You can pretty much game anywhere. Whether that be on the commute into work, utilising your mobile device and Razer’s Kishi, laid out on the sofa in front of the biggest TV you can afford, or hunkered down in your home office or gaming room, dimly light to aid immersion, the gaming scene is available anywhere.
But for those who have opened the considerably sized wallet that is needed, and taken the leap, it’s the humble gaming chair which is possibly able to add more to the experience than anything else. However, getting the right seat for your own specific situation can sometimes be tricky. Budgets play a part. As does human anatomy. And aesthetics. If you’re in the market for a chair that looks great, feels great and comes in with a fairly hefty price point, it’s those from AndaSeat that should well be of consideration. Seats like the Kaiser 2 in fact.
Coming in at a smidge under £400, the AndaSeat Kaiser 2 Series Gaming Chair is certainly not a cheap product; right up there with the most expensive seats on the market. But that price is warranted as AndaSeat go toe-to-toe with premium offerings from Noblechairs and SecretLab. However, this one provides a slightly different seating experience in return.
You see, whilst the SecretLab TITAN and Noblechairs’ Hero are fairly solid and firm affairs, with little give in the seat base, the Kaiser 2 is a much squishier product with plenty of give and bounce in both the seat itself and the surrounding support structures. Obviously personal preference therefore comes to the fore, especially for a product in which you’ll be found spending a great deal of time. Whilst for us the harder, sturdier options are more preferable – possibly due to the fact that we’ve spent more hours plonked in them than we care to remember – there’s much to love about what AndaSeat have produced.
All black in colour with just a hint of white AndaSeat logoing present on the head and back rests, the Kaiser 2 oozes quality. This is right up there with the finest chairs you can buy today and although perhaps it doesn’t scream at you as much as those from other manufacturers, it ain’t far off.
That should be expected really as AndaSeat have made a bit of a name for themselves as race car seat manufacturers for the likes of BMW and Mercedes-Benz, and the trickling of that technology and know-how into the gaming market with the Kaiser 2 is obvious. It comes with everything you would expect of a premium gaming chair too, with enough support in place to ensure that your every minute of gaming is a pleasurable one no matter if those sessions are short and sharp, or for hours at a time.
Much of that is due to the padding, with the seat itself made of 65-70Kg/M3 cold-cured and super high-density foam. When you throw in a massive lumbar support cushion (there is no adjustable lumbar dial here) and a lovely little neck rest that attaches through the racing seat loop, there’s no reason why maintaining posture whilst using the Kaiser 2 cannot be done. In use, it’s extremely comfortable to sit in, with plenty of give in the seat base allowing your entire body to be well-catered for.
The seat is covered in a soft PVC leather-style material that should be easy to clean (a simple wipe down every now and then has kept us sorted), yet with a top grain leather touch, it’s nice to caress too. In fact, the Kaiser 2 is covered with the same material that AndaSeat have thrown into their racing chairs from before, such is the quality. Again, this is on a par with anything else in the price bracket.
The whole thing should be virtually indestructible too (AndaSeat’s words, not ours, but we’ll happily stand by them) as a 22mm high quality steel frame holds everything together. We’ve found with previous chairs that the frame can sometimes be found trying to protrude through the softer casing, but that’s not the case here – in fact, the amount of padding included means the frame is rarely thought of. The Kaiser is strong too, and AndaSeat allow for this to take up to 180kg in weight with a user reaching 210cm in height. Both the seat and backrest are of a great size as well, and whilst we’re nowhere near those upper weight and height limits, we have found that the combination of flexibility in the seat, and the massive oversized support from the sides, fits us well.
There’s plenty of adjustability in the Kaiser 2 as well. The usual pull handle that reclines the backrest is found on the right-hand side of the chair and this will allow you to adjust things through a number of degrees and angles. AndaSeat typically uses the upright back as a PC mode, with 10 and 20 degree backwards movements allowing the user to work through Mobile, Reading, Movie and even Sleeping Mode. We’d go as far to say that this is just clever marketing speak and the positioning of the back should just be placed on feel of the user alone, but if you want to get all fancy like AndaSeat have done, then so be it.
A tilt mechanism is also in place and thanks to a couple of simple to use levers on the underside of the seat, it’s a cinch to get the Kaiser 2 put in the most comfortable position you can imagine. Throw in a wheelbase that is topped out with five massively oversized wheels (seriously, these King Size PU covered wheels are the largest we’ve seen on a chair yet), Class 4 hydraulic pistons for perfect comfort and 4D adjustable armrests – adjustable front-to-back, up-and-down, left-right and panning – and there have been no corners cut on the creation and production of the AndaSeat Kaiser 2 Series Gaming Chair.
In fact, the AndaSeat Kaiser 2 Series Gaming Chair is definitely up there with the best gaming chairs we’ve used. The overall comfort is high, the price is in line with what we would expect, and the design is superb. We can’t quite find it within ourselves to give up the firmer comfort that our SecretLab and Noblechairs have delivered over the years to put the Kaiser 2 at the top of the podium, but what has been created here is most certainly that of a premium gaming chair contender.
Huge thanks go out to AndaSeat for providing us with their Kaiser 2 Series Gaming Chair for review. If you wish to pick one up for yourself, either in the black colour we have been given or the beautiful new maroon red, get over to AndaSeat direct.