For anyone who sits at a desk for hours, yes, provided the money went into parts you can check: the foam, the frame, the lumbar support, the upholstery and independent testing. Almost any chair feels fine on the first day. Work out the cost per year of use and the well-made ones come out ahead, because they are still doing their job in year three.
Count the Years, Not the Price Tag
Divide what you pay by the years a chair will serve you well. One that sags before its second birthday is the expensive one, whatever the tag said. We do that maths for every Cybeart product. We build up from a standard instead of selling down to a price, and we judge the result on day 30 and year 3, not on the unboxing.
So the useful question is where a given chair has put its money. Below is what to look for, part by part, using our two chairs, APEX and NEO, as the worked example.
What the Money Goes Into
Foam
Corners get cut here first, because soft foam feels good in a showroom and sinks at home. Both of our chairs use high-density cold-cured moulded foam in the seat and the backrest. It is meant to be firm. Firm foam spreads your weight instead of letting you sink into one spot.
Frame and Base
You never see the frame, but you feel it every time you lean back. Ours is reinforced steel. The APEX base is ADC #12 die-cast aluminium alloy, the NEO base heavy-duty reinforced metal. Both bases are 700 mm across and BIFMA certified, and both chairs ride on a Class 4 gas lift, also BIFMA certified, with 60 mm coated casters that are quiet and safe on floors.
Lumbar Support
A loose cushion strapped to the backrest is the quickest way to claim lumbar support. APEX uses ErgoSync™, a 4D lumbar built into the backrest with dual knobs for height and depth: you set it to your spine once and leave it. NEO has a lumbar arch built into the backrest and ships with a memory-foam lumbar pillow on top of it.
Armrests and Mechanism
The armrests on both chairs are 4D (height, width, depth and rotation) with a padded concave top, and on APEX they come in a shadow chrome finish. The multi-tilt mechanism is BIFMA certified, with a multi-angle lock, recline up to 135° and seat tilt up to 30°. This is the adjustment that makes one chair fit your body and your desk, instead of you fitting the chair.
Upholstery
This is where APEX and NEO differ most. APEX is covered in Endura™ Nappa leatherette, certified by TÜV SÜD past 1,000,000 abrasion cycles and 50x more durable than standard leatherette. NEO uses NeoTex™ leatherette, certified past 200,000 cycles and 10x more durable than standard leatherette. Both are breathable and scratch resistant, and both resist UV, sweat, moisture and humidity.
Proof You Can Check
Both chairs are certified to ANSI/BIFMA X5.1, tested by SGS. The wheel base, gas lift and tilt mechanism have separate BIFMA certification, and the upholstery is certified by TÜV SÜD. Both chairs are rated to 330 lb (150 kg) and fit people from 5'5" to 6'4" (165 to 193 cm). When you compare chairs, look for the name of the test and the lab that ran it. If a listing has neither, you are paying for a promise.
The Warranty
A warranty tells you how long the maker expects the chair to last. Ours depends on the series.
- APEX: 3 years, plus 2 more when the chair is registered with a review.
- NEO: 1 year, plus 2 more with registration and a review.
You register on our warranty registration page, and the full term depends on it.
Who It Is Worth It For
Sit for an hour a day and the chair barely matters. At six or eight hours, at work or at play, it becomes the piece of equipment you use most, and the parts above decide whether it still supports you in year three. APEX is our flagship, for people who sit eight hours or more and want the chair to outlast the desk. NEO is the everyday ergonomic chair: the APEX frame, foam and mechanism, with NeoTex™ upholstery and both pillows in the box.
Both full spec lists are on the gaming chair comparison.
