REVIEW – Office chairs can get expensive, with some costing upwards of two thousand dollars. Some budget options are out there, but they tend to be a bit basic in form and function. Autonomous is building on their ErgoChair line with the Curve – a great looking chair, but one that misses the mark as a complete, budget package. Have a seat, and I’ll take you through it.
What is it?
The ErgoChair Curve is one of four models in the ErgoChair line by Autonomous. Sitting at the cheaper end of the lineup, the Curve promises key ergonomic features in a very stylish package.
Autonomous has several ergonomic product lines across chairs, desks and accessories, and have been around since 2015.
What’s included?
- Everything you need to assemble the ErgoChair Curve
Tech specs
Click to expand
| Dimensions | 29”L x 28”W x 44” – 52”H |
| Seat dimensions | 20.5”L x 20”W x 7“H |
| Seat height | 18.5” – 22” |
| Back dimensions | 26”W x 19”H |
| Tilt range | 18° |
| Armrest height | 10.5” – 14” |
| Armrest height (from the floor) | 28” – 35.5” |
| Caster wheel diameter | 2.5 inches |
| Number of caster wheels | 5 |
| Adjustability | Armrest, back tilt angle, seat height. |
| Materials | Polyester fabric with molded foam interior and durable nylon plastic frame |
| Color option | Black, Grey |
| Certification | BIFMA |
| Weight capacity | 300 lbs |
| Item weight | 39.4 lbs |
| Shipping dimensions | 28”L x 27”W x 18”H x 44 lbs |
| Assembly required | Yes |
| Warranty | 2 years |
Design and features
To the eye the ErgoChair Curve looks like a modern, high end office chair. One of the first things that caught my eye was the fabric covered back fin, that shares lines with the head rest. This serves a couple purposes – it not only looks good, but by covering these in fabric, it lessens the chances that you’ll scuff a wall with your chair back or headrest. My Aeron with Atlas headrest marked up one of my walls like crazy, so this is an appreciated design element.
The design is otherwise typical of a budget office chair, with nylon plastic making up the frame. This material choice is also reflected in the warranty, which is offered at two years. By comparison, a typical commercial office chair will carry a ten-plus year warranty, though are also generally at least 3x the cost of the Curve.
Assembly, Installation, Setup
Assembly takes about fifteen minutes and is pretty straight forward – I was able to comfortably do this solo. The included tools are good enough, and the manual is easy to follow. Let’s crack straight into it!
To get things rolling (ha) the wheels are press fit into the base, followed by the seat piston.
Separately, the arms attach onto the seat. On my review unit, the arms didn’t fit exactly the same. A small but noticeable difference is observed in their relative positioning to the seat base in order to line up for attachment.
Lastly we attach the control mechanism to the seat base, and the seat back to the control mechanism. The headrest drops into the seat back, and we have a chair.
Performance
The ErgoChair Curve looks great once assembled, and the first sit is comfortable. While not entirely unusual there is a material off-gassing smell coming from the seat, which dissipated but lingered through the thirty day review period. At the point of dialing the chair into ergonomic fit is where things began to, quite literally, fall apart.
I always reach for the lumbar support after adjusting seat height. Surprisingly, while adjusting it, the entire lumbar assembly broke off of the chair. My first thought was that the screws-into-plastic-posts tore out, but on closer inspection I realized that the lumbar support assembly was never screwed into the proper posts to begin with, and appeared to be somehow attached to the side of the posts. Keep in mind, the lumbar support is part of the back assembly built from the factory (and an absolute faff to fix with the mesh in the way).
With the lumbar support re-attached, I found it’s range to be very limited. At it’s highest adjustment point, it just barely made contact with my back. This is the first time I’ve seen an anchor point like this for a lumbar support, and is likely the reason it can’t extend any higher. I believe this is a side effect of the tapered back frame design, which is aesthetic and means the lumber support can’t use the frame itself for support. Perhaps this is fine for some, but is not something that works on my 6ft, 190lb frame.
Moving onto the headrest, we find another metal-on-plastic design which just simply does not work. The headrest does not stay where it is set to, and the slightest movement of the chair will cause it to fall back to the lowest position. I ran a strip of gaffers tape along the channel on the headrest to try and give the latch more to grip on, which did help temporarily, but as I close out my review it’s back to falling regularly. I’ve removed the headrest entirely.
The seat itself is comfortable and adequately padded, and doesn’t cause discomfort on those 7+ hour days at the desk. It is stationary and does not have the ability to slide forward or back. I found the arm rests to have a broad enough adjustment range in height, depth and angle to offer support exactly where I needed them to, and locked in securely.
Height and recline adjustments work as expected, and the included wheels are standard fare. If using on hardware floors I’d suggest upgrading to a set of rollerblade style wheels to keep scuffs to a minimum and enjoy a smooth glide.
What I like about Autonomous ErgoChair Curve
- Aesthetic
- Seat pad is comfortable
What needs to be improved?
- Quality control
- Design of key ergonomic components
- Seat material has a musty, chemical smell that fades over time but has not entirely dissipated after thirty days
Final thoughts
From a purely aesthetic perspective, the Curve looks great to this reviewer – and certainly looks like a much more expensive chair at a glance. On a closer look though, it’s hard to ignore the functional issues with the headrest and lumbar support. The Autonomous ErgoChair Curve sits on the higher end of the budget office chair range, and misses in delivering value for the price.
In 2023, fellow Gadgeteer Joe Porletto reviewed the Autonomous ErgoChair Pro and liked it, calling it a “comfortable, supportive, and stylish office chair that delivers…”. Autonomous has produced other chairs that don’t have the issues that the Curve does, and may be worth a look.
Price: $399
Where to buy: Autonomous and some chairs are on Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Autonomous. Autonomous did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
