Razer Iskur review: This gaming chair saved my back

Our Verdict

The Razer Iskur provides a lot of back support, forth with an inventive lumbar apparatus. But it's pretty expensive.

For

Comfortable, firm back support
Inventive lumbar device
Controls within piece of cake reach
Relatively foolproof construction

Against

Loud design in blackness and green
Inconsistent head support

Tom's Guide Verdict

The Razer Iskur provides a lot of back support, along with an inventive lumbar apparatus. But it'southward pretty expensive.

Pros

+
Comfortable, house back support
+
Inventive lumbar device
+
Controls within like shooting fish in a barrel accomplish
+
Relatively foolproof construction

Cons

-
Loud blueprint in black and green
-
Inconsistent head support

EDITOR'Southward NOTE: The Razer Iskur won a "highly recommended" honor for best gaming chair in the Tom's Guide Awards 2021 for gaming.

The Razer Iskur saved my back while working from dwelling house. I don't say this lightly, but it's true. Until the Iskur came along, I was sitting on an 8-year-old part chair that toll $l when I bought it, and had just depreciated in the interim. My shoulder would seize upward every other week. Then, along came the Razer Iskur with its house cushioning, adjustable support options and inventive lumbar apparatus. My shoulders, lower back and hindquarters are all in good shape.

I feel confident in maxim that the Razer Iskur is far superior to a $50 role chair — but at a whopping $500, it had better be. The bigger question, then, is whether the Razer Iskur is superior to other gaming chairs on the market place, particularly since information technology has a insufficiently larger asking price.

Choosing the best gaming chair largely comes down to what feels comfortable, and that's difficult to answer unilaterally. I can say, all the same, that even at its steep toll, the Iskur provides a lot in return, from its house, durable padding to its bevy of adaptable seating options. The chair's pneumatic lumbar support system is particularly creative and functional, and I'g not enlightened of some other gaming chair that offers it.

While the Iskur's aesthetic design and head pillow both leave something to be desired, this chair could brand an excellent centerpiece for your PC gaming setup. Read our full Razer Iskur review to larn more.

Razer Iskur review: Price and availability

The Razer Iskur costs $500, and is available either directly from Razer, or from Amazon. The chair first came out in Oct 2020.

Razer Iskur review: Pattern

In that location are 2 main points of the Razer Iskur'southward design to consider: its layout and its aesthetics. The good news is that the layout — the more of import quality of the two — is excellent. The bad news is that the aesthetics — the more noticeable quality of the two — are not, specially on the black-and-green model.

Like a lot of other gaming chairs, the Iskur is a large black seat, with firm and generous padding for both your back and your glutes. The Iskur features a symmetrical blueprint that expands with small curves effectually the shoulders, and contracts to a rounded rectangle toward the head. In that location's a hexagonal pattern on both the seat and the backrest, and 2 manifestly blackness arm rests.

The right side of the seat has adjustment controls for the backrest bending, the chair'southward pitch and the lumbar support machinery. Below the seat, there's a black base of operations with v casters, also as a summit adjustment arm. I'll talk over these more than thoroughly in the Features section, but but about everything is within reach, and piece of cake to distinguish by touch.

On the other hand, in that location's no denying that the Razer Iskur is merely going to wait ameliorate in some gaming centers than others. I pride myself on having a low-key, elegant gaming setup with a night forest grain desk, plain peripherls and fifty-fifty a indigestible, black PC chassis. That's why the Razer Iskur, with its prominent Razer logo, neon green stitching and "For Gamers. By Gamers." trademarked slogan are all a fiddling jarring.

Fortunately, the Iskur comes in a plain blackness option. Notwithstanding, the "For Gamers, By Gamers" text is even so there, as is the large logo and the make proper noun on the dorsum.

Razer Iskur review: Comfort

The Iskur is easily the most comfortable computer chair I've always used . While information technology's tough to compare office chairs and gaming chairs straight, I've sabbatum in many office chairs that felt a lot flimsier and less supportive than the Iskur does. The seat and backrest are both extremely business firm and offer a ton of back up, provided you really remember to sit upwardly straight and lean dorsum. And, if you have trouble with that, you can adjust the seat'due south pitch to fit your item contours. That manner, you lot can work and play in a neutral spine position, whether you have a "lean back" or "lean forward" approach.

Granted, the Iskur doesn't come pre-adjusted, so you'll have to do an awful lot of trial and error before yous find the perfect position. At that place are four different levers to arrange, and that's before you take the arm rests into consideration. You could spend quite some time piddling effectually to find a good fit — and then meet it thrown entirely out of whack the second a spouse or housemate decides to adjust information technology for themselves. This may be a necessary evil when there are and then many possible settings to adjust, but it'south still a potentially frustrating process.

The biggest issue I ran into, nonetheless, was that the head back up depends most entirely on your height. The Iskur comes with a head pillow, which is good. But Razer cautions that the Iskur works best for people between 5'6" and 6'2", and I'm definitely on the lower end of that spectrum. I couldn't actually get the pillow to sit down low enough to back up the bottom of my caput, meaning all information technology did was prevent me from leaning dorsum all the way. I extremely stiff neck and 2 ibuprofen caplets afterward, I retired the darn matter, and learned to alive with the unadorned backrest.

Razer Iskur review: Features

Where the Razer Iskur distinguishes itself from the competition — and arguably earns its $500 asking toll — is in its adaptable lumbar support mechanism. By and large speaking, gaming chairs offer lumbar support in the grade of pillows, which sometimes work and sometimes don't. By contrast, the Iskur's lower backrest can actually extend outward and upwards, adjusting to both the curvature of your spine and your full general sitting position. Simply pull a lever, lean back when you detect a comfortable fit, and the Iskur provides an immobile, supportive, consistent surface to prop upwardly your lumbar vertebrae. Speaking as someone who can't stand up the feeling of pillows behind my back, I don't see how I could ever become back to a soft lumbar back up system.

(I do need to mention, however, that the lumbar support mechanism very nearly ruined the Razer Iskur for me when I received an incorrectly assembled unit. Thankfully, Razer has bodacious me that this flaw is not present in any product models, and a quick sweep of social media and popular forums seems to confirm this. But be enlightened that if the lumbar back up on your chair doesn't work properly, you are missing the product's signature characteristic.)

Apart from the lumbar support, you can also adjust the chair tiptop and backrest angle — fairly standard features, fifty-fifty among cheap office chairs. The backrest angle is a little sensitive, and you lot'll accept to apply just the right corporeality of pressure to become it where you desire to go. More interesting is the chair's pitch, which lets you adjust how far forward or dorsum yous desire the whole chair to lean. The armrests also requite yous quite a bit of command, letting you accommodate the top, direction and angle.

Razer Iskur review: Verdict

In spite of a high toll and a few design quirks, the Razer Iskur is an excellent gaming chair. Information technology'due south not the correct visual fit for every gaming eye, but it'due south hard to argue with how comfortable it is — or how much support information technology gives your lower back.

If you've had good experiences with Razer'southward electronic gaming gear in the past, rest assured that the company'southward mechanical article of furniture experiment is also off to a expert commencement.

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom'south Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, y'all can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.