that looks like any traditional office chair. They then went with a wheel that is unique, where most use the same standard wheels. The wheels are the same size as a standard wheel but when you get a look from the side they look like an aftermarket wheel on a car. Given the racing seat design, it goes well with the chair.
So the main thing I like about racing style chairs is the adjustments you get in the chair overall. Like a traditional office chair, you do have a standard lean mechanism that you can lock vertical or adjust the spring tension using the knob below the chair. You can also raise and lower the chair with a hydraulic lift, controlled by an arm on the right side of the chair. It’s the lever on the right side of the chair under the arm rest that I love though. On top of the traditional lean, you can also set the angle of the chair back, just like in a car. It’s not the best for ergonomics, but being able to set the back a little farther back can be extremely comfortable, especially for gaming.
For pillows and supports you get a lumbar support pillow and a head pillow. Both match the chair with our black and gray theme. The lumbar pillow uses two straps that run through the seatbelt holes and up under the bottom of the chair back to let you adjust it up and down to best fit you. It has the OPSeat logo on it as well. The head pillow, on the other hand, doesn’t have the OPSeat logo. This was a little odd to me because it actually covers the OPSeat logo on the chair when you install it. Personally, I only like using the headrest pillow, the lumbar pillows never work for me. Luckily though the lumbar straps have clips in line so you can pop it off if you don’t want to use it.
So I mentioned that you can tilt the chair back. Well here is a look at just how far. You can go completely vertical or all the way back, matching the chair bottom. I wouldn’t recommend going back that far though, you will fall over.
Here is a shot of the OPSeat Master Series with both pillows installed.
Performance
For performance testing, I spent time using the OPSeat Master Series myself to get a feel for it but left the long term testing to my wife. I did this because I’m a big guy and long term impressions of the chair wouldn’t really be fair to the chair or anyone looking for information on how it performed if my frame was bigger than the chair base. So my initial impressions of the chair weren’t far off from the Arozzi that I recently covered and that is because the OPSeat is a lot like the other chairs on the market. Even at my size, I was able to fit in the chair and be comfortable something I can’t do in most of the average sized gaming chairs. The seat seems to be a little on the large size and they did a good job with padding in the right places as well. The bottom of the chair has the thickest padding of course.
The picture below is the side bolsters on the bottom. These also have decent padding, but less than the rest of the base. Padding here is really important because there are steel bars in each support, without padding they would start to dig into the side of your legs.
The photo below is the armrest padding. I’ve had people in the past ask about just how much padding armrests have on gaming chairs. It's not as much padding as a couch or lazy boy but you do get a little. Putting your arm up on it is still comfortable, even if you dig your elbow into it.
The seat fit my wife especially well and the pillow height fit the back of her head where it landed closer to my neck. She tossed the lumbar support as well right away but kept the pillow for all of her testing. The chair ended up being extremely comfortable, even in long term use. She did have to adjust back to not sitting in her chair Indian style, the side supports and average frame size prevented that. Even in extended gaming sessions though she didn’t have any discomfort, numbness, or issues with the chair.
I hate to continue to say it, but the OPSeat is in line with all of the other racing gaming chairs as far as fit, comfort, and even construction goes. We had an issue early where the chair didn’t want to tilt back and the adjustment knob on the bottom didn’t fix it. OPSeat sent out a replacement part and it corrected the issue. Of all of the chairs I’ve tested, it was the first time I’ve had that issue and they seemed just as surprised as well. The fake leather finish had all of the same pros and cons. It doesn’t breath very well so if you get hot you might stick to the chair but it is also cleanable, unlike a standard fabric chair material.
Overall and Final Verdict
So with the OPSeat Master Series, I felt a bit like a broken record because multiple times I had to point out that the chair looks and performs a lot like the rest of the racing themed gaming chairs. In some situations it would be a bad thing for it to not really stand out from the crowd when it comes to styling or performance but OPSeat has one thing going for them that most don’t With an MSRP of $219 and shipping costs of $20 it comes in a lot cheaper than most of the other gaming chairs on the market. Because of that being comparable in comfort and style at a much lower price is huge if you ask me. Beyond that price, I really liked the wide variety of color options available from OPSeat. They also didn’t go too overboard with the styling like some of the chairs. I even really dig the OPSeat branding as aa whole, it’s one of only a few chair brands that actually focused their branding on gaming itself, not having a racing themed name with a focus on gaming like DXRacer for example.
For downsides, I do wish OPSeat had options for bigger guys. One of the sad truths of gamers is there are more unhealthy or just big framed people. Finding chairs as a big guy is hard, finding them with the racing style is even harder. My only other issue was the problem we originally had with the chair not tilting, but OPSeat quickly sent a replacement and took care of it.
Overall I think OPSeat falls in the middle of the pack for feature and styling but because of their pricing, it puts them in a unique class. There are a few other chairs at the same price point, but none seem to match the benchmark of the popular brands like DXRacer that OPSeat does. They even do it at a price that is $80 less.
