The idea of gaming chairs has always been an anomaly to me. I wondered what could make a chair so much better for gaming that people modeled its entire existence around it. I never planned on purchasing one, so I figured that I’d never know either way. That is until EwinRacing sent me one of their chairs to review. How does it fare? Let’s find out.
The most immediately noticeable thing about the chair is the way it looks, obviously. The chair really looks like a racing bucket seat. Honestly, it smelled like one too. Once I opened the box it came in, that familiar new car smell filled the room completely. It also doesn’t hurt that the chair itself is very high quality in terms of build, which is very aesthetically pleasing.
My favorite thing about this EwinRacing chair is the cushion. It’s thick and comfortable and certainly a far cry from the cushion in my old office chair. Whereas that one required me to change my position fairly regularly in order to reduce soreness, this cushion has no such problem, making it great for use with PC gaming chairs. It’s really nice to sink into, and it seems like it’ll last a long time as well.
The Armrests Are A Standout Feature
The chair’s armrests are also really cool. The EwinRacing chair has extremely adjustable armrests with a surprising amount of functionality. Not only can you adjust their height on the fly, but you can also readily move them forward and backward. The angle is also adjustable, meaning there are a lot of options for people who are picky about where to put their arms. You can even move them from left to right, as is common with chairs for gaming.
Unfortunately, the armrests aren’t padded like the rest of the chair. They’re made of a durable foam but remain comfortable enough that they never hurt my arms, even if I wish they were softer at times. One really cool thing about them is the length and flatness of the main part of the armrest. You can easily use it as a mousepad, and it paired very well with my gaming mouse. There’s plenty of room available, so I don’t have to worry about the mouse falling down when I use it.
The Back Could Use Some More Comfort
Another really nice feature is the EwinRacing Flash Normal’s lift mechanism. The chair height has a lot of variety and goes really high, really low, and anywhere in between. Raising and lowering the chair is also smooth, quick, and quiet, which makes quick adjustments easy, which I appreciated.
The back of the chair, while padded, isn’t padded quite as much as I’d like. It has significantly less foam than the seat and can be uncomfortable at times, especially due to the shape. I feel like my shoulders don’t have quite enough room and that the chair can feel painfully hard on my lower back, requiring readjustment.
However, much like the armrests, you can set the back’s position at many varying angles via a lever on the right side. If I put no pressure on the back, the chair will go forward when I pull the lever. Likewise, while sitting back in it, pulling the lever will make it go backward. It’s a really great feature to allow the chair to conform to each person’s specific needs.
The Reclining Lever Could Be Smoother
Unfortunately, it isn’t as smooth of an adjustment process as the other features. Whenever I try to recline further, the lever can give a lot of resistance and make a loud sound when doing so. It can also be difficult to pick the exact angle I want the back of the chair at, as the lever appears to adjust in set increments when moving the chair backward.
Further complicating these features is the fact that the EwinRacing Flash Normal didn’t come with anything that really explained specifically how everything worked. It took me seconds to raise my armrests, but afterward, I wasn’t sure how to get them back down. I’d been using the chair for over a week before I fully understood how to use the armrest button.
I do love the cushion itself. However, that love is severely dampened by my biggest issue with the chair: the wings on the side of the seat. The cushion appears designed to have your legs fit snugly into what I can only describe as leg-shaped patterns on the cushion. Something like this undoubtedly makes sense in a car seat. But I don’t understand what benefit it offers a chair that probably can’t exceed 5 miles per hour.
The Wings Are The Bane Of My Existence
Time and time again I find myself putting the bottoms of my legs right on top of the wings. I like to sit with a lot of legroom, but they make sitting in this chair feel extremely cramped. It’s even worse on the sides of my thighs, which are constantly pressing into the wings.
After a short amount of time, my legs start hurting. I constantly need to adjust them and keep track of where they’re situated in order to stay comfortable. When putting my legs up, they always end up going numb after a few minutes. I’ve never had that kind of an issue with a chair before. I’m also not a particularly large person and have never had an issue with not having enough legroom before, whether I was sitting in office chairs, car seats, or even dining furniture.
For comparison’s sake, my old office chair has roughly 21 inches for legroom. The EwinRacing Flash Normal, on the other hand, only has around 15. The wings not only dig into my legs, but even with the narrow cushion, I feel the chair would be better off without them at all. I simply don’t see why the leg room was so severely constrained.
The Headrest Just Doesn’t Cut It
Finally, the chair has a headrest, but it’s far too flat and rather uncomfortable. Because of the flatness of it, I’m never able to properly rest my head, only awkwardly pressing one or two parts of the back of my head into it. It really needs more padding and to extend further; otherwise, it just gets in the way.
It’s worth mentioning that the chair comes with pillows you can strap to it, both for your lower back and neck. However, they appear to be only for aesthetic purposes. They’re hard and uncomfortable, and they left me with a lot of neck and back pain when I tried them. The chair, interestingly enough, has a couple of openings below the headrest where you’re meant to funnel the pillow straps. However, seeing as the pillows only led to pain on my end, these openings are more of a gaudy inclusion. I still sometimes bump my head into them when I’m sitting in specific ways.
Overall, there are definitely things I like about this chair. The cushion, the armrests, and the adjustable nature are all very welcome. But the extremely limited legroom, the less-than-ideal comfort level of the back, and the ineffectual headrest weaken the entire package.
I could definitely recommend this EwinRacing chair for smaller people who don’t mind the headrest issues or who don’t need as much padding on their backs. Many others, however, would likely find the wings of the chair to severely mar the overall experience. As for me, I’ve had to stop using the chair due to my neck, back, and legs hurting.
If you would like to order one of these chairs, use the discount code PCV to get 15% off your order.
