When I set out to buy a new chair a couple of years ago, I knew I wanted something built specifically for gaming, but that would also be a supportive chair for working from home.

I have found that traditional office chairs, or at least the 1970’s office chair I was using, didn’t provide the sort of support for my arms, shoulders, and back that is conducive to sustained gaming or working from home. I ended up buying a DXRacer chair back then because the design looked comfortable and supportive. 

There are a lot of things I like about that chair, but there were also some drawbacks that made it not quite right for someone with my build (I am 6’2”). While I liked the adjustable arms and visual look, the chair I bought didn’t properly suit my shoulders, despite me buying what was supposedly the correct size. I also found that the headrest and back support were never quite right, often leading to me hunching over.

The Secretlab OMEGA series chair addressed many of the issues I had with my DXRacer chair.

Product: Secretlab OMEGA - 2020 Series
Price: $440
Height recommendation: <5'11"
Weight reccomendation: < 240lbs
Available at secretlab.co

Secretlab manages to balance the comfort of a traditional office chair with the aesthetic and features of a racing-style gaming chair. The resulting product is the perfect fit for my needs as a gamer and at-home worker.

The joy of building my Secretlab OMEGA 2020 chair

They say first impressions matter and this chair left a good one.

I can admit to my flaws and one of them is impatience. I like when my products come fully assembled and I even dread the prospect of putting together the products that I do end up ordering (I know it’s silly). Even with the DX Racer build, I remember feeling flustered and confused trying to follow the tiny booklet directions and not mess anything up.

Building the Secretlab chair was the best furniture building experience I have ever had, and I have built a lot of IKEA furniture in my day. Upon opening up the box, everything is laid out in an easy-to-access manner. There is a huge poster-size card with Lego-like step-by-step instructions and visual aids! 

The instructions were easy to follow and as an added bonus the chair came with all the tools I needed to put it together, which was a nice touch. I honestly have never had such a good time putting together a piece of furniture. I am not exaggerating when I say, putting together my OMEGA was the easiest furniture build I have ever had the pleasure of completing. 

A chair built for work and play

If I can describe this chair in one word, it would be luxurious. This chair comes with all the features you could want in a gaming-focused chair, and it is all presented in a durable, comfy package. 

The Secretlab OMEGA features 4-directional armrests that can be adjusted up and down, forward and back, as well as swiveled side to side, and be moved inward and outward. Using these four axes of motion, it's very easy to line up your armrests to properly support you for a variety of neats, whether you are playing a game with a controller, mouse, and keyboard, or a fight stick. 

Adjustable armrests like these are invaluable to healthy gaming and working lifestyle since they help prevent the forced postures that can lead to chronic shoulder, elbow, and wrist issues. These are the most adjustable armrests I have ever used on a chair. My only criticism is that they are made of a pretty hard plastic material that can be uncomfortable on your elbows after prolonged use. If you do buy a Secretlab chair, consider buying some padded arm-rest covers.

This chair is also capable of a full 85 to 165-degree recline, a 3.7” height adjustment, and a multi-tilt mechanism that lets you lock and unlock the tilt angle of your chair.

The backrest is the perfect balance between a traditional office chair and racing chair aesthetic. My biggest issue with most “gaming-focused” racing chairs is their lack of shoulder and neck support. It turns out, building gaming chairs based on racing chairs is only helpful to a certain point. 

If you have ever tried to use your car headrest while driving, you will know that most car headrests are not designed for comfort, they are designed for safety. In a similar fashion, when you are driving your shoulders are forward with your hands on the wheel, so the shoulder area of a racing chair is often not designed for relaxation either. 

A lot of racing-style chairs on the market seem to be built to keep you safe in case of a wreck. But the probability of me crashing in my office seems... low. When many racing-style gaming chairs adopted the racing-chair design uncritically, they ended up keeping some of these car-specific features that don’t work as well in an office environment. 

Secretlab, on the other hand, built the OMEGA with office use in mind. The designers of this chair understood what features of a racing chair to keep, and what needs to be adjusted. The headrest on the Secretlab is designed to maximize the support and rest for your neck, while the shoulder area provides plenty of real estate for you to settle in and relax for hours of work or games. This is a huge improvement over my last chair, and I can feel the difference in the soreness of my shoulders after long gaming sessions or at the end of my workday.

This chair is also built to a high spec. The frame of the chair is made of steel and the base is made of an aluminum alloy. The OMEGA is upholstered with well-stitched Secretlab PRIME 2.0 PU leather and has a cold cure foam seat and back that is comfortable to sit on for hours at a time. All of the switches and levers are satisfying to use and have a reassuring weight and feedback to them. The included head cushion and back support cushion are made of memory foam and I am obsessed with them, full stop.

The OMEGA is designed for folks who are 5'3" - 5'11", so it was just a tad short for me in the headrest, which wasn't a huge issue but notable for those choosing which Secretlab chair to buy. For those who are looking for a larger chair, the Secretlab Titan is designed for people up to between 5'9" and 6'7". Make sure you choose either the TITAN or the OMEGA based on your correct height!

Product: Secretlab TITAN - 2020 Series
Price: $404 - $429
Height reccomendation: 5'9" - 6'7"
Weight reccomendation: < 290lbs
Available at secretlab.co 

Secretlab perfected the gaming chair design with the OMEGA. This chair remains comfortable and supportive to use for many hours of use at a time, and its visual aesthetic is the perfect balance of gaming and professionalism. If you are looking to get yourself a racing-style gaming chair, take it from someone who has tried several: This is one of the best gaming chairs out there.