Razer Enki Gaming Chair Review: It Strikes A Nice Balance

This chair looks downright striking and we're really loving the green accents throughout the entire chair. If you're familiar with gaming products in general, we're pretty sure you can immediately tell that this is a Razer gaming product. With loads of customizability to conform to your stature and a good support between balance and comfort, let's take a closer look at the Razer Enki gaming chair.

So we've tried it out for approximately a month now and with that in mind, we can safely say that the Enki is legitimately one of the better supported gaming chairs out there in the market at the moment. Just taking a look at it, the overall design is very similar to many other gaming chairs out there and that's pretty unsurprising in the least. It still adopts a race car bucket seat design and is decked out with accents that's really typical of a gaming company. On that note, a particular point that stands out in terms of the aesthetics would be the small slit near the top, which kind of separates the headrest from the main body.

Does it server any purpose? Not really. But does it look cool? Absolutely.

But before we get into the meat of things, let's start by talking from the start of the build process because in our experience, it's been really solid and quite fun in a way. From the very beginning once you open up the box, you'll find that Razer has included quite a number of quirks and easter eggs littered around such as the builders' gauntlets (which are essentially just a pair of gloves) and a few caution icons which depicts various crazy ways that a person might use a chair... not. Now we aren't going to bore you with the entire process of how to build the Enki but safe to say, it's going to be pretty straightforward for most people. It took us roughly 10-15 minutes to build it from scratch with little to no issues at all. The only thing we would suggest is to have a friend close by to help you with the build as some things can be a little hefty to do it by your lonesome.

With that said, let's talk about design and honestly it's actually quite minimalistic. Simple per se.

There are some stylistic choices through the chair such as the green stitching and the synthetic leather that's really comfortable to the touch and there's also a single leather strip that flows down the center to create quite a unique look. This splits the PU molded foam that adorns most of the seat and backrest which also features a diamond cut pattern for additional flair. It's also worth nothing that the foam is slightly thicker on the backrest as compared to the seat itself. So it gives you more support, especially for your lower back while your butt should feel much more comfortable as well thanks the slight increase in pillowy comfort.

At this point, some might note that there isn't any form of advanced lumbar support for it is built in on the Enki. Despite that, we would say that the curvature and the support it provides for the inbuilt lumbar and overall design is in our opinion, going to be just right for quite a number of people out there. In simpler terms, the built in lumbar isn't too protruding to the point that it makes your seating position awkward, but it isn't too shallow to the point that you don't feel it at all. It's of just the right thickness and distance for the average person. In addition to that, the seat base also offers some advantages over its competitors thanks to the slightly larger base at 21" / 53.3cm and the subtle curves at the right places to support your thighs. Combine that with the slightly softer cushion that we mentioned earlier and it makes for a really comfortable seat but yet with the proper support that there should be. The sides don't curve up too much either, which makes this quite ideal for those of you who like to sit cross-legged or perhaps with one leg up or one leg under the other. This allows that while still being in relative comfort.

Now unfortunately, we weren't able to test with included memory foam head cushion but even so, we would say that the headrest does jut out quite a fair bit. Thus even without it, it was still pretty comfortable and definitely more so if you were to recline and relax.

Speaking of which, let's now talk about the features in which this chair provides.

You can recline up to 152° and you definitely don't need to be worried about stability for it is really stable even at the max recline angle. You could move about violently, rage as much as you want and you will very likely still not fall off. If you do, hats off to you. You can of course also adjust the tilt via the knob right underneath. Firm or relaxed, that's entirely up to you and your preference. For armrests, you do get 4D armrests. Which means you can adjust the height, move it forwards and backwards, inwards and outwards and you can also tilt it at various preset angles.

Just like all other chairs of this caliber out there, you can adjust the height of it via a lever underneath. The one thing we do want to mention is that the minimum height is a tad high compared to most others, coming in at 18.5" / 47cm. To give a little bit of context, we have a standard desk with a height of about 29.5" / 75cm and we had to use the chair at it's minimum height setting most of the time. If you're to use it any higher, definitely do lower the armrests down to its minimum height in order for you to be able to tuck it in under the desk. On the other hand if you're really tall, this chair will easily be able to take care of you even if you're 6'7 / 204cm tall.

Overall, we would say that the Enki gives really good support for your entire body when you're sitting for long periods of time. Our only caveat would be that PU molded foam, the texture to be exact. We aren't quite sure but we do feel it's a little rough at times and if you're like us in Singapore where it's hot and humid all year round, you'll likely to be wearing shorts for the most part. With your bare skin in contact with the foam, especially your thighs, you do feel it does have quite the friction. Of course, the hidden benefit is that it forces you to sit in a proper position and you won't lose your balance when it comes to your eventual rage in a game like Valorant. But if you're someone who constantly adjusts your seating position from time to time, you might feel it's a little rough on your skin. That said, if you're wearing longer shorts, long pants or jeans, this isn't going to be an issue at all.

Even so, it's very cozy. It's probably one of the coziest chairs in the market right now.

But we then come to price, and this is debatable. The Razer Enki gaming chair costs S$699.90 or US$399 and that's definitely not something you would fork without a second thoughts. Or at least, we hope so. It is on the slightly more pricey side of things when you look at the market right now, especially here in Singapore. But even with that in mind, we would say the Enki gets at thumbs up from us. It has a new refreshing design compared to the Iskur, it's available in 3 different colorways and despite it being gaming centric, it's designed well enough to suit a variety of other professions out there.

It is a really good chair even without the gaming nomenclature. But of course, we do highly recommend you head down to your local retail store and try it out for yourself before you make any decision. Preferences are aplenty and everyone is different.