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Chairs!
Chairs?
Chairs...
Chairs.
Butt-resting devices.
I never intended to talk so much about chairs on LGR, but somehow it happened.
After noticing that The Sims expansion packs almost always came with a large number of chairs,
people starting thinking I was like a chair fetishist or something.
Well, I'm not, but the chair is
pretty much an awesome thing indeed.
Uh, I do like a good chair.
And the folks over at Viva Office Chairs noticed
and asked if I'd like to review a real chair for a change.
I said, why not?
They sent me this chair free of charge
and now here it is.
The succinctly-named:
Ah, a name that just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?
Uh, let's just call this the F1 from now on, how 'bout that?
So, office chairs.
They're kind of necessary if you work in an office
or even just use a desktop computer for any length of time.
I've used total pieces of crap like this for years,
and my lower back has been sending me very sternly-worded correspondence as a result.
So I always interested in nicer chairs with lumbar support,
especially high-backed mesh chairs with all the bells and whistles.
There's just something about the mesh that appeals to me
after so many years of sitting on cloth and faux leather.
So, now that I've spent a couple months using the Viva F1 chair, how is it?
Well, let's start from the beginning.
It retails for $600 US dollars,
which puts it at about double the price of my previous office chairs,
but still half the price of the mesh chairs I was considering by Herman Miller and the like.
It comes in this enormous box
and inside you get a bunch of nicely-packaged parts to put together.
And this is probably the easiest office chair assembly I've gone through.
Most of it already is put together at the factory, so
all you really need to do is snap these things into place
and plop that thing there
and lower the chair onto that thing
and screw on that thing at the head, and you know...
And there you go, it's done!
And right off the bat,
this feels way better than any other office chair I've owned.
Seriously, even the $300 ones.
Those often feel fine to begin with, but then the seat cushion starts giving in
and the plastic base starts making noises and creaking and ugh! No!
This thing feels solid, man. It just feels like it'll stay sturdy for a long, long time.
It also keeps me comfortable for long periods of time,
whether I'm working or gaming or some ambiguous mix of the two, since my job is confusing.
Let's talk about build quality.
All together, the F1 weighs about 50 pounds and is rated to hold up to 250 pounds,
so it's a pretty hefty thing for an office chair and I really like that.
I've had too many chairs that feel like balsa wood held together with toothpaste.
I am done with that, dude.
And the plastic mesh also feels pretty strong,
almost too strong even, since there's very little give in the seat cushion,
making it very firm to sit on.
It's also breathable,
meaning that farts go right through and don't linger inside, so that's a plus.
The wheels also seem sturdier than my previous office chairs,
which is good because you don't want these things to snap off
after you've eaten a few too many pizzas or something.
But it's not all good news.
Some of the key components on the F1 feel cheap as heck.
Like the arm rests. Ugh, these arm rests.
This is my number one complaint about the chair for a couple of reasons.
First, they wobble around and never feel like they're never fully connected to the rest of the chair
and they're on as tight as they'll go.
And second, while they adjust up and down and lock into place, which is a very useful feature,
they also slide forward and backward, but this doesn't lock into place.
So the result is that almost every time I get up or sit down or even just adjust myself,
these stupid things are wobbling and sliding around all over the place and making noise.
The next problem I have with the build quality are the levers that hold each part of the chair into place.
This is one of those chairs where everything is adjustable and in theory that should be great.
The back moves, the seat moves, the head rest moves, the arms move.
It's a movement party and all the pieces are invited.
However, the levers and mechanisms that hold these things into place don't always work.
Especially the lever that locks the chair back into place.
I prefer my chairs to sit almost straight up.
I can't stand when a chair just moves back when you push backward.
So, you can lock this into place right here and it should be fine, right?
Wrong.
Five or six times a day, the lock simply gives out and the back of the chair moves right on backward.
I've tried everything I can to tighten this thing and make sure that it stays where I want it to,
but it doesn't seem to matter. The lock just sucks.
About the only other thing to touch on is the headrest,
which Viva actually calls the "Darth Vader helmet" in their advertising.
It's kind of hilarious.
I mean, it does look a bit like Vader,
but I can't imagine this is sanctioned by Disney or Lucasfilm.
Anyway, it's just a headrest.
It adjusts. I never use it. I took it off after about a week.
So, that's the Viva F1 office chair.
It's a $600 chair that feels like a $600 chair...most of the time.
Those clanky armrests and that weak lock really ruin
what would be a clear recommendation for the F1 from me.
So my conclusion is that I would say try to get this on sale instead of paying full price.
It's still a very solid comfortable chair,
and my back feels a heck of a lot better after using it for a while.
But I'd really expect basic things like armrests and the back of the chair to lock into place
for this kind of asking price.
And if you enjoyed this video, then [laughs]
well, it's kind of the only one of its kind.
Uh, but I do have a lot of other videos that I've done in a similar style, I suppose.
Just not on chairs...yet.
As if you wanna–
So if you wanna look at those, here are some links right here,
or you can subscribe and get new videos sent to you every Monday and Friday.
There's always Twitter and Facebook for social things,
as well as Patreon for money things.
And as always, thank you very much for watching.