Overview
Hardware: Peripherals
Manufacturer: Ewin
:
WHAT WE LIKED:
High density memory foam, more than average height adjustment, slim lumbar pillow, sturdy metal frame and base, 155 degree recline, well packaged and easily assembled.
WHAT WE DISLIKED:
Price is a little steep, embroidery frays over time, plastic bar hits your head when fully reclined without pillows, this model lacks additional armrest adjustments,
A well designed chair with negligible faults, but the price is currently at a place where you may be better off with either a less expensive model with similar features or pay a little more for an upgrade.
Introduction
Chairs! Whether you’re being a cubicle jockey or gaming until your butt goes numb, a good chair goes a long way. Now EWinRacing has thrown their hat in the pool of gaming chairs, an analogy that has gotten away from me. Have they made the most epicurean masterpiece to which one should perch their posterior? Have they simply made a good looking chair? Let us find out. To the REVIEW! After these messages:
EwinRacing chair was newly founded in 2016 after being a leader OEM office chair manufacturer.
With the development in design and research, we strive for a professionalization in gaming chair field. Ever more, in order to bring you a healthier working and relaxing environment, we will continuously pursue humanism in design and manufacturing ergonomic gaming chairs. What’s more our strict quality inspection process and standard ensures you a better chair for better life.
If you were having a hard time reading that, you are not alone. Moving on. Also, you can check out the video review if you enjoy watching the miseries of trying to open a box without cutting the tape!
Unboxing and Assembly
I gently place the box on the ground. With swift determination I flip out my trusty knife to open the box. But what is this!? “Do Not Cut” written beneath a warning of attention. Undeterred, my Christmas Day repertoire of exhuming skills unleash upon the cardboard prison… and wow is there a lot of tape.
I’m assuming that “Do Not Cut” is mostly placed in effort to prevent someone from opening it with the knife pointed directly downward. It wouldn’t have mattered, however, as the first object in the upright position is the steel five point base. In the instance you are opening this box with a Crocodile Dundee knife, you knew what you were getting into. The chair back cushioned the center while the base and box of parts were cleverly positioned at the bottom. Being the lowest layer wasn’t the clever part so much as the box of smaller parts was pushing the seat against the opposite side of the box.
The other two sides of the box were supported by the armrests. Why is any of this important? I found out last time I opened one of these chairs that anything fragile really shouldn’t be in contact with any side of the box. Nothing was touching the sides of the box that couldn’t take a hit. The plastic facades on the hinge of the chair are buffered from the sides of the box by the armrests. Worst case scenario would be someone hitting the exact location of the facades on the bottom of the box or someone dropping it fiercely, but even then those hinge covers have at least a centimeter between them and the cardboard surface because of the seat. A dumb thing to be excited about and I don’t regret it. People need to know they should test their shipping containers.
If I had a criticism with packaging, it would probably be the location of the instructions. While the small part box is the obvious choice, taking inventory of the parts would be easier if you had the list when you opened the box. Along with the invoice of parts is a checklist of warnings and precautionary steps to take before assembly. Again, something we might want to know before we start taking parts out.
Assembly was simple enough. I appreciate that the majority of the screws were in the holes that you were going to place them already. Unscrew the back rest bolts, place on seat, put the bolts back in. Unscrew four base screws, place metal chair lift bracket, put the screws back in. There were only two, though it said there should be three, screws that came in a bag. No screwdrivers were needed, either. All of the screws had hex heads that you placed with the included Allen wrenches. The only difficult part of the build was the same problem with every gaming chair: attaching the seat and the back rest together. Maybe I need to assemble more chairs because that step always gets me. I feel like that is the one step that might require two people. I swear I’m doing it wrong every time.
Weirdest included item? Microfiber gloves.
As Josh pointed out, “I would love some microfiber gloves for handling these full glass PC cases, but why do you need them with a chair?” Are you displaying the chair for an event? You’ll probably want those gloves to keep all the greasy hand stains off of it. Are you going to use the chair? You’ll probably get greasy hand stains on it. Or at least I will. Doritos, tacos, sweaty game palms, head, back, french fries, and every greasy thing you can imagine will eventually touch this chair. Those stains also don’t tend to linger. Much like purposefully making a scratch on a metal plated apple device, assume people will have their grimy hands on your chair.
In the end, casters are still awkward to push down and it is awfully nice to sit in any chair after you assemble it.
The Sitting Experience
Is there some sort of butt comfort metric to compare how much better one chair feels compared to another? E-Win’s chair is a steel frame covered in cold molding, high density memory foam. Does this mean that the chair will never form to your body? I don’t know, I doubt I can wait long enough for the answer before posting the review. It is less stiff than other gaming chairs in the seat area.
My only issue with the seat is that it does not reach the back of my knee, something that I never used to have but now feels noticeable.
Thigh wings keep your legs from moving too far out of the proper ergonomic range (so far as I’m concerned, that is the proper name now). The equivalent foam rails that come out from the backrest is probably my favorite design feature. It both keeps the body’s mid section in place while also contouring with the lumbar pillow when it’s attached. Most gaming chairs are built less for all-around comfort than intentional ergonomics. Those body rails lining the edges are intended to keep your body from leaning or positioning your legs in improper ways. As a result of the design, if you sit cross legged, slumped to one elbow, or hunched forward it will likely seem awkward and uncomfortable. If you sit with all of your necessary joints at 90 degrees and sitting upright then no worries, marathon away.
Something I’d like to point out if you are in the market for this chair is the difference between the Hero Series HRD and HRC. The HRD has 2D armrests. That’s a fancy way of saying it goes up and down. Technically if you loosen the screws for the armrest you can move them left and right a smidge. The HRC has the fancy 4D armrests that rotate, shift back and forth, in and out, break dance, pop a wheely, you get the gist.
Personally, the 2D is plenty as the left and right adjustment can bring them inward a little more. The default armrest distance feels a little far for me. It works as a resting position to have my arms spread out but keyboard and controller related tasks require your arms to be in a little more. If you have broad shoulders and are built like a Battletoad, you can dismiss my opinion.
Reclining with gaming chairs is a little out of control. I understand throwing the seat back to relax, I do! Full 180 degree recline is more terrifying than comfortable. To my relief, the Hero Series E-Win stops around 155 degrees. That extra 25 degrees you’re not bent backwards goes a long ways towards being able to get back up without assistance. Also, while we are talking about reclining, I wouldn’t suggest leaning all the way back if you do not have the head pillow on.
Throwing yourself back at an angle of around 125-135 degrees will cause your head to collide with a stiff piece of plastic. I’ll talk a little more about that later. Headrest wise, it feels good. A non critical issue is if you squeeze the headrest, it sounds like crinkling. As if to fill some additional space someone stuffed it with newspaper. It doesn’t effect the feel of the headrest and you won’t notice the sound unless you squish it by hand but I thought it was interesting.
My favorite part of this chair is how hilariously high the vertical lift goes. At full height, my feet are dangling. Without shoes I feel like a kid in an adult seat.
I’m 6′ tall, so I typically only have this problem with bar stools. When I built a desk into my wall, I had made it high enough that I could get an old office chair’s arms under it. The issue afterwards was being unable to set my armrests high enough to be level with the desk so it was seamlessly flat to the keyboard and mouse. Now I can go above and beyond what I need. You may not experience this if you are all legs and no torso, in which case I apologize for misleading you.
Head and Lumbar Pillows
My mantra involving gaming chair pillows is, “all gaming chairs need a head pillow, lumbar should be used as needed.” There’s likely a more flowery way to say that, let’s call it a work in progress. The headrest and pillows all have the E-Win logo embroidered on them. As I’ve noticed in the past, anything embroidered that makes repeated contact with the body is likely to unravel a bit. Embroidery on cloth and other fabric materials don’t tend to have this problem, but the faux leather tends to not handle it as well.
Of the chairs I’ve used, the Hero Series E-Win Gaming chair has my favorite lumbar pillow. Other than fitting into the design of the chair, the pillow has a thinner profile and feels more natural to keep it attached. But like every gaming chair, the lumbar pillow pushes you off the chair a bit.
The issue is only exaggerated by the distance from the edge of the chair to the back of my knee. If you haven’t noticed, gaming chairs have their center of gravity towards the back of the chair so you can lean back safely.
Any forward weight tips the chair. The lumbar pillow can push you precariously close to the point of balance failure. Still, there’s times where you might want the lumbar pillow for lower back pain. I’m not saying you can’t sit on the chair with it, so much as asking you to be mindful of the chair’s center of gravity.
The position of the head pillow, as it comes in the box and on the picture on the website, is not a good way to use the pillow. Out of the box, the head pillow strap is wrapped around the lumbar pillow straps.
This is fine if you have the lumbar pillow attached, no problems. What if you don’t want the lumbar pillow? If you attempt to use the pillow through the plastic slot in the chair, it will just fall out because it is a full horizontal opening.
I’m curious what advantage there is to having a full horizontal slit as opposed to having only two holes to thread the straps through. Attaching the lumbar pillow to the back side of the chair works.
The straps still exist to attach the pillow. Honestly, it still isn’t at the best position to use it as the pillow ends up in the upper back.
I’ve found these pillows work best when in the neck area. In order to get the pillow up to neck area, you have to pull it up and lean back quickly into it. How do you avoid all of this mess of logistics?
Simple, give up on attaching it to the lumbar straps and pull it over the top of the headrest. Seems like that is what E-Win concluded as well, given the picture of their Hero Series HRC. My worry was over stretching the strap so it would no longer attach to the lumbar pillow.
Yes, it will over stretch, but attaching it to the lumbar pillow was inefficient anyway. Just commit.
Conclusion
This gaming chair comes in at $359, a price on the precipice of affordable and luxury. What sets the chair apart is its memory foam layer, additional backrest lumbar support/stability, and vertical height. There are several chairs $100 cheaper that also have a steel frame, lumbar and head pillows, 2d armrests, full recline, and metal five point base. With the exception of the awkward plastic bar across the headrest, there is nothing wrong with the design. My only hesitation is that the price is a little steep for the introductory gaming chair. I would say though, that if you could save around $60 it would be a perfect price, so not a huge gap. I’m going to go ahead and give this a Pure Overclock Great Hardware Award.
Don’t forget that if you plan to buy your own EwinRacing Gaming Chair, to check out the promo code below!
NOTE: This is a review post from Pureoverclock.