Mavix M9 chair review – Seated in luxury

2016 was when I chose PC gaming as my go-to system. I had a chair gifted to me by a family member, and while the sentiment was lovely, the chair was not. But I didn’t mind, at least not for the first five years. It was covered in this terribly itchy material and only reached up to the upper portion of my back. But I didn’t mind, at least not for the first five years. By 2021, I realized this thing had to go. It was then that I realised how important a good ergonomic chair is. My lower back was wearing the brunt of this poorly designed chair, so I upgraded — straight to an HP Omen Citadel. It’s been my chair of choice since, and I love it. I wouldn’t think of swapping out for a different ergonomic chair unless that chair was more comfortable and had better ergonomics available. So when Mavix reached out to review their M9 gaming chair, I was interested. Boasting “overclocked performance and engineering”, surely this would be the chair of all chairs, right?

As all good ergonomic chairs should be, the M9 is big – 55×26.25×28” in height, width, and depth. The base model clocks in at $999 MSRP,o ffering 4D arms but no massage function. The chair that Mavix sent was a semi-upgraded one — boasting the ELEMAX lumbar pad for cooling, heat, and massage options, but not the FS 360° rotational arms.

So, is this $999 chair (with a $129 upgrade for the ELEMAX lumbar pad) worth it? Have we got a new king of $1K chairs?

I’ll say it, straight up: the seat is amazing and the movement of the chair is superb. They’re easily the two best features of the M9. The seat is made out of “contoured cooling gel memory foam”, and you can absolutely feel it when you’re sitting on it for hours at a time. It’s not quite like sitting on a cloud, but it provides a great amount of back support to keep your posture in check. The one thing you should focus on when buying a chair is the rigidity of the base — anything softer and more cushiony is going to give you back problems. Thankfully, Mavix knows the importance of this fact and has found an amazing balance between support and comfort.

Reclination and the rest of the ergonomic options of this chair are just as well-designed — you can easily twist a few knobs, raise a few things, and have this chair supporting your back in no time. In its time through testing I didn’t find that any of the ergonomics were slipping into a position that I hadn’t initially set. Of course, that could change through years of wear, but Mavix seems to have put a lot of effort into taking care of the strength of the ergonomics that, at least at this point, I’m inclined to believe would last for years to come.

Also, I need to talk about the wheels. Why am I getting hyped over these wheels? I don’t know, but they’re incredibly slick. They roll like they’ve utilized bearings manufactured from the most finely-tuned machinery, and greased with the best industrial-strength lubrication money can buy. They’re slick and silent and can lock in place — so if you want to raise your feet and slip the chair into nap mode, you can rest easily knowing you won’t be slipping and sliding across the floor.

Speaking of weirdly high-quality components, I have to mention the M9’s material. The lumbar support uses explicitly breathable fabric, while the rest is made out of a very…unique material. It looks like leather and feels like leather, but it’s woven with Brisa; a fabric that’s also extremely breathable. You get the aesthetic of a leather chair from the front and back, but all the benefits of other, less sweat-inducing fabrics.

Now, the upgrades. The ELEMAX option seems necessary, right? Cooling, heat, and massage options? You might think you’d be a dunce not to upgrade and have this built straight into the chair, ready for use — but that’s not necessarily the case. Once plugged into the wall (don’t use a portable battery pack because they don’t output enough power to fully power the electronics), you’ll control the options by reaching toward the right side of your lower back. There are three intuitive buttons, activating either cooling, heating, or low/high power massaging. Cooling and heating work, although you need to wear something thin to feel anything whatsoever. As for the massaging option, it’s kind of like sitting your back against a washing machine while it’s on — sure, you can feel it, but it’s not really doing anything worthwhile enough to call it a massage.

As for the FS rotational arms, I haven’t gotten my hands on them so I can’t confirm nor deny their quality. As for the stock arms, they move awkwardly. It sounds like plastic tracks rubbing against each other, producing an awful plastic whine as they slide back and forth. For a $999 chair I’d expect the tracks to be made out of metal, and to click satisfyingly into place.

So, a $999 MSRP chair with a $129 MSRP ELEMAX upgrade — is it worth it? Well, the upgrade certainly isn’t. You’d be better off purchasing a lumbar support option somewhere else and attaching that to the chair instead. However, the back support is great, as are the ergonomics as a whole. If you have $1K lying around and are looking for a quality chair, then look no further.

Ben Lombardo

Editor | [email protected]

With a deep interest in writing, Ben followed that into a Journalism degree. As an avid lover for gaming, he is constantly expanding his library with console, PC, and VR games. He's obsessed with stealth games and loves hunting down the smallest of details inserted by devs.

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