Hbada office chair
Assembly
Unless you’re paying for the privilege of a chair that comes pre-assembled, you’ll usually have to arm yourself with an Allen key (and some patience) when the Hbada arrives at your door. It might sound like a faff, but unlike some other chairs, this can be assembled by one person as its lightweight plastic parts make it easy to move around and connect to one another. So, while DIY isn’t our favourite task, we had it ready to go in just under 15 minutes.
Build quality
There’s a lot of plastic involved in the chair’s construction, but it still feels sturdy and stable to get in and out of. There have been some Amazon reviews, highlighting some issues that the chair suffers from some micro-movements even when everything is screwed in tight.
However, after weeks of use, it was still holding up well with no worrying squeaks coming from the chair itself and no signs of stress coming from the plastic base, which is usually the stress point that begins to break down first.
Adjustability
The smooth gas lift mechanism raises the chair’s height from 45cm to 54cm, so you have 9cm of adjustable height to play with, a couple of centimetres less than some other more expensive options, but still enough to make it comfortable for a good height range, although perhaps less well suited to tall users.
Read more: Ryman executive chair review, premium comfort and great lumbar support
The Hbada can be locked in place or you have the option of letting it rock freely between 90 and 120-degrees and a twist of the dial underneath the seat pad adjusts the tension of this back tilt, so you can personalise how easy it is to rock the chair and eliminate the sensation that you’re about to disappear over the back of it.
The arms pivot up and down so that they’re vertical to the backrest, which gets around a common gripe for many chairs – that being, even if the seat pad can be lowered enough to get underneath a desk, the armrests still stop the chair being fully tucked under. It’s a relatively simple mechanism, but can make all the difference between a cramped and cluttered office space and one that’s clear. We reckon that could be an attractive selling point especially if the chair is kept in a more public area of the house, like at a computer table in a living room.
Comfort and ergonomics
All our testers commented on how comfortable the 8cm thick cushion padding on the seat was and that the fabric covering was soft rather than scratchy, while still being breathable. The absence of a waterfall edge on the seat pad did increase pressure on the backside of the legs when we were sat for a prolonged amount of time, but at least this encouraged us to get out of our seat more often to walk around, which is good for spine health.
The breathable mesh on the backrest had good tension, and we still felt like it was fully supporting our spine. We also had no sagging in the mesh structure, even after we had been using it every day for a month.
Read more: Is Herman Miller’s mirra 2 butterfly office chair good for back pain?
As for the fixed lumbar support, it suited the smaller users (5’4”-5’9”) to no end, but for anyone taller, it wasn’t quite as targeted. There’s no padding on the armrests either, which, to be honest, we would have been happy to pay a little bit more for.
There was also a slight issue with the maximum height of the rests, which only reach up to a shade under 28in. We found this was too low for most of the fixed desks in the house and meant that we couldn’t use the rests when we were writing, using a mouse or resting our arms between bouts of typing on the keyboard. However, this slight issue might be eliminated if you have a sit-stand desk with a lower variable height range.
Overall, though, the slightly limited adjustability can work in your favour if you’re prone to slouching at your desk as the fixed seat depth and no permanent recline means that it encourages you to sit more upright with the backrest providing a naturally supportive ergonomic position.
The verdict: Hbada office chair review
Clearly, one of the biggest selling points of the Hbada office chair are its pivoting armrests. We love the space-saving mechanism when you’re not working in it and how it made the chair more suitable for other activities, other than sitting at a desk. For example, the guitar player in the house-made good use of the fact that he could sit in comfort while playing, with the armrests folded so that they wouldn’t interfere with the instrument. However, we did have some issues with the armrests’ height and that they didn’t quite marry up with our desk.
Our month with the chair, taught us that the users who were most enamoured with it were the 13-18 year olds. The combination of the chair’s size and funky, modern styling means that we actually think this could be a really good chair for a teenager’s room.