Our Verdict
The graphics options are outstanding, but some armrest rattle and cheaper parts keep the Craft from feeling like a truly premium gaming chair.
When it comes to desk chairs, I’ve been a bit squeamish about anything that’s branded as being made specifically for gamers. To put it frankly: the automotive style reminds me too much of Kirk Van Houten’s race car bed in The Simpsons, and so I’ve always picked traditional-looking chairs, more along the lines of Flexispot’s BS10, for both work and gaming. However, after a few weeks of sitting in a DXRacer Craft bucket seat, consider me converted.
DXRacer is one of the top brands competiting to make the best gaming chair, and has been in the game longer than most. It launched its first line of track-inspired chairs marketed specifically to gamers in 2006, after initially building seats for luxury sports cars. The new Craft line adds some nice new features to DXRacer’s solid lineup, but the big addition here is highly customisable graphics.
To explain the custom graphics options for the Craft chair, I need to take a moment here to tell you a bit about the review model I received. DXRacer sent me the American Star edition, which features cobalt blue faux leather upholstery that’s accented in the stars and stripes of the US flag. If Evel Knievel played Fortnite, he would have done it sitting in this chair. It’s clad in the hide of one of the noble human cannonballs who roamed Midwestern county fairs and monster truck rallies during their reign of glory in the ’70s and ’80s. Milhouse’s dad would have loved it.
Look closer at the blazingly patriotic aesthetic, however, and you can see how much attention DXRacer’s designers are paying to each little detail. The white stripes are polyurethane leather, while the red stripes and white stars are embroidered with glossy thread. This isn’t some quick silk-screen job by any means – every detail in the upholstery is custom-designed.
That’s more remarkable when you realise that in addition to the Craft’s six off-the-shelf designs, you can work with DXRacer to create your very own chair graphics, and that can include a combination of materials, embroidery, and screening to best suit your style and vision.
So to sum up the aesthetic side: this chair can look however you want it to, provided you’re willing to work with DXRacer’s designers for a bit to settle on the final product. That’s certain to be a draw for serious streamers or anyone else who wants their chair to help reinforce their brand, or for anyone with a strong idea for personalising their workspace.
DXRacer Craft gaming chair DXRacer Craft gaming chair From $479.99 Make yours Network N earns affiliate commission from qualifying sales.
A chair can’t just look nice, though – it has a job to do. After a few weeks of working and gaming from DXRacer’s Craft chair, I’m pleased to say that it’s a comfortable seat that’s a marked upgrade from the ErgoChair 2 I’d been using before.
The foam seat and back are both a bit firmer than I expected, but with the contours along the edges, I find that with my lower back positioned correctly against the base of the backrest, I feel completely supported from below my neck down to the back of my thighs. The contouring along both the seat and backrest is shallow, and I don’t feel locked into a single pose while sitting in the chair – which is great for me, because I tend to shift positions frequently throughout the day.
The chair allows me to tilt the seat and to recline the back, and between these two settings, I’m always able to find a nice position to sit in, whether I’m working or kicking back playing a game. The lift raises the seat level to about 51 centimetres – not particularly high, but just about perfect for someone around my height of 5’10”. While writing, I’ll keep the seat level, with the back tilted just one position back, and when I switch over to games, I like to tilt the seat back slightly and recline the back further, putting my feet up on a small footrest I keep beneath my desk. The neck pillow falls just at the nape of my neck, right where it needs to be to keep my view comfortably on my screen.
DXRacer includes a neck pillow with the Craft series, which attaches to the seat back by looping elastic straps through a pair of fabric loops positioned on either side of the headrest. There are two positions available, which make a slight difference in the pillow’s height. The pillow is filled with what DXRacer calls ‘cooling gel foam,’ and even so I’ve been struck by the fact that it always feels cool to the touch. That’s helpful, since the chair’s design precludes any of the ventilation offered by mesh seats.
Pair your fancy new seat with the best gaming desk
Some additional upgrades I’ve appreciated include the lumbar support dial on the right side of the backrest and the robust and understated aluminium wheelbase. Even weighing in at a hefty 24.5 kilograms, the chair is a cinch to assemble, with the armrests already securely fastened to the seat when you remove the components from the box. All I had to do was assemble the base, then slide the back onto the rails attached to the seat. A pair of magnetised plastic covers pop over these to conceal the mounting hardware.
This brings me to a couple of the puzzling oversights I’ve noticed in the Craft chair. The magnetised rail covers pop on easily, sure, but those aren’t components I need to be fussing with on a regular basis, and the cover on the left side leaves a gap of about an inch between it and the plastic housing over the chair’s back hinge. The 4D armrests are solid and offer a nice range of position options, but there’s a fair amount of rattle in them once they’re in place. As usual with my home office chairs, I’ll be replacing the ho-hum black plastic casters with a set of third-party rollerblade-style wheels.
I find the Craft to be a nice size, but I have a wider build (my wife, rather generously, says I’m “sturdy”). The seat and back of the Craft chair are both pretty flat, and someone with a narrower frame, or whose natural sitting position is with their feet close together, might find themselves a bit lost in it. Even for me, there’s plenty of width to move my legs horizontally. Whether this is a good or bad thing comes down to personal preference.
Starting at $469, the price point is comparable to the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 line and the Razer Iskur, but it’s the Craft’s custom graphics options that are the draw. While the overall build quality is strong and the custom design work is luxurious, there are a few odd oversights that keep it from feeling completely premium and it’s currently only available in the US. But if you’re looking for a way to jazz up your home office or gaming space with a bespoke design, DXRacer’s Craft line is the way to go.
DXRacer Craft gaming chair DXRacer Craft gaming chair From $479.99 Make yours Network N earns affiliate commission from qualifying sales.