AndaSeat Kaiser 4 XL review

Gaming chairs come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. However, if you're someone of larger dimensions your options narrow down a bit. While plenty of gaming chairs are comfortable, if you've got wide shoulders, are particularly tall, or simply need a bit more room, you'll probably have considered something built specifically for the bigger frame—like the AndaSeat Kaiser 3 XL.

However, there's a new model in town, and it's the AndaSeat Kaiser 4 XL. Designed for those who need a lot of room, this substantial chair has serious dimensions. The backrest measures 86.5 cm tall, with a shoulder width of 57 cm, while the bottom cushion is 54 cm across and 51 cm deep. The shoulder wings are larger than the previous model, and it's now got fancy 5D armrests and a pop out lumbar support with 4-level adjustment. 

All chairs are delivered in substantial boxes, but my delivery driver laughed when they saw the doorframe we'd have to slide this particular package through. It fits, just, but even by chair packaging standards it's obvious what you're getting here is larger than most. Construction is a fairly standard affair with the tools and instructions provided, but if you want an easier time of it I'd highly suggest calling in a friend to help. Chairs are never particularly easy to put together, but the extra dimensions here make for more of a workout than most.

Once constructed, what you're left with is a large but not ridiculously huge chair. Seeing the XL on the box and the individual pieces did make me worry I'd be left with something cartoonishly big, but the dimensions here are well-judged, and leaves you with a seating space that'll fit most people without being too big to fit in with your average desk setup. It's a bit of a looker too, with bridge-of-the-Enterprise vibes, set off by those wide, swooping shoulder wings and plush side-supports.

Sitting in the Kaiser 4 XL for the first time is a bit like getting on a plane and realising you've accidentally been upgraded—there's much more room here than you expect, and it's a pleasant surprise.

I am not the tallest, nor largest of human beings. Still, while this XL model is made for those who need more space than most, it doesn't feel like I'm surrounded by too much chair when I sit down. My 5' 11" frame fits nicely, while my 5' 4" partner doesn't look too out of place, either.

I've had all sorts of differently-sized visitors sit in the Kaiser 4 XL for testing purposes, the largest of which being 6' 5" and built like the proverbial brick outhouse—by which I mean, bodybuilder-sized. There's been no complaints from any as to sizing, which speaks well for this chair's ability to fit the vast majority of people.

Nor have there been any complaints in regards to comfort. There's a ton of adjustability settings here, all of which work well. There's 135° of recline, accessible through a sizeable right-mounted handle (top marks for not putting this crucial control underneath the chair, so you can actually adjust it while leaning), and a pop-out integrated lumbar cushion, which can be adjusted by a dial on the side of the backrest and popped in and out with a lever on the side of the seat.

I'd go as far as to say the lumbar support here is actually the best I've used to date. It's easy to dial in exactly as much or as little as you need, and the pop-out cushion treads the line between being soft enough for comfort, and firm enough to provide proper, meaningful back support.

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Like the previous model, there's also a magnetic head cushion with some seriously powerful magnets. It's good fun to chuck it at the chair and watch it attach with a pleasing thunk, and it actually requires some genuine effort to move it around once attached. Once you've got it in position, it's not going anywhere easily, so it'll support your neck exactly where you place it without sliding about.

Then there's the armrests, which are 5D. For the uninitiated, that means they adjust up and down, forwards and backwards, left and right, and rotate. Oh, and they split in the middle to fold upwards, too.

On that last point: I'm not exactly sure why. You can, if you so wish, raise your arms like you're performing a T-Rex impression—which doesn't seem particularly useful unless you had the overall height of the chair down at its bottom setting and a very high desk. I suppose you could tilt them inwards and use the upright position to hold a controller in front of you, but it feels a little awkward in practice.

Still, keep them flat and they are very large, slightly soft and squishy, and extremely comfortable. If you're an arm-leaner this is excellent news, as testing the Kaiser 4 XL has made me wish all chairs had armrests of this size. They do wobble on their axis a little more than most between rotational settings, however. It does seem like an intentional amount of play in the mechanism, but it could do with a little tuning for a more high-quality feel.

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If I was ordering my own model I would have picked the fabric version, as I find PVC leather chairs uncomfortably sticky in summer, and cold in winter. I'm not quite sure how AndaSeat has managed it, but the faux-leather model I received suffers from neither. On hot days it's been cool and refreshing, without causing excess sweat, whereas on cold nights it's not frozen solid like the rest of my house. 

The inner chair material seems pretty tough, too, and despite receiving a white model (insert rant about touchable white objects being a bad idea here) it's been easy to wipe clean. Just be prepared for every little spec and stray hair to bother you—if you're anything like me—but there's a whole range of colour options here that should be less prone to showing the odd bit of dirt.

What isn't so tough, however, is the textured soft-touch backing on the rear of the chair. It's pleasingly squishy, and looks great. However, my review unit does have a nick taken out of the material. I'll give AndaSeat the benefit of the doubt here and say this may have happened during construction, despite best efforts to be careful.

However, it does suggest that if you've got a space where you expect the back of the chair to touch things, it's likely to get damaged if it encounters a sharp edge or corner.

There's also the branding to consider. The rear very loudly displays both "AndaSeat" and "Kaiser" in large, embroidered lettering, which is mirrored on the inside of the seat itself. It doesn't look bad, necessarily, but it's a little gamer-y in a way that lets everyone know you bought a gaming chair and not a super-serious office seat.

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That's a shame, as I reckon with some smaller text and less overt branding this would be a good candidate for a chair to use at work without advertising your hobbies. It's a handsome object overall, so a more subtle, smaller text design would have tied in better with the overall vibe.

For downsides though, that's pretty much it. It's even well-priced at $539, given our top gaming chair recommendation, the Secretlab Titan Evo, is actually $10 more expensive. You're getting a whole lot more chair (in terms of size, at least) for the cash here, and that makes it a good value proposition.

Which puts me in a bit of a quandary. Does that make the AndaSeat Kaiser 4 XL the best gaming chair of them all? Well, for most people, I'd say not quite. The Titan Evo seems more resilient to damage and perhaps a little more robust in general, as we've had one knocking around the office forever and it's held up remarkably well. I also think the more subtle design is slightly better looking, and if you don't need the extra room you might find the SecretLab is more cosseting to your particular frame.

But if what you need is a really big, very comfortable chair with great back support, the Kaiser 4 XL is the one to pick. It's large and in charge, but still quite refined, and a comfortable daily driver with relatively few drawbacks. A big seat it may be, but the value for money here is nearly as huge.