snakebyte Gaming:Seat Review

Having gone through many different gaming hardware in my time, something I’ve never considered is the more practical stuff, such as chairs. Having happily spent my gaming history sat in >£70 office chairs, when I woke up to find the £250 chair on my doorstep, it’s needless to say that I didn’t really know what to expect. It took two of us to actually get it through the door, and then I was left with this behemoth of a box that resided in my living room.

After unboxing all of the components and leaving them strewn across the living room, I was fairly daunted by the amount of pieces I would have to put together. When I braved up to looking at the instructions, I was initially overwhelmed, with only pictures being used with very little being diagramed and, as I found out later, certain steps that just were skipped by the manual. Whilst these steps were fairly self-explanatory, as someone who likes to (and has to) follow instructions to the letter, the exclusion of certain steps was overly difficult for me to get around.

Instructions aside, the construction of the chair itself was surprisingly easy. Many components simply slotted and clipped together, and any screws needed were already provided and screwed into the appropriate holes, avoiding all the awkward shuffling of screws that usually occurs when constructing any form of furniture. Once I’d gotten my head around the instructions, to actually build the chair only took around 15 minutes or so. The only issue I did encounter was the plate which attaches the height & recline levers to the chair is shown screwed in facing a different direction in the instructions to how you actually can with the real chair. The version depicted in the instructions made more sense as the actual way it screwed in meant I had to adjust how I’d screwed in the arm rests, as they were overlapping.

Once those complications were put aside, it came to actually using the chair. Sporting a headrest, lower back pillow, retractable leg rest & adjustable armrests, it was a lot of choice and comfort that I was not used to. Being a digital magazine designer, nightly livestreamer, small-time writer and long-time procrastinator of real, important tasks, it’s not wrong to say I spend 8-10+ hours sat in my computer chair on an average day. As of writing, it’s currently 2:45pm GMT and I’m at five hours already as an example. I was happy enough with my basic chairs, but Snakebyte have changed that. The Snakebyte ‘Gaming:Seat’ remains perfectly comfortable to sit in, and the customisation you’re given in the chair’s design makes it easy to comfortably switch up sitting positions to avoid your entire body from sticking to the chair, especially in this heat.

One thing I feel is important to bring up is that I suffer from both Scoliosis, a spinal condition which causes the spine to curve into a C or S shape, affecting only 3% of the population, and Scheuermann’s Disease, where the vertebrae grows disproportionately, causing the spine to bend outwards/inwards. These combined cause me irritation and pain whilst doing pretty much anything, especially for long periods of time, and sitting down is one of them. Being unable to consciously correct my posture, I found I could only sit in the office chairs for about an hour until pain started. With the Gaming:Seat, the use of the back pillow and headrest allowed me to sit comfortably in the chair for up to 2+ solid hours without discomfort occurring. As mentioned earlier, I livestream almost every night for two hours, and towards the end of many streams it would be commented I would grow visibly restless and fidgety. Since using the Gaming:Seat however, I have been able to happily sit through the two hour session without growing abnormally discomforted. I’m not saying it’s cured my issues, and long gaming or work sessions still cause pain and high irritation, but this experience would not be typical of most users and if anyone reading this suffers from problems like this when seated, the Gaming:Seat is definitely worth your interest.

The leg rest was a feature that I was interested in seeing how it worked, and if it was practical to do so. Whilst it looked relaxing, I couldn’t imagine it’s use when PC gaming, and this showed from my experiences. From trying to play Rocket League, if I had the leg rest up I generally found it more uncomfortable as I would naturally lean forward when playing. For watching videos, the leg rest managed to find its love in me, as well as when I was playing games that required an Xbox controller such as Human: Fall Flat. The versatility the chair gives you offers an extraordinary variety of ways to enjoy yourself.

Overall, the snakebyte Gaming:Seat showed me what I’ve truly been missing all these years. Amazing quality, great customisation, a bit of a confusing construction but it can be easily overlooked when you get the final product. With a current cost of £230 at the time of writing, the price may put many off, but for anyone who spends a large amount of time at a PC, whether it’s watching videos, doing work, playing videogames or just relaxing, it’s definitely a great value for the money, especially when compared to other gaming chairs on the market.