As someone who is alive, I’m sure we can all agree that there’s nothing worse than sitting down and being uncomfortable. Even more so when you sit down to game after a hard day’s work to relax. There is nothing worse than not being in comfort. I’ll admit that I’ve never been one to dabble too much in gaming chairs, doing a lot of my console gaming from the couch. Still, when I’m at my PC at a desk, I’ve longed for something more, especially during the hotter summer months when my shitty Officeworks chair just won’t cut it. Razer has come to the rescue with the Fujin Pro. It’s a gaming chair that you can tell a lot of thought and technology has gone into producing – but how does it fare in the real world? Pretty well.
The Razer Fujin Pro is a mesh gaming chair designed to sit aside their Iskur support line and Enki’s comfort line. That’s not to say that the Fujin Pro doesn’t give comfort and support – it absolutely does; it represents one of the first significant forays for the gaming giant into mesh chairs. The idea behind a mesh chair is that air flows better throughout the chair and is much more breathable – perfect for the sweaty gamer. Given that the Fujin Pro is named after the Japanese god of wind, they’ve nailed the concept. The airflow is fantastic.
While I was told that the packaging I received for the Razer Fujin Pro is less flashier than when the product hits the market later this year, I was taken aback by how simple everything was. Inside the box, you’ll get the chair’s base, a seat and the backing. Two other smaller boxes house the accessories and headrest and it’s all topped by a gigantic version of the now-signature Razer mantra. The headrest comes included with the Razer Fujin Pro but is an optional add-on for those opting for the plain Razer Fujin. All screws come preinstalled and the tool to manipulate them is included too. You don’t need anything else – it’s all-encompassing.
Betraying my lack of knowledge in this area, I put aside a whole day to set up the Razer Fujin Pro. I was astonished to discover that after unpacking everything, it only took me about twelve minutes to assemble everything by following eleven easy steps. There wasn’t a single point where I got stuck in building the chair and, besides the components themselves being heavy, nowhere where I needed excessive strength or force to put stuff together. Given how intricate some features and customisations are, it’s a straightforward assembly process.
But do be warned – you’ll be handling a lot of packaging. This might seem like a strange thing to highlight but there is a lot of cardboard that you’ll have to recycle.
But before we delve into the nitty gritty, it’s important to highlight how the chair looks assembled. When I think of Razer, I think of outlandish and bright green products adorned with obnoxious RGB lighting. Perhaps I’m being a bit too harsh there – but the Razer Fujin Pro is anything but. It’s a sleek-looking chair with a neutral appearance that could be used with little to no reservations in a professional office setting AND your ostentatious LCD-lit gaming den. I’ve seen gaming chairs with holographic highlights and brightly coloured fabrics that look less mature than the Razer Fujin Pro. It’s a sleek chair that feels incredibly grown up.
When I first sat on the Razer Fujin Pro, I was made aware that mesh chairs aren’t the cushiest. But after several hours on the chair, I was shocked. I didn’t get up nor did I move to my couch. It was comfortable. It’s almost a technical marvel that material pulled so tight and well-ventilated can sustain my erratic bouncing, especially during hours upon hours of play of Mortal Kombat 1, where I’m most animated. But even more so, the chair mesh only seemed to get more comfortable as time passed. I’m not sure if there’s science behind this or if it’s purely a placebo effect, but the Razer Fujin Pro absolutely felt more comfortable the longer I sat in it.
I’ve never been one to tout the wonders of lumbar support, but after sitting in the Razer Fujin Pro, I was suddenly aware of when I’d sit somewhere, and there would be a complete lack of it. Since I’d sat in it, I’d visited restaurants, cinemas and even a friend’s office. None of the seating options there are even remotely compared. I’m trying to say here that lumbar support isn’t something you feel like you need until you’ve experienced it – I was almost longing for it after spending time out of the house.
The Razer Fujin Pro includes a knob on the back of the chair that allows you to adjust the lumbar support’s depth and height. It’s a great feature that works miles better than a cushion attachment, like some chairs opt for, though it’s hard to reach while sitting on the chair. I had to get up and sit down multiple times to find my sweet spot before giving up and asking someone else to adjust it. Theoretically, once you’ve got the sweet spot, you shouldn’t have to adjust it again, but it is worth mentioning for those flying solo.
Right underneath the left side of the seat, you’ll find controls that allow you to adjust the tilt and recline of the chair as well as the depth of the seat. On the right side is the typical height adjustment for the seat and a knob that can be turned to adjust the tension to the seat’s tilt. Essentially, you can recline up to 130° with the controls on the left side of the chair allowing you to lock your tilt in place while the controls on the right side affect how easily you can push the chair back.
This is handy because you can have your chair actively “match” your position no matter how you sit without continually adjusting the chair. It’s a nice feature that is especially handy when sitting at a desk for long periods or just sitting in front of a TV playing games for even longer. Just constant comfiness, which is what you want from a chair like this.
The armrests are similarly entirely customisable. I was a tad worried about the armrests, given I’m a bit wider. However, the degree of movement that the armrests on the Razer Fujin Pro means that almost anyone of most body types can find comfort. Using buttons on each armrest, each armrest can be adjusted up and down, forward and backward, left and right or rotated inward and outward. I’d imagine those with smaller frames might not be happy with how little you can move the armrests inwards, but otherwise they’re incredibly customisable.
The headrest is similarly customisable. Included with the Fujin Pro and available as an optional add-on for the Fujin, it screws onto the chair and is a sturdy addition. It’s also fully adjustable and made out of the same comfortable and breathable mesh as the rest of the chair. Where the headrest is customisable to suit all kinds of angles, I couldn’t quite find the right angle for it being of a shorter stature. I prefer to sit forward when I sit, though, so perhaps this is more of an issue of personal preference than a design shortcoming.
But above everything else, where there are some little design niggles that could more or less be a result of my own personal stature rather than the chair itself, I come away pleased with what the Razer Fujin Pro can do to my posture and my comfort during those longer sessions both gaming and working. But while I can’t help but feel it’s a tad pricey, there’s still that age-old adage that I know to be true: you can’t put a price on comfort.
