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Boulies has just released its latest gaming chair, and the EP300 looks set to take on the luxury ergonomic market. With an introductory discount taking the launch price down to $299, Boulies is making a strong statement about the lofty prices of high-end chairs.
If you shop around for the most premium ergonomic gaming chairs on the market, you'll probably land at the feet of one brand, and one brand only. Herman Miller makes some beautifully elegant and comfortable seats, but its high price tags make it the holy grail manufacturer everyone wishes they could afford.
Boulies, on the other hand, makes some of the best gaming chairs on the affordable end of the spectrum. That's not to say it makes cheap seats that don't last, but this brand has a knack for taking premium features from rival chair makers and cramming them into a much cheaper package. That definitely seems like the aim of its latest model.
Compared to the regular asking price of a Herman Miller chair, the $369 / £289 price of the EP300 feels like a blessing from the gaming furniture gods. The Herman Miller Embody costs more than a grand, and even the more affordable Herman Miller Vantum is still upwards of $750. Looking at the EP300 from a design standpoint, it has very similar ergonomic spinal curvature to the latter.
From first glance, I really love the look of this chair, and not just for its familiar design. In fact, when you look even closer at its features, it reminds me of another epic gaming throne, the Fractal Refine.
The EP300, just like the Refine, comes in both mesh and fabric upholstery options, which is such a great change from what a lot of gaming chairs do - separate their fabric and mesh options into totally different price points, often forcing people to pay more for the breathable mesh option. While I wish there was more than one colorway of the new EP300, the black Padded Mesh or Black Mesh versions look sleek in their own right.
The EP300 has also changeable seat depth, again, like the Fractal Refine. Boulies says this is to cater to different body types, but what I liked about it with Fractal's seat was that I could still benefit from the ergonomic backrest and posture support while sinking deeper into a more relaxed position.
Herman Miller fans in particular might be envious of the headrest on the EP300, since Embody owners need to buy their headrest separately, and this one takes a leaf out of the book of a lot of office chairs since it can adjust to the angle and position you want to rest it in.
Interestingly, there's no adjustable lumbar support here, which could end up being a flaw. Instead of the four-way adjustable padding found on chairs like the Corsair TC500 Luxe and the Secretlab Titan Evo NanoGen Edition, the EP300 utilizes a spinal curve to its backrest that naturally provides lumbar support. The backrest has three height adjustment settings, so you can match that spinal shape to your body shape. Elsewhere, we have the tilting, reclining, rocking, and swiveling you'd expect from a desk chair, with a recline range of 90-109 degrees.
I'm most eager to try out the armrests. While I do like the armrests found across the other Boulies chairs, like the Boulies Elite and Boulies Master Series, I do think an ergonomic chair like this calls for a more premium set of pads for your elbows to lean on. The armrests of the EP300 can be adjusted in height, depth (forward and backwards), and their pivoting angle. I personally hope they feature a button that locks them into position, though, since one of my pet peeves with gaming chairs lately is armrests that slide around when you don't want them to.
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