AKRacingOnyx Gaming Chair, Black

UPDATE 10/9/2020I promised myself that I would go back and re-update this review if the issue was fixed. And it was! Working with the company and giving feedback and detailed photos of the issue they eventually sent me a seat with more heavily reinforced joints. I received the most recent replacement late 2018, and now 2 full years later, it's held like a rock. I'm actually quite impressed! They knew they had an issue, and actually took steps to fix it. Not many companies will do that and hope the manufacturing change remained in all their latest units.In the two years I've now been using the chair daily, it's shown no signs yet of wearing. Arm rests are still solid, the material has held together well, and most importantly the chair is actually more comfortable now than when I got it which is expected of a leather product. I was highly concerned initially, but now ultimately happy with the product.{OUTDATED BEYOND}I wasnt planning to make a review so soon, I was going to wait longer... Then this chair BROKE.The mechanism that holds the back of this chair upright has now malfunctioned, and no longer no longer locks the back of the chair in place.for a chair that costed nearly 700$, this is wildly unacceptable. Every facet of this chair should be nearly indestructable and last for 10+ years, and here I am unable to maintain a comfortable position for more than 20 minutes, just 60 days after purchase.Before this, it was a solid 4 star chair. It does sit a bit high for my liking and I'm not a fan of the armrests, they move too easily and are hard, not very comfortable. The rest of the chair is fine, but not amazingly comfortable. I find the chair is just a bit too wide for me, if it was just 1-2 inches more narrow, it would easily be a 5/5 on that alone. The material is comfortable, i'd say medium stiff but it has been breaking in, growing a little softer and more supportive, which has improved my opinion of it's comfort.The functionality of this chair, before the backrest began slipping, is excellent, and why I bought it. Not only is it made of good, genuine leather, but can lean all the way back into a napping position, and the chair base is also capable of leaning and rocking. For this, the chair gets high marks for comfort customization.The locking mechanism for the back however seems to have broke. It holds "tension" but will NOT lock anymore, which after a long time of sitting in the chair will cause it to slip. The back will also no longer come back up when you pull the leaver, and I now have to manually pull the back of the chair to sit it up again. Very frustrating. This may be due to usage wear, I shift positions frequently depending on what I'm doing. I prefer to relax while playing RTS and other slower games and movies, but will sit fully up for more intensive games to see my screen better and help focus, and when I want to just relax and snooze for a bit, i'll set the back almost flat. I change positions a few times a day, and I guess this has broken the mechanism. I can no longer lay back to snooze in this chair, it will slip until it is at maximum recline (which when the base is rocked back, is well past being flat, i'd say 105* from upright.)In conclusion, this WAS a solid 4 star chair, would be 5 star if the armrests were better, and the chair just a hair narrower to provide more side support, but the failure of the mechanism is just wildly unacceptable for a chair in this price range, docking it 2 stars.UPDATE:Almost immediately after submitting this review, the back gave out completely, dumping me out of the chair and INJURING my back in the process. The supports of the backrest are now visibly damaged, able to be seen in the linked picture. Tanking it to 1 star for hurting my back alone, let alone that this should never happen, ever, in a freaking 700$+ chair...UPDATE 2:Contacted the company. They were kind and apologetic for this issue, and have been swift to respond and overall helpful. +1 star for good customer service. We'll see how long it lasts this time though...Update 3 (6/5/2018):After the first mechanical failure, I've been extremely careful. I found a position for the back that I found comfortable, and knowing the quirks of the backrest lock (if you release the lever in the wrong spot, it'll stick before suddenly dropping to the next "setting"), I've been very gentle with the chair, treating it as though it were made of aluminum rather than it's supposed steel. All I got for this was a few extra months.Once again, the chair is experiencing the exact same mechanical fault, the mechanism that holds the back up is beginning to fail again. This rating is going back to 1 star, where it's staying. This should never be happening. I doubt that the frame is built of steel, as they claim, or if it is it has to be the cheapest, most brittle steel I've ever seen.When I was told to throw away the old broken seat and mechanism, I took it apart to get a better look at it. The internals were completely mangled, and the frame where the mechanism attaches to looked like it had blatantly snapped with out even bending.For those wondering, my weight is 255, 75lbs under the suggested weight limit, not even close, and I'm not doing anything more ridiculous than just sitting in the chair like a normal human being. I'm not standing on it, sleeping in it, or doing anything that would cause excess strain on the backrest. It's just obviously cheap and badly designed.Those looking for a good quality chair that will last the years, look elsewhere. This chair is down 2 for 2 in under a year.

I purchased this AKRacing Onyx chair back in December 2017 and last night (9/22/18) I had a big surprise, the chair started reclining all by itself! The chair reclined all the way to the floor and wouldn't go back up (looks like something in the backrest snapped) I can't believe I paid over $600 for it and it didn't even last a year!Anyone thinking about purchasing this chair, beware or you'll be out over $600 like me.

had a issue with the back rest were it broke a year later after heavy use. Stopped using it for a while and just had it break again after a year of heavy use.

Package showed up dirty and retaped many times. It looked like it had been sitting in a warehouse for years. However on top of that half the bloody chair wasn't there. There were no instructions and much of the product was missing its original packaging. Extremely disappointed.

See Update following:....Arrived promptly and in good condition. Assembly was fine...about the same as an any other gaming/office chair. So very comfortable! And trust me on this. I recently purchased a Maxnomix Office Comfort and after sitting in that for about 2 weeks my buttocks was so sore I had to find a different solution. After doing a BUNCH of research and reading as many reviews as I could I decided to pull the trigger on this. Sooooo worth it! I am about 5'11" and weigh 210 lbs. Perfect soft and cushy seat without being too soft. The Maxnomic was like a board and from the other reviews I've read that seems about standard for a lot of these chairs that use the industry standard foam...whatever density it is.Yes it is pricey. But so worth it! I am sure the top grain leather will will outlast any high end computer so if you spend $500-$2000 on a computer that will last 5+ years this is as good an investment as any tech product you might buy. No I am not a company rep...I am a customer who finally found a comfortable chair after many frustrating attempts buying $200-$300 chairs at office box stores and even trying the Maxnomic hoping it would meet the need. This finally fits the bill. Build quality is super. Solid and feels real durable.Reviews on this chair seem to be very limited. About the best review I found was a web site that was in german which actually compared many of the top office/gaming chairs in a very thorough way. Just use the browser function you are using to translate to english. The grammar and syntax will be a bit funky as with any language translation but the general points are easily surmised. Just google "techtest akracing"UPDATE:After using the chair for nearly a year I came to find that the curvature of the back of the seat leaves me feeling hunched forward. Tried tried putting a pillow in the lumbar area and even buying lumbar support pillows. This helped but was not the perfectly comfortable posture I was hoping for. Finally decided to once again bite the bullet and try another solution. Went with Noble Chairs and the Icon model. Finally..perfection! I know I said that about the Onyx here because it was such an upgrade to all other previous chairs. But it had the one critical flaw in the curvature of the back. The Noble Chairs Icon solves that problem and keeps all the other great things that the Onyx had. Can't see myself changine from the Noble Chairs Icon ...ever!

I purchased this chair and was delivered 3/31/21, after assembling the chair reached the conclusion it was the most UNCOMFORTABLE chair I have ever sat in. Decided to send back for a refund. When contacting onyx all I got was it would be referred to the customer service team. Two weeks and several emails i have not received any information on the return procedure. The Customer service is terrible and they simply keep putting you off with no actions. BEWARE of this product