Posted in: Games, Review, Technology, Video Games | Tagged: gaming chair, omega 2018, Review, Secretlab

Commanding My Games In Blue: We Review Secretlab's Omega 2018 Gaming Chair

Published Sat, 17 Feb 2018 11:20:52 -0600

Secretlab was kind enough to send us a Titan chair last year, which we enjoyed checking out and seeing how well they held up to other brands on the market. But as we enter a new year, the company chose to roll out a few new models for 2018. Over the holidays we received the Omega 2018 model to check out for review, so we grabbed an Allen Wrench and a few of our favorite games to put this new model to the test.

First off, we're back to having another model with a sold back and no holes or slots to attach pillows and lumbar accessories on. The hear pillow attaches with an elastic band across the top part of the chair while the lumbar pillow is simply a throw pillow you put at the base of the chair with nothing to attach. The seat itself is a leather design in blue and black with gold trim and branding, making the chair soft all around with no hard or ruff spots to mess with your skin or clothing.

The base of the chair only comes with two levers, your standard right handle that raises and lowers you while the left controls the angle you can sit at and if you want it to be left open to rock back in or stay locked into a certain position. As well as the dial on the bottom to adjust the forward pitch. The big thing on this chair that is different from other models is that the piston is a lot softer than you might expect going in both directions. So no jarring crash don and no jolting push up; it glides very smoothly so you can ease into whatever position you want.

The armrest is, as always, four directional in adjustment. For those unaware, that basically means you can adjust the height, length, width, and angle of the armrests to best suit you and your body type of where you'd like them to rest for your arms. The only real issue I had in this area is that the angle setting is a bit stiff and occasionally you have to put some force behind it to make it go the way you want it to. That may not be a bad thing at first, but it is the kind of problem where you could end up busting it if you feel like you have to force it into place each time you decide to adjust it.

As far as the lumbar pillow goes, this is totally a memory-foam pillow with a rounded shape and a flat surface that you can adjust however you see fit. In some ways, this is awesome because you're getting exactly what you want no matter how you sit because the pillow will always conform to your body. But it's also a hindrance because when you get up, the pillow resets back to what it was and you need to get comfy again. I wouldn't call this a drawback or a negative to the chair's design, simply an awkward choice considering the last Secretlab chair we received had the lumbar built into the chair, and this feels like a step backward.

Overall, the Omega 2018 is one of the better chairs on the market, but it was clearly designed for longer sessions to provide comfort and not just a simple one or two-hour gaming session chair. There are a couple things in here that some people may have an issue with, but I think they're minimal and it all comes down to personal taste and price. Like a lot of gaming chairs, the price is key as this particular model comes in at $330 (as of when we wrote this review), which may send a few people running, but considering a lot of the higher-end chairs on the market range from $250-400, this is a pretty decent deal for the quality.