X-Chair X3 A.T.R. Management Chair review — Another contender but just misses the mark

The search for the greatest chair the world has ever seen — a chair with the highest level of comfort, convenience, and quality, all for the right price — continues. In this day and age where work-from-home has become more prevalent and offices look for ways to (hopefully) improve the quality of the workspace for employees, finding the right chair for any desk setting can be a challenge. We’ve had the privilege of checking out a few chairs in our time, a few even from this brand, X-Chair, a company whose goal is to enhance the office space with a line of ergonomic products. Today’s specimen is the X3 office chair, one of the higher-end models in the X-Chair lineup.

The long name is X3 A.T.R. Management Chair, but we’ll stick with X3 throughout this review. The X3 is “for those who…need an extra level of support”, which the chair provides in various ways. It features a high-end mesh that provides both support and breathability while also being easy to maintain. There’s also DVL (Dynamic Variable Lumbar) support for your back, which adjusts to you when you sit down. Add on the FS 360 Armrests and the Elemax heating, cooling, and massage unit, and you’ve got the whole package. This is the same stuff we’ve talked about in the past with other X-Chair chairs (and Mavix, the sister company), so the real question is what sets the X3 apart from the others we’ve seen in the past? I’ll break it down for you, literally and figuratively, and I’ll tell you why this might be the chair for you.

At a quick glance, the X3 looks like the other chairs in the X-Chairs lineup, but when you get a closer look, you start to see the differences. To start, the cushioned seat uses Advanced Tensile Recovery fabric — that’s the A.T.R. in the name — which is a woven multi-layered nylon that provides more responsiveness to the user. Most notably, there’s the little whoosh sound you hear when you sit down and then the air being sucked back in as you stand up. But, all jokes aside, when you sit down you can feel the fabric adjusting to you. You have the options of a standard foam cushion or memory foam. I have never been impressed with memory foam in any application so I went with the standard cushion. On top of that, you can also choose between a couple sizes.

The only issue I have with the seat is that it sits too high at its lowest state, making my legs cramp up because my feet can’t sit properly on the floor, causing discomfort. Taller people won’t have much issue with that, but us shorter folks will be struggling if we don’t have something to rest our feet on. Good thing X-Chair has those too.

The next difference, and it’s one that I question quite a lot, is the adjustment handles. I understand wanting to go for a minimalist and clean design, but why did they make the handles the way they did? A few of the chairs from X-Chair have them; they’re small, flat handles, not extended out on an arm like you’d expect them to be. They’re hard to reach, being tucked towards the middle of the underside of the seat, difficult to move, and they don’t click or anything to let you know you’re doing anything right. I accidentally fully released the tilt on my chair while trying to experiment with these handles and nearly flipped off the chair when I went to lean back. I couldn’t get the height adjustment handle to move at all. There’s a third handle that allows you to slide the seat forward or backward, which is a cool feature if you need a smidge more real estate, however it’s hard to bring the seat forward if you have the non-locking wheels as the entire chair just comes forward. But, back to those handles, I’d just like to ask why?

I spent a great deal of time using my X3. It became the primary chair I used at work, easily beating the basic office chair that had been provided. When it came time for me to prepare it for moving to another location, it was easy to partially disassemble so it would fit nicely into my car. All you have to do is unscrew the frame for the back of the chair from the seat frame and lift it away. It is, however, heavier than most chairs, weighing in at 55.5lbs, standing nearly 60in tall when fully assembled.

When you’re talking about chairs that make some lofty promises, there’s always the question of quality versus cost, as well as warranty. The X3 A.T.R. Management chair sells for anywhere from $1200 to $1722 depending on the options selected, which is even loftier than any of those promises. Of course, you’re rarely ever going to pay the full price as there’s almost always some sort of promotion that will knock sometimes a few hundred dollars off the total, but the remainder will still likely give some people pause. When you factor in the 15-year frame warranty and the 5-year materials defect warranty however, the cost becomes a bit more worth it.

All-in-all, the X-Chairs X3 is a great chair that provides a lot of comfort and options to fit the individual’s needs. However, with some questionable design and adjustment choices, I can’t say it’s the “greatest chair the world has ever seen”.

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