E-WIN Flash XL Gaming Chair review — Is this the best gaming chair on the market?

By Ron Burke

Posted on September 23, 2021

There are a LOT of gaming chairs that have a very similar look. You know exactly what I’m talking about — the plush flared back seats with the two holes punched in it at the top, the solid seat with the bright colors, and the raise and lower mechanisms. It’s confusing, and it only gets worse when you see chairs with prices ranging from way too cheap to way too expensive. Well, we’ve reviewed a lot of chairs at Gaming Trend, and we’ve got to tell you — they may look similar, but they are very much NOT the same. One chair actually flipped over on more than one occasion, injuring the reviewer. Another came with stripped non-standard screws that couldn’t be replaced, and the manufacturer simply went out of business. There’s gotta be better chairs out there that are worth your money, right? Well, we are going to take the E-Win Flash XL from E-WIN Racing for a spin and see what makes this one very, very different from the other gaming chairs in our inventory. First up, however — let’s get it out of the box!

I want to get into some of the specifics about what makes the E-WIN Flash XL different. I mean, let’s be honest here — at a glance, a lot of these chairs look almost exactly alike. First and foremost, this chair is solid steel, supporting a whopping 550 pounds. Every other chair I’ve reviewed maxes out at 300 or less. I’m not tipping the scale that way any more, but it’s nice to know that this chair is going to accommodate any body shape and size without an issue. Let’s take a closer look at the pieces that make that possible.

The wheelbase on the E-WIN Flash XL is made of solid steel, providing a very solid base for the whole platform. Most other chairs use a hardened plastic, graphite, or lightweight aluminum. Thanks to the heavy wheelbase, even when I had the whole chair tilted 85 degrees the whole thing felt more sturdy than any other chair we’ve used. The real work, however, is done by the rocking mechanism.

Like the other chairs we’ve reviewed, the Flash XL has the rocking hinge mechanism on one side, and the seat tilt lock mechanism on the other, with sturdy actuators. The mechanism is mounted to a thick steel that seems to be more heavy duty than any of the Flash XL’s competitors — this thing is going to hold up to a lot of punishment. To withstand the 550 lbs weight capacity, the gas cylinder must be reinforced in some way, though it looks to be the same size as the others.

In the center of the rocking hinge mechanism is an oversized seat rocking resistance knob. This knob allows you to easily adjust tension on how easily the chair tilts. Turning it clockwise or counterclockwise will raise or lower the resistance on that tilt, just as it does on other chairs, though the mechanism feels like a higher durability plastic than the other more squared off knobs on our other chairs. It’s a nice upgrade, and better than just a fully unlocked or locked lever.

As I mentioned, we had one chair that actually flipped over while in a normal seated position, and that was because the center of the tilt mechanism was located far too close to the front of the chair. On the Flash XL we see the center point carefully positioned to ensure that you can make use of the entire 85 degree opening, but not tilt forward past the danger point. Naturally, you are able to lock it in place to ensure it won’t move once you’ve found the amount of tilt you want. Unlike other chairs, however, the seat itself also tilts and locks, so you can further adjust to find your desired seating position.

The included Rolland Caster wheels included with the Flash XL are decent enough for hardwood floors, but they aren’t great for carpet in my experience. Frankly, if they catch and drag on the hardwood floor and slide sideways, you’ll probably like them even less. The two-wheel casters pick up carpet fibers that get stuck and are difficult to clean. I personally don’t like them at all and have replaced them at every opportunity with all-steel rubber-wheeled casters. They won’t scratch a wood floor, and they roll on carpet easily. You can find these for $20 — a fairly minor nitpick to be sure.

There’s a lot that goes into the comfort of a chair beyond just how stuffed the seat cushions are, and over time it gets more and more clear. Looking at the side wings and the seat pan, it’s immediately apparent that there is a lot more padding in the Flash XL than their competitors. Doing a quick compression test, it’s also clear that it’s a very different material. All of our other chairs use high-density HD36 foam — the same material used in your favorite foam roller. This material is often very solid, only compresses a little bit, and can have semi-solid pressure points. On the cheaper chairs we have, I can feel these hard points on the back of my thighs, or on the sides coming from the wings. The purple cloth chair from our video has so little padding that it hardly qualifies as being “stuffed” at all.

The E-WIN Flash XL uses a cold-cure foam for its padding. This high-density material feels more like the memory foam that I have in my Tempurpedic bed, making it far more comfortable over long play sessions. Cold-cure foam is built to last for decades, with a better elasticity recovery rate, meaning it snaps back to its original shape almost instantly, cradling your butt and back comfortably over long play sessions. The Flash XL also comes with a pair of adjustable pillows for your head and lower back, so you can add or remove these to add additional comfort wherever you need it. I do have to admit that the top pillow is a little small when compared to all of my other chairs, but if you are putting it behind your neck instead of behind your head, it works.

The side wings on the Flash XL are also overstuffed, keeping you centered in the seat pan. This encourages you to sit with your spine aligned, instead of twisting yourself into a pretzel just to get comfortable. The good news is that it’ll be comfortable for any body type, large or small. Where our blue chair has a solid bar that rings the entire seat, the Flash XL is soft all the way to the edges. The structure of the chair lies in the core, not the edges, so it’s great to not have a hard bar running against your leg when you turn a bit in your seat to get comfortable.

Moving into the seat itself we see some massive differences that may not be immediately obvious. Two of the chairs we are comparing also use PU leather (aka synthetic leather or “Pleather”), with the third one using cloth. The Flash XL uses what the E-WIN team is calling PU 2.0, adding stain resistance, greater ability to reject moisture, and the ability to resist damage, cracks, and fading — something standard PU leather is known for. Using a simple moist cloth to keep it clean, this material should look just like it does right now for years to come.

As we move closer you may have also noticed the stitching on the Flash XL. Every other chair we have has a single heavy stitch for all the seams, but the Flash XL is double-stitched, with a hard rolled edge. This method is the same sort of technique used in a Judo uniform, holding up to years of abuse without tearing or separating. It’s a lot of extra stitching on E-WIN’s part, but it means that it should hold up for the full warranty period.

Speaking of the warranty, the Flash XL is covered for two years, but you can extend it to three for free, if you simply take a picture of the chair and share it on social media with some specific tags. If you take a video and share it with the E-WIN team, you’ll extend that out to five. That’s outstanding, especially when so many chairs on Amazon have the ominous “contact seller directly” message instead of a listed warranty. It’s nice to see the E-WIN team stand behind their products, especially with a warranty that’s easily double that of their competitors, if not more.

Looking at the functionality of the chair, it’s capable of reclining a full 85 degrees. I don’t know how frequently I’d ever use that amount of recline, but knowing that I will use about half that for a fully relaxed position without flipping backwards is comforting. What’s better is that, even when fully reclined, it remains completely comfortable — I tested this out by falling asleep several times while watching TV!

We spend hundreds of dollars on cases, memory, motherboards, monitors and more, and often over a thousand on a video card to run the games we play and love, ignoring the one element most common to all of it — a comfortable place to sit. Whether it’s your MMO of choice, the yearly entry of your favorite sports franchise, or a turn-based tactical space battler, you probably spend hours exploring, crafting, and creating, so a comfortable seat is an absolute must.

E-WIN has been kind enough to supply us with an incredible offer on their E-WIN Gaming Chairs — a 30% discount for Gaming Trend readers. Simply hit this link right here and you’ll immediately take advantage of this great discount. The Flash XL will set you back $449 at the time of writing, meaning you’ll only end up paying $314 — an extraordinarily reasonable price for a chair with this solid of construction and such an excellent warranty to back it. There are over a dozen variations on this chair, so hit up this link and use the offer code “GamingTrend” if you want to pick a different color or option.

E-WIN Flash XL Gaming Chair review — Is this the best gaming chair on the market?

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