DXRacer Martian review: Luxury-car comfort at your desk
The DXRacer Martian brings luxury-car features to your desk, from electric reclining to airbag lumbar support. It’s seriously comfortable, but its battery has its work cut out.
This might be the ultimate chair for office and gaming use. It's called the DXRacer Martian, and it's built from the ground up to be nothing short of indulgent.
It has an electrically adjustable backrest and airbag lumbar support, bringing a little of the luxury-car experience to your desk.
It has armrests that adjust in four directions, a massage function, and even a heating and cooling system.
And it's even wireless. It has a battery built in so you can use all of its functions without having a cable trailing. More on that later.
At £649, it’s a substantial purchase. But if your chair doubles as somewhere to work all day and play games in the evening, there’s an argument for giving it as much consideration as the screen in front of you.
Are you ready to spend £649 on a chair? No, I wasn't either, but now I've lived with it for several weeks, I'm tempted.
What I liked about the DXRacer Martian
There is so much to like about this phenomenal chair it's hard to know where to begin. Importantly, it's very comfortable. Its cushioning feels firm, but that's actually no bad thing for long use, and the phenomenal amount of adjustment, from the electric reclining and lumbar support, to the hugely customisable armrest position, mean it should be a perfect fit for anyone of any body shape.
The electric backrest adjusts between 90 and 135 degrees using a button similar to the one you'd find in a car, and the lumbar and massage function is on a directional pad on the opposite side.
The lumbar support uses two built-in airbags to provide adjustable support around the upper and lower lumbar areas and it takes a while to get it right, but it's absolutely wonderful when you do.
There's also a magnetic memory-foam head pillow which just attaches to the headrest, and this is another thoughtful touch.
The heating and cooling are impressive, rather than just a gimmick. The cooling is done with a fan, so there's no active air conditioning, but it's pleasant on a warm day, if a tad noisy on its highest setting. And the heating goes from pleasant to ferocious. So if you're engrossed in a game there's no need to get up and turn the heating on.
Perhaps most impressive of all is the fact it's all powered by a battery. It's a chunky 5,000mAh unit that tucks away under the base, and you charge it up with an AC power supply.
In terms of features, then, this chair doesn't just rewrite the rule book, it tears it up and sets fire to it. It's an amazing piece of kit.
What I didn’t like about the DXRacer Martian
I'd love to have stopped right there, flung my hands up, and declared it to be the perfect piece of furniture, but sadly there are issues.
The first one is the price. At £649 it's a substantial investment. Yes, it's clever, and yes, it's built fantastically well, but you really do need to value comfort and tech to be able to justify such a big expense.
It's also a little high off the ground. I'm 5'8" so I'm a pretty average height, and it's not easy for me to put my feet on the ground from a sitting position, at the lowest level. A footrest quickly sorted this little dilemma, and six-footers doubtless won't mind, but it's worth considering.
I'm definitely impressed with the tech, the heating system is especially useful, and I do quite like the massage system, but they absolutely chew through the battery. DXRacer claims you could have a two week battery life and I'm sure that's true if you only make quick reclining adjustments from time to time, but if you use heating or massaging, it'll dry up in no time at all.
And that means you might as well leave it plugged in. Which means there's yet another wire trailing. It's also worth remembering that, if the battery dies, you can't recline the chair. There's no manual override.
Overall verdict: Should you buy a DXRacer Martian?
Battery life aside, and considering there's only so much mechanical movement and heat generation you can expect from a battery that has a similar capacity to a smartphone, DXRacer has pulled off something rather brilliant with the Martian.
Massage chairs are quite common these days, and it's not unusual to see heating or even cooling elements built in, but to have all this with such a well made and comfortable racing-style chair that can also recline electrically and has genuine luxury-car style lumbar support is a brilliant thing to see.
Yes, £649 is a lot to spend on somewhere to sit, and the fundamentals still come first. Size, comfort and support need to suit you before the electrical extras become worthwhile.
But those boxes are absolutely ticked straight off the bat, so given what this can do, you're left with one of the best chairs on the market.