REVIEW – Gaming chairs are their own class of gadget, but in these post-COVID days many people work from home and use the same chair for gaming as they do for work. I am one of these, and so I need a chair that is comfortable, encourages an ergonomic posture, and provides a full-suite of configuration options. In this review, I’ll be looking at the Mavix M9 gaming chair to see if it’s ready to be my all-day-long work and game chair.
What is it?
The Mavix M9 is a gaming chair that features a large seat, adjustable lumbar support, neck, and arm support, and a reclining back. It has an optional feature for built-in heating, cooling, and massaging of the lower back for extra comfort. Mavix’s goal is to provide “a better solution than the traditional race car seat gaming chair.”
What’s in the box?
The M9 requires some assembly and comes with a five-star base, a seat, and a back.
It also comes with a host of smaller pieces, including:
- Headrest
- 2 arms
- 5 casters
- Pneumatic cylinder
- Screws and hex wrenches
- Charger for the Elemax unit
- Instructions (sorta)
Specifications
The Mavix M9 gaming chair has the following specifications:
- Colors for the chair: Black, white, gray, and blue
- Colors for the wheels: Red, white, black, blue, pink, purple, green, and more
- Dimensions: 55 x 26.25 x 28 inches
- Seat height: 18.5 to 22.5 inches
- Weight: 60 lbs
- Weight capacity: 275 lbs
- Fabric: woven tensile and Brisa
- Seat: memory foam
- Lumbar: dynamic variable lumbar (DVL) support
- Recline angle: 127 degrees
Design and features
The Mavix M9 gaming chair has the same basic look as many nicer office chairs. The seat is noticeably larger than most, and with the two-tone color scheme, the lumbar support is clearly distinct from the rest of the back. Its look is much cleaner than the typical race car gaming chair, yet the color options allow it stand out from the boring all-black appearance of most office chairs. I like the way that this chair looks; it’s perfect combination of work and play.
I did find, however, that the colors of chair and the casters don’t really match the website pictures very well. I selected the “glacier” color for both the lumbar seat back and the casters, as they both appear on the website to be a lovely shade of light blue. The lumbar seat back is barely blue, closer to gray, which is ok, but the casters are totally gray, no blue at all. Given that both are labeled with color “glacier,” Mavix should ensure that they are the identical color. If you’re looking to add some dash to your gaming chair, I recommend picking up a more striking color for the wheels.
Installation and setup
The M9 arrived in a large and heavy box. When I opened it, I found that all the parts were well-protected. Unlike some chairs, this one requires a fair amount of assembly, though nothing too difficult. Mavix does not include instructions for assembly in the box; instead, they provide a link to a video that explains how to put it together. I found that Mavix’s website was not mobile-friendly, as I literally could not watch the video on my iPhone because it was blocked by popups.
The first step in the assembly process is to pop the casters into the five-star base. Each of the casters has a mechanism that allows me to lock the wheels into place. I have no idea why I might want to lock my chair into a single position, but if I found a reason, this would work.
The second step is to drop the cylinder into the center of the base, then flip it over and pop it into the bottom of the seat. At this point, I had a rolling stool.
The third step is to attach the back to the seat. As it’s a heavy piece and held in place by three screws, it’s easier to attach with someone else helping out.
The final step is to attach the head rest to the back, which is held in place by a pair of screws.
After assembling, the next step in the process is to make all the adjustments, and the M9 has plenty of adjustments to make. Mavix has another video that walks through all the options on the M9.
The paddle on right side adjusts seat height. My paddle is installed backwards from what the video shows, but it still works as expected.
The knob on the left side locks and unlocks the recline lock. When locked, I cannot lean back in the chair. The knob on the right side adjusts the tension; the looser it is, the easier it is to lean back in the chair. When I lean back in the chair, the seat as well as the back rotate backwards, though the seat does not rotate very far.
The back right lever adjusts how far back the Mavix M9 can recline. This is not a feature that I’ll use much, as napping in a gaming chair is not my idea of comfort.
The paddle on the left side adjusts how far forward or backward the seat slides. As someone with longer legs, I appreciate being able to make this adjustment.
The M9 has two different types of arms. Mavix sent me the 4D arms, which can adjust forward/backward, left/right, up/down, and rotate slightly to the left and right. The 360 arms have even more adjustment options.
The back can be raised and lowered in four different positions by pulling the entire back piece upward through a set of slots. This works fine until I need to vacuum in my office and grab the back of the chair to move it out of the way; when I do that, it inevitably moves up to another position. Getting this setting right is a crucial adjustment, as it will set where the lumbar support hits my lower back.
The final adjustment is the headrest. The height is adjusted by standing behind the chair, holding the headrest just right, and pulling up or down. This mechanism is a pain to get right because the tension is so tight, and it’s my least favorite part of adjusting the chair. Mavix would have done better to use a simpler approach, like a bolt with a wingnut. The headrest can also be tilted up and down.
Both of these videos do a great job explaining everything, and I had no significant problems following along and assembling and adjusting the M9 to fit me.
These are a lot of adjustment choices, and that’s part of why this is an expensive chair, especially when compared to the race car gaming chairs. This low-end gaming chair, for example, has very few adjustments, and even this nicer one from Secretlab merely has a non-adjustable pillow for a headrest. The ability to tailor every aspect of a chair for your personal comfort and ergonomics is what sets the good chairs apart from mediocre ones.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Mavix M9 gaming chair is the $129 option to add an Elemax unit to the lumbar support. This adds three new features: a massager, a cooler, and a heater. The massager provides a gentle vibration, the cooler blows air through a pair of fans, and the heater warms up like a heating pad.
Performance
Compared to other chairs that I have tested, I found the M9 to be a relaxed chair. In other words, the Herman Miller and Logitech Vantum was all about good posture with its aggressive, forward-leaning ergonomics. The M9, by comparison, is a lot more chill. It’s easy to lean back and unwind while playing a favorite video game.
The seat is very large, making it easy to cross my legs or put one leg up when gaming. Despite being made from memory foam, the seat is not super cushy, much less than the Vantum.
The back is plenty wide and comfortable, and the adjustments are fine enough that I was able to find the perfect place to provide good lumbar support. Unfortunately, the M9 doesn’t have any option for moving the lumbar in or out, but the massager in the Elemax more than made up for that.
The headset does provide good neck support when I lean back in the chair. Although it can pivot up and down, I found that applying any pressure, such as simply leaning back against it, causes the headset to pivot downwards. There’s not a mechanism to lock that angle in place. Again, I suppose using wingnut might not look super cool, but it would have been a nice feature to have.
The armrests are very adjustable and comfortable; it’s easy to put them in exactly the right place to support my arms
Whenever the Elemax unit is running, it provides some seriously delightful extra comfort to my lower back. Honestly, this is the best feature of this chair; if you buy the M9, splurge and get the Elemax unit. There’s a battery in there that takes four to five hours to charge. The cable that Mavix supplied is way too short, so be prepared to pull the chair over by the wall each night to charge. Each feature only runs for 15 minutes at a time and then automatically turns off, presumably to prevent me from accidentally draining the battery if I leave the room and forget to turn it off. Mavix estimates that the massager will run through 20 cycles on one charge, a total of five hours, but I found that it ran more than that, over 25 times.
The casters are super smooth, especially on my glass chair mat.
The chair as a whole is somewhat wobbly; there’s a gentle swaying that doesn’t exist in my Steelcase Leap chair or my Vantum. I think the cylinder just doesn’t have a solid connection to the seat base, and that’s where the extra play comes from.
Extra features
Mavix sells other chairs and some desks as well, if you’re looking for other choices to kit out your gaming experience.
What I like
- Lots of ways to adjust the ergonomics
- A chill posture for relaxed gaming sessions
- The Elemax unit, especially the massager!
- Good design for a work and gaming chair
What I’d change
- Make sure the colors match each other and the website
- Change the way the headrest is secured in pace
- Provide a longer charge cable for the Elemax unit
Final thoughts
If you’re looking for a relaxed gaming chair, one that doesn’t nag you about having great posture, then you should take a good look at the Mavix M9 gaming chair. It comes with a ton of features for adjusting your seating position, and it’s a sturdy chair that should last you a long time. The Elemax unit is a super cool addition to the chair that my back was happy to have, so consider paying a little extra for that. Overall, I love the way this chair works as my all-day chair, both for working from home and for gaming.
Price: $1128 as configured
Where to buy: Mavix’s online store and Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Mavix.
