When Alex told me she was arranging a gaming chair for me to review, I was amazed, I was delighted as well of course, but mostly amazed. Encouraging me to sit around and play computer games is not normally high on Alex’s to-do list! Still, who am I to complain if that’s what she wants, so I approached this review with much gusto.

The chair itself, the i-eX, is currently marketed very much towards men, with lots of reference to ‘man-sized’ comfort, which didn’t overly impress me in the first instance, but I popped online and perused the product details, reading about its size (nearly a metre tall, and almost as wide!) and its ergonomic features and became quite intrigued by what it had to offer. By the time I’d finished reading, my trigger fingers were itching to get started and I was really ready to receive my delivery.

So, what is it?
In essence it’s a giant beanbag, in good quality faux black leather, with a back. That’s it really, but that’s all it needs to be pretty good at its job.
Packaging wise, it was minimalist – but then, who needs boxes, cables or an instruction book for a beanbag. To set it up, I cleared some space, plonked it down in front of the TV, (despite its size, it’s incredibly light), and switched on the console. 3 mins max and I was ready to rock!

Wiggling myself down into the seat, I felt the beans fill up the back section, forming a very stable support, right up to neck level.  So far so good.
The seat area is bucket style, and round the edges, the beans shifted to form arm supports, just where I needed them. It was stable enough that I was able to rock back and forth, side to side with no restriction in movement at all, just perfect for steering round tight corners. Not being overly on the tall side, I got a couple of 6-ft plus friends to try it out too, and both found it just as comfy as I did, in fact getting them to give it up so I could carry on reviewing proved something of a struggle.

At £99.99 it’s not cheap, but you can pay almost that much for an equivalent sized beanbag without the great support features, and for comfort it gets a very definite thumbs up from me... no ‘numb-bum’ even after several solid hours of playing! No backache or stiff shoulders either... I was happy as the proverbial pig.

Available from www.iexgaming.com