We Tried It: Ewin Champion Series Review

… a lackluster back and headrest make this chair a bit of a mixed bag.

One of Ewin’s premiere chairs, the Champion Series, has entered the battle. Their team recently sent me one of these models to put through the wringer as I saved princesses and defeated villains. How does the Ewin Champion Series gaming chair stack up? Read on to find out!

Ewin Champion – Pros and Cons List

Packaging

The Ewin Champion Series gaming chair arrived matter-of-factly on my doorstep in a custom cardboard-colored box. Although I wasn’t blown away by the box’s display, it was cool to see Ewin’s logo on the top and a picture of my new chair on the side. It may not seem like much, but the initial wow factor sticks with me long after I’ve been using a gaming chair.

Upon opening the box, I was happy to see everything securely packaged inside. The seat, backrest, and wheel base were hugging each other, while a smaller cardboard box held all of the chair’s other components. This smaller box was thick and did a great job of protecting its contents. The levers that adjust the height and lock the rocker stuck out the sides of the box but were encased in blocks of Styrofoam.

With everything laid out, I was ready to read the instructions first (as the box told me to do) and start assembling.

Assembly

The manual looks cool at a glance, as it showcases Ewin’s many different products and all the fantastic colors those chairs come in. When I opened the manual, I was met with a list of components and assembly instructions for a completely different chair. While the instructions for gaming chairs are typically the same, it’s disappointing to see a lack of effort in this area.

The same manual likely ends up in every Ewin box to save a little money on SKUs, but when you spend hundreds of dollars on a chair, it’s nice to see custom instructions. Maybe I am alone in this thinking, but generic instructions feel lower in quality and always make me question the quality of the chair itself.

In any case, I more or less followed the instructions listed out in the manual to put the Ewin Champion Series gaming chair together. Screws came pre-attached to the seat to mount the backrest and hydraulic mechanism. The included hex wrenches made it easy to remove and then replace those screws while attaching components together.

The only minor frustration I encountered involved attaching the hydraulic assembly to the bottom of the seat. There was no indication of which direction to mount this piece, and I had a pause a moment to ensure I was putting it on the correct way. I’d hate to be a new chair owner who has to spend the time and energy to turn this hydraulic piece around after putting in all the effort to mount it the first time around.

Features

Ewin Champion Series Chair Specs

Weight: 51 pounds

Seat Height Adjustment: 20.5 to 23.5 inches off the ground

Seat Width: 21 inches

Weight Capacity:  400 pounds

Chair Material: PU Leather

Reclining Angle: 85° to 155°

5-Wheel Metal Base

Padded 4D Armrests

Comes with a head cushion and lumbar pillow

Let’s take a look at the features that come with Ewin’s Champion Series chair.

4D Armrests

A big win for me on the Ewin’s 4D armrest design is the fact that there are several height settings available. Most chairs have at most three available height options, but the Ewin model comes with six. That’s a lot more versatility for gamers who come in all sorts of heights and arm lengths.

Since the armrests are 4D, they also move in and out, forward and backward, and can tilt from side to side. All of these are really nice features you can use to dial in the perfect comfort setting. The only thing I don’t like is that you can’t lock the tilt in place, and the armrests often move when I drag the chair to a new location.

Fortunately, the top of the armrest is relatively firm but provides a good amount of padding. I don’t have any issue resting my arms on them for hours at a time while at the computer.

The Recline

This Ewin chair reclines from 85° to 155°, meaning you can actually position the backrest at five degrees forward from vertical. I prefer to have my backrest right at 90° while gaming, but you can sit an extra 5 degrees toward your screen if you want to.

The chair’s backward recline is pretty standard at 155°, but the recline really shines when you leave the rocker feature unlocked. These two features working together enable you to rest in pretty much a horizontal position with your feet off the ground. Definitely a position I could fall asleep in.

The Rocker

With the adjustment knob fully loosened, the rocker on this gaming chair is acceptable. I can get the little bit of lean that I like between matches or during loading screens. I’d love to see a much smoother rocking mechanism that I can use to lean back with even less effort. I want to relax, not work hard just to get the chair to rock!

Headrest Pillow

Although called a headrest pillow, the Ewin Champion Series chair’s cushion sits not behind my head but on my upper back. Due to the way it’s mounted, there’s no way to raise it any higher either. At six feet, I’m not even the tallest guy in the world. This pillow might work for someone in the five-foot six-inch range, but it does nothing for me.

Lumbar Support Pillow

This chair does have a lumbar support pillow that I really enjoy. It’s adjustable up or down to easily position it right where I like it on my lower back. The cushion has the perfect shape and a good amount of padding for the support I need.

Height Adjustment

This Ewin chair has a standard three-inch seat height adjustment. At its lowest, the top of the seat sits 20.5 inches off the ground. I usually keep my height somewhere in the middle of this range, so it should work well for the majority of people using this chair.

Build Quality

I will say that everything on the chair feels nice and sturdy. As with most chairs, the only cheap-looking, loose parts are the plastic pieces that cover up metal pinch points. They are fairly well disguised and are typically out of sight and out of mind.

The armrests are a little short and are not quite up to the standard I’ve seen on other models. They wobble more than I’d like them to, and the tilt not locking is an annoyance. They also don’t look as nice as armrests on similarly priced models from other brands.

Looking at this gaming chair, the backrest seems quite thin. Since the headrest pillow does me no good, I would have liked to see more padding on the top part of the chair. The sides of the backrest feel sufficiently padded, but the middle of the chair (where I spend more of my time) could use a bit more. I find myself squirming more than I’d like to find a comfortable position to game in.

I’m impressed with the stitching throughout the chair. Ewin sent me the black-on-black design, but there’s not a single loose or missing thread anywhere. This holds true for the pillows as well. They match the chair perfectly both in design and quality of stitching. I’ve not put this to the test, but Ewin boasts that their PU leather material is stain-resistant.

I’m a huge fan of metal bases, and the Ewin Champion series chair does not disappoint. The durable aluminum design is known to hold up for a long time and take quite a beating. While I haven’t noticed a difference, the hub-less wheels are supposed to glide more smoothly than other wheels across surfaces.

My office is carpeted, and the chair often wants to tip when I sit down and slide myself up to my computer desk. I have to catch myself from faceplanting while sometimes balancing a cup of coffee or a snack. For as heavy as the chair is, I wish Ewin had placed that center of gravity a little lower to the ground.

Comfort and Ergonomics

The Ewin Champion Series chair is comfortable to sit in, but that feeling doesn’t last as long as some of the other chairs I’ve used. I’m not able to sit and forget; I end up having to adjust more often than I’d like during gaming sessions. When you’re trying to immerse yourself in an epic battle between good and evil, the last thing you want to think about is the growing discomfort in your back.

There’s plenty of padding in the seat for me, and it seems my comfort issues stem from a backrest that isn’t quite thick enough. There’s quite a bit of padding on the sides of the backrest, but I can’t think of a situation where that would ever get much use.

I do love the lumbar support pillow when it’s in the right spot on my lower back. It tends to slide down the chair as I move around, so I have to move it back to the correct position from time to time. The headrest pillow doesn’t work at all for me, and the lack of other padding around the headrest means I rarely lean my head back.

The armrests provide a nice level of comfort for my arms. I like that I can adjust them to whatever position I need, whether I am typing more or needing to change things up while using a mouse or controller.

Verdict

At the end of the day, the Ewin Champion Series chair’s seat and lumbar support pillow provide a level of comfort I would expect from a good gaming chair. The armrests are very adjustable, which is important considering how much action your hands and arms see while gaming.

It’s unfortunate that the chair’s backrest and head pillow don’t live up to this same level of comfort. I end up leaning forward more than I’d like to as my back starts to get uncomfortable. I also don’t care for the fact that the chair struggles to glide over my carpet, where other chairs can do it without issue.

I’m somewhere in the middle about the rocker feature. It’s borderline acceptable at the loosest setting. It does make for a great addition when you recline the chair back to the full 155°.

Ewin lists this chair at $479 on their site, but I feel the negatives don’t justify this price point. It is nice, however, to see an aluminum base often associated with higher-quality chairs.