If you’re planning on sitting for hours in front of your favourite game, the last thing you need is an uncomfortable chair. You can spend a fortune on an immaculately crafted gaming chair if you’ve got the budget, but if you’re after something with a few less bells and whistles, and costing well under £100, your options aren’t quite so plentiful. But with the Recoil Cadet Gaming Chair, BedKingdom are offering something for a fraction of the price, but is it any good?
Well, that depends on your expectations. This is a low-price gaming chair, and certainly doesn’t have that same premium feel that others do. My very first impressions were that this isn’t a chair for a large adult, both in terms of height or width. I’m over 6 feet tall and didn’t feel overly stable sat in this; the back of the chair sat quite low against me, and my higher centre of gravity made everything feel very unsteady. It was quite disappointing, right up until the moment my 11 year old son sat himself down on it, and it struck me exactly who this chair is perfect for.
Before I launch into a “this is just for kids” review, let me put some context into this. My son is a tall 11 year old, well over 5 feet tall, and as an avid swimmer and karate enthusiast has a decent amount of muscle and bulk on him. He’s not your typical 11 year old to look at, that’s for sure. And as such, with him finding the chair both comfortable and far more stable than I did, I really think this is a chair that would suit teenagers far more than adults. In that respect, from this point on this is far more a review from his perspective than mine – it only seems fair based on the fact it meets his needs more than my own.
He’s used this chair for a lot of gaming over the last few months, in fact it hasn’t left the lounge since we first received it to review. Every time he has some gaming time, he either drags this chair in front of the TV and gets settled, or leaps onto the gaming beanbag we reviewed not long ago. The sofa doesn’t get any love nowadays. He finds the Recoil Cadet genuinely comfortable, and despite spinning in a full 360 every time he takes someone out on Fortnite it’s never appeared off-balance or ready to throw itself onto the floor. The padded faux-leather material seems like it’s going to last a good while, gives some decent support for a young person and, equally importantly in this house it seems, is well favoured by the two cats.
So it strikes me that while this isn’t going to serve anything bigger than an average sized adult, if you’re looking for a gaming chair for a younger person’s setup, or if you’re a smaller than average adult, this could be a bit of a bargain. You can easily tell it hasn’t cost you a fortune, but that’s not anything to complain about – you’re just getting what you’re paying for. For younger people this chair could be the perfect solution, either for a bedroom, workspace or something to grab when you’re gaming in the lounge. For £70, it’ll happily meet the needs of someone the right size.