What we play is what brings us together. It is the experience of playing games, but that experience is not solely based on what we are playing, but how we play. From the controller to the television, to WiFi, there is so much that goes into playing a video game. Today, we take a look at one aspect of gaming through our review of the E-WIN Flash XL Size Series Chair. It blends style, comfort, and exceptional build quality to make for a product that impresses in every way.
First Impressions
The first thing you will notice as you unwrap the E-WIN Flash XL Size Series Chair is that the build quality is staggeringly exceptional. The adage of ‘you get what you pay for’ has never been more noticeable. This is not the first gaming chair I have experienced. As someone who, like many, was working from home for most of the last two years, I invested in an Arrozi Monza gaming chair. The difference between the Flash and the Monza is the difference between driving my Mustang and my wife’s old Camry.
The Monza was functional but the cheap plastic of the wheel housing cracked and broke within six months of ownership. The high-quality brushed metal of the E-WIN racing gaming chair base makes this an impossibility. Speaking of the metal base, the chair is weighty. Given that I am 6’4″ and 240 lbs, that is a very good thing. The chair earns its XL name as a heavy duty gaming chair that can manage up to 550 lbs, according to the spec. Note that we did not test the weight limits though. If you live in a third-story apartment without an elevator, be sure to tip the delivery guy.
Modes of Operation
Over the course of the last week and a half, I have used the E-WIN Flash XL Chair while working and gaming. The recline provides an impressive degree of tilt enabling me to go nearly horizontal. Though this tilt does highlight the one problem the chair has from my perspective, which is that the neck support is just too low in ‘office mode’. When used as a regular office chair, the neck support naturally sits between my shoulder blades without much capability to shift it up. This may just be a function of my abnormally long torso, but it would have been nice to have some ability to alter the location of the neck support when vertical. Upon tilting, the whole experience is significantly better. In fact, I’m writing this review on my laptop with the chair at a thirty-degree tilt, and it is practically perfect. The gaming and leisure uses of the chair are so comfortable. In fact, that I have had the chair out of my office and in my living room. Playing on my TV with the chair almost horizontal and using the neck support as a pillow is a very pleasant experience.
Style and Substance
From a stylistic perspective, I went with the white on black. The contrast is pristine and the white pops against the black with clean lines. The white stitching and lining along the black cushions are nice accent touches that enhance slick style. I could have done without the E-WIN branding on both the lumbar and neck support. It feels like a bit of PR overkill, but it hardly detracts from the overall aesthetic. The plastic of the armrests is covered in a thin layer of foam padding. The armrests strike an excellent balance between the typical plastic and the overstuffed padding of other desk chairs. The foam itself does not have the fake plastic sheen that cheaper gaming chairs have. Instead, it has a slightly worn look that gives a welcome texture to the white part of the chair.
E-WIN Flash XL Chair – The Little Things
There are a few last small notes of things I appreciated about the E-WIN Flash XL Chair. Perhaps the most underrated aspect, that I have found myself appreciating over the last ten days, are the armrests. Both my wife and I will naturally fidget over the course of the workday, and the armrests have a quite unnecessarily satisfying click to them when moving them laterally. They have a large range of motion vertically which means that they easily support office work and leisure play. Honestly, the only thing I could have wanted more out of them was a cupholder. Assembly was really easy. It took less than twenty minutes and one page of directions. I mentioned the build quality at the top, and the hardware in this chair rivals what I use in my laboratory for my job. The chair comes with a pair of gloves, which at first I thought was amusing, but there was grease on some of the components that made me grateful for their inclusion.
Go Big
The E-WIN Flash XL is an expensive chair, make no mistake about it. However, E-WIN makes the most of what your money is being put towards. I’m two weeks into my usage of the chair, and it is hard for me to fathom what I could break on it that would make me need a new chair at any point. The quality of the materials used, and the overall feel have made eight-hour workdays and four-hour gaming sessions equally enjoyable. This is a great chair that makes me dubious about any other chair I would review going forwards.
*This chair was provided for review by E-WIN*
If you would like to purchase this chair, you can use our affiliate link to receive 20% off or use the code ‘lordsofgaming’ at check out.
