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AK Racing Core Series LX Review

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December 13, 2018 10 Min Read
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This time around we’re testing out AK Racing’s LX Gaming Chair, offering lumbar support and a 10-year frame warranty, amongst other features.


Product on Review: AK Racing Core Series LX Gaming Chair
Manufacturer: AK Racing
Street Price: UK £379.99 / US $449.99

As part of our two-part review, we focus in on the AK Racing Core Series LX Gaming Chair here, while the other part looks at the AK Racing Masters Series Max Gaming Chair. This review looks at LX which offers a more cost-efficient method into AK Racing’s new line-up.

Whether you’re watching your favourite tech YouTuber, such as David here at Vortez, or streamers on Twitch, you’ll likely have noticed the big, colourful thrones with branding behind their head. This type of computer chair has gained massive popularity in recent years, with AK Racing offering several new chairs to try and entice you into the latest crowd. They’re not only designed to look good, but to increase comfort for long periods of sitting down, which we all know isn’t good for us but we do it anyway.

This new Core Series LX offers 10% more padding than the EX model alongside a wider frame for additional comfort. Along with a full PU-leather exterior for greater longevity and easier maintenance in the long-term.



As is generally the case, the gaming chair arrives with a lumbar support cushion and neck cushion to help aid with comfort and the same 5-year warranty on the chair and 10-year warranty on the hand-welded frame. AK Racing offer this on all of their chairs.

Pricing is at the higher end of the gaming chair market, at £379.99 in the UK and $449.99 in the US, but without further ado, let’s take a good look at the Core Series LX and test it out for comfort.

AK Racing on the LX:
LX gaming chair levels up the game even further with unique design, increased padding (10% more cold cured foam than EX gaming chair) and a wider frame for additional comfort and even longer gaming hours.
With a blend of modern-futuristic design and smooth curves, LX gaming chair delivers its promise of something big and substantial with all the quality and functionality AKRacing is renowned for.

About AK Racing

Back in September, we met up with AK Racing at EGX to discuss current goings on, plans for the future and have a general catch up.
AK Racing are by no means a young upstart on the gaming chair scene. Established in 2001, they have been in the business longer than many and evolved out of the custom racing seat movement of the ‘90s. Unlike many of their competitors however, AK Racing have direct links to a manufacturing OEM based in Asia, which can allow for more agile development of new designs rather than not-so-novel variations on a well-worn theme.

Until recently AK Racing’s involvement in the EU market was somewhat hands-off, opting to channel their efforts (both marketing and product development) through a distributor. Unfortunately, this status quo was far from ideal; resurgent demand, new competition and the unique nature of streaming as a means of driving brand awareness necessitated a change in direction. Now teams have far closer ties to regional markets while maintaining deep links with their Asian OEM.



Short term effects are more profound for retailers than the consumer, especially these without their own in-house gaming seat brand. In the long-term however the benefits have the potential to be considerable. In particular, long-term support should be far more comprehensive and responsive, and new product development can be actioned with a greater understanding of each region’s unique requirements.

You can see more of AK Racing’s range at https://www.akracing.com/ and don’t be at all surprised if they’re a far more visible presence at events such as EGX than they have been until now.

Technical Specifications

Materials
Frame Material: Metal
Frame Coating: Anti corrosive black paint
Chair Cover Material: PU leather on front and back
Foam Type: High Density Mould Shaping Foam
Foam Density: 55 kg/m³ (seat) 50 kg/m³ (back)
Base Type: Metal base

Features
Adjustable Armrests: 3D
Mechanism Type: Standard Mechanism
Adjustable Tilt Angle: 3-18°
Tilt Lock: Yes
Tilt Angle Lock: No
Recline angle: 180°
Gas Lift Class: Class 4 gaslift
Adjustable Back Angle: Yes
Adjustable Lumbar Cushion: Yes
Adjustable Headrest: Yes
Meets/Exceeds ANSI/BIFMA Standards: Yes
Warranty Length: 5/10 years

Packaging & Included Parts

The packaging that the AK Racing Core Series LX arrives in is enormous, but it has to be due to the size of the chair. This isn’t anything unusual within gaming chairs, but please ask a friend to help you carry it due to the awkward size and heavy weight.

Protection inside the box is ample; the chair arrived without a hitch with no internal damage despite the outside of the box taking a bit of a battering in transit.



The 5-prong wheelbase is formed from a single piece of aluminium, with a powder-coated top, polished to a shiny finish.
The underside isn’t anything fancy, but is reinforced with plenty of triangular shapes, which we all know equal strength.




Included with the chair are all the fixings and associated tools, a class-4 gas lift, rated up to 150kg (23 stone), 5x 2.5” castors and some protective gloves for assembling the chair.



The rocker mechanism allows the chair a certain degree of tilt and controls the lifting and lowering of the piston. This is an integral part of the chair, though we felt this to be a little on the small/thin side for something of this value. We’ve reviewed chairs of half the value of this, at around £200 in the UK, and they’ve been much more robust. The paint, plastics and overall finish on this piece was sub-par for the course, frankly.

Included Parts Continued

Moving onto the comfortable pieces, the base of the chair is made from one, flat piece of leather with high sides. The chair is quite narrow overall, which may be better suited for the smaller gentleman or petite lady, but by no means isn’t comfortable for your average user. The high sides do somewhat limit how far you can spread your legs, preventing you from being able to cross your legs in the chair.



Having a feel around the inside of the padding and looking at the frame, the overall structure of the chair isn’t that substantial, which is a little worrying. We’ve already expressed concern at the lack of sturdiness in the rocking mechanism. The chair arrives with a 10-year warranty on the frame, which is obviously encouraging, but we have our worries.

You can see here that the arm rests can be adjusted a small amount by loosening off the bolts, or removed altogether, if you’d prefer. The arms are in no way critical to the strength of the chair.



The rear of the seat employs a different stitching style, with downward arrow-shaped stitching across the back. The AK Racing logo uses the same blue of the rest of the chair, instead of sticking with the usual red flag.



The AK Racing logo is also on the back of the chair, but apart from that, it’s incredibly uneventful here. We’d like to see more “gaming chair” companies provide some kind of pocket on the back of their chairs; if anything, they’d be handy just to store the cushions in if you choose not to use them.

Finished Look

We opted to go for the blue and black option when asked which colour we would like, and frankly we don’t regret that in the slightest. The blue sections are vibrant and consistent across the plastic and leather. The black wheelbase and leather ensure the finished product looks fantastic.

Performance & Comfort Testing

After setting up the chair and sitting on it for the first time, it became immediately apparent that this chair has been designed with younger and/or smaller users in mind.

Starting with the overall height, when compared to the whole range of gaming chairs we’ve tested so far, including the AK Racing Masters Series Max, the base of the chair, at its lowest settings, sits roughly 420mm from the ground. Typically, the other chairs we’ve tested are around 70-80mm taller than that. Raising the chair up to its full height, saw it at 520mm, allowing 100mm of adjustment. This is noticeably lower than a typical gaming chair. Both the height and tilt are also controlled from a single lever as well, which is unusual.

The back of the chair can be tilted back a huge amount, going almost horizontal once paired with the 15° of lean from the rocker mechanism under the base of the chair, essentially meaning you can lie down flat in your chair.



Next up is the padding. We found this to be far too soft, much like the Masters Series Max. The bottom piece is a rectangular section of foam, suspended at the front and back, with gaps either side. These gaps allow the foam to move around a little too much under your behind. The tall side pieces also prevent you from spreading your legs too far, which can restrict comfort and limits the space for a larger bottom.

In the same style as the Masters Series Max, you’re provided with a small piece of plastic which has quite an ingenious purpose of allowing you to mount the neck cushion over the top of the chair, or through the “harness slots” to lower the cushion somewhat. This isn’t something we’ve come across from rival brands, we like it a lot!



Finally, the arm-rests, which are only 3D adjustable, meaning three different directions. They can be adjusted in height, forwards and backwards and be angled inwards or outwards. For the price tag, we expect 4D armrests, like we find on most gaming chairs.

Conclusion

As we mentioned, this chair feels as though it’s designed for the smaller person, but I’m not “large” myself, weighing in around 80KG (12 stone) and standing at 175cm (5’8”). The chair felt undersized and uncomfortable for any length of time; though I did ask my girlfriend, who’s a petite woman, to try out the chair for a couple of days and she found it to be reasonably comfortable, but that the foam padding was still lacking in firmness.

Aesthetically, the chair scores top marks. The blue leather and blue plastic inserts match perfectly in colour and the overall style looks fantastic. An all-black wheelbase, wheels, armrests and PU leather with blue inserts works really well, and looking at images of the other options, which includes black, indigo, red and white as well as the blue we have, they all look great.

We expressed a concern to the overall structure on the underside of the base, with a thin metal frame hidden behind the leather and a surprisingly unsubstantial rocking mechanism. The chair does arrive with a 10-year frame warranty, but we aren’t convinced on its overall feel. We can make the chair rock and move, even when everything is locked into place which isn’t acceptable, as far as we’re concerned.

The biggest problem for us is that asking price, at £380 in the UK and $450 in the US. We feel as though this chair needs to be at least £100 less than that, even taking the 5/10-year warranty into consideration.



While the chair looks good and arrives with a hefty warranty, we couldn’t recommend this chair to any potential buyer at its current price point which doesn’t seem to reconcile with current market conditions.

Pros
+ Stylish colours
+ Looks fantastic
+ Easy to put together
+ All-black wheelbase and wheels
+ Adjustable neck-pillow height
+ Seems better suited to smaller or younger audiences
+ 5/10-year warranty

Neutral
+- All adjustment is controlled by a single handle

Cons
– Incredibly pricey
– Foam is too thin/unsupportive
– Not the most comfortable
– Questionable build quality/tolerances


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