Before I start talking about the AndaSeat, it’s important to know exactly what I was sitting on before this chair arrived. Do you remember watching WWE as a kid (or in my case, as an adult too) and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson would bring out a steel chair to wrap around Stone Cold Steve Austin’s head? You’ve imagined my office chair.
Admittedly it had more plastic than metal, but it didn’t need to be launched at me by two incredibly wide biceps to break my back. My posture was awful, comfort in the drain. I was ready to tap out of office-based work, and with a pandemic limiting my ability to work from comfortable cafes, I was caught between The Rock and a hard place.
It wasn’t always this way – my previous gaming chair I’d bought second-hand and rolled through the streets of Brighton, and it had served me well, even moving cities with me as I relocated to my home of Liverpool. However, after two years of good service, a wheel snapped off in an irreparable twist of fate. And such, I was left with the Wrestling Chair.
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Big Chair, Big Comfort
Now you’ve got some context, I’m sure you can see why I jumped at the opportunity to review the AndaSeat Kaiser 2. It arrived quickly – really quickly. It was only a day or two after agreeing to the review that a huge box arrived at my front door. And when I say huge, this was a 34kg behemoth. I’ll admit I complained a little as I dragged it through my front door, at which point my delivery driver, a lovely guy called Michael whose favourite song is Lionel Ritchie’s All Night Long according to his profile, pointed out that he has to do this all day. Sorry, Mike.
Once the bulky box was inside, I opened it up and took the pieces to my office individually - there was no way I was lugging that upstairs. There were a bunch of parts and an instruction manual that was pretty easy to follow. It was much like building a PC really, you connect the pieces that fit the gaps, and it’s hard to go wrong.
The one point I got wrong was the armrests, which are slightly different for the left and right. I only realised that I wouldn’t be able to reach the adjustment buttons with my thumbs after attaching them the wrong way round, meaning I had to retrieve the included hex key to unscrew and replace them.
The other thing worth noting at this point was the sheer amount of plastic packaging. I understand that the parts have to be protected, but in this day and age could we not use something recyclable for this purpose? I filled a whole bin liner with plastic crap, and that’s not including the double layer of foam that sat on top of the parts in the box.
Once assembled, the AndaSeat just fits through doorways with some wriggling. Just like the box it comes in, this chair is massive. When I sit in it, I can turn my head all the way to the left or right and still not see what’s behind me due to the headrest – and that’s without the pillow attached.
The pillow clips on with an elastic buckle, and I’ll be honest, it’s a nightmare to attach by yourself. The elastic gets incredibly taught, likely to keep it in place when it’s attached, but this had the unfortunate side effect of causing me to ping myself in the chest with a high-speed buckle multiple times before I got it clipped in. In the end, I don’t even use the pillow as it seems to push my head and neck forwards to uncomfortable angles. This could well be a ‘me problem,’ however, as I also removed the pillow on my last gaming chair to improve comfort.
Take A Seat
The lumbar support on the AndaSeat, however, is next level. A large shaped pillow that slots perfectly into the seat’s backrest, the support that this gives your lower back is honestly better than any chair I have ever sat on before. My back, which was in near-constant pain thanks to my previous seating arrangement, almost audibly purred as I lowered myself into the spacious comfort of the AndaSeat.
It's a weird thing to notice, but the armrests are also great. They’re wide enough to fit your whole arm on, and the ability to adjust their height, width, and angle mean you can always position them perfectly. I currently have different setups for when I’m working or when I’m gaming, as I tend to lean forwards and focus more when I’m climbing the Apex Legends ranked ladder, compared to when I’m relaxing into my work.
The height of the chair and angle of the backrest is obviously adjustable, too, and the chair even has a springy rocking function if you like to lean back occasionally or bop to a tune blasting through your office. This can also be turned off, however, with a simple lever.
Verdict
Like the box it came in, the AndaSeat is really huge. It takes up most of the space in my small office, so be wary of that if you don’t have a lot of room in your gaming space. However, once you sit in its cavernous cushions and make a hundred micro-adjustments to tailor it to your own posture, comfort, and needs, it’s hard to get out. The AndaSeat Kaiser 2 is a large and expensive beast, but worth the investment if you care about your gaming – or your physical health.
With that, only one question remains: could The Rock swing this at Triple H with unerring accuracy to retain a Championship belt? I’m sure his tree-trunk arms would be up to the daunting task, but honestly, I think the AndaSeat would hit like a cloud, enveloping The Game in an ergonomic cuddle rather than forcing him to the floor with a crack of steel-plated aggression.
5/5
Review unit provided by the manufacturer