XSReviews

The E-Win Europe Champion Series CPH. It sounds like a prestigious esports event — maybe in in Copenhagen? — but it’s actually a chair. Not just any chair either, it’s a gaming chair with all of the bells and whistles: a stylish ‘race car seat’ design, plenty of supportive cushions, reams of adjustability and a strong aluminium construction.

That sounds pretty good, but how does this E-Win chair perform compared to others on the market? Is it worth its €300+ price point? We’ll answer these questions and more in our full review, so read on and find out!

Features

• Ergonomic adjustable design w/ free headrest and lumbar cushions
• Patented ‘race car seat’ breathable fabric material
• Extra high backrest, adjustable from 85° to 155°
• Special 4D PU soft adjustable arm rests
• Five-star aluminium base with latest castors
• RRP £369; use code XSR for an additional 10% off!

Design

The CPH has a more sobre and professional look than the primary-coloured Speedlink Regger we reviewed last year, with a black colour scheme used throughout and a less aggressively presented logo.

The back rest and seat come with a nice dimpled material centrally with leather on the sides. The dimpled material is arranged into a diamond pattern, which adds some visual interest and should hopefully prevent it from getting too hot in the summer months. The material is also easily wipeable, which is nice when you inevitably pour your tea all over it.

The back rest can adjusted to an almost flat 155° angle using a lever on the side, which is nice if you ever need to take a nap and a bed isn’t available (you’re at a LAN, perhaps). You can also adjust the height of the chair substantially with another lever, to suit the very short and very tall.

The arm rests are interesting; very wide and flat compared to what you usually see on a gaming chair. As well as being adjustable up and down, the arm rests can also rotate side to side and slide forward and back. The arms look to be removable, although the tool to do so is not provided.

The base and wheels of the chair use a standard five-pointed star design. The base is made of metal, which should provide a more durable foundation compared to the plastic bases on the Regger and other gaming chairs.

The chair comes with a head pillow and lumbar support pillow, which can be adjusted or removed as preferred. These are made with the same textured material as the main body of the chair.

Overall, the chair’s appearance and materials appear to be a substantial upgrade over the cheaper Regger. However, it’s not clear whether the chair will prove to be better than the Regger and other budget chairs in terms of actual functionality. Let’s look at the setup process and our impressions from a few weeks of testing.

Setup

The last time I set up a gaming chair, I had a rather poor showing — the chair seemed to take forever to assemble, and inaccurate instructions meant that I left out one of the chair’s components! This time around, I was better equipped, both mentally and physically.

The chair was delivered with its cushions already in place, and the instructions were ordered in a confusing zig-zag manner, but individually made sense and were well-illustrated. Some of the pictures depicted a chair with different parts to my own, but the differences weren’t significant.

With instructions in hand, I was able to assemble the chair within about 20 minutes without leaving any bits out. Result!

Testing

In order to give this office gaming chair a good shake, we used it for work and play for a two week period. For a good score, the CPH should deliver excellent comfort in long gameplay sessions or a full work day, a good range of adjustability to suit our lanky reviewer and adequate breathability for warm gaming conditions.

(We’ll largely be using the last gaming chair we reviewed, the Speedlink Regger, as our point of comparison.)

Firstly, I want to discuss the balance of the chair. One negative I found for the last chair we reviewed was that it was very front-heavy, in order to allow users to lean back deeply without actually falling backwards. However, that also meant that if you leaned forwards in the chair, perhaps to plug something into your PC, you risked tipping over. The CPH feels better balanced, and doesn’t become nearly as unstable when leaning forward.

The second flaw I found with the Regger was its breathability. The flat leathery material used throughout didn’t allow for moisture to be wicked away, leaving the chair a bit sweaty after a long work or gaming session. This facet is also improved on the E-Win CPH, with the dimpled material seemingly providing for a little more air circulation to prevent moisture from building up over time. The mesh back of the IKEA Markus is still the superior solution, but the CPH is at least competitive in this regard.

We’ve mentioned heat and moisture build-up, but these are not the only things that can make a gaming chair good or bad for marathon use. Comfort and adjustability are also important, and here the CPH is a less obvious upgrade over past gaming chairs we’ve tried.

The CPH is well padded with foam and nicely level, making for a comfortable seat even for extended periods — of course, you ought to be standing and moving every 20 minutes, but I often forget this sage advice and end sitting for hours on end. Thankfully, the addition of the lumbar support pillow makes the chair a little easier on your lower spine.

The chair suits my 188 centimetre frame quite adequately, with the headrest just high enough to let me rest my head.  However, the neck pillow is a little low, and doesn’t provide much use for me. If you’re a little shorter, perhaps 180 centimetres or shorter, it should be better placed for you.

The big difference between the CPH and other gaming chairs we’ve tested is that the flat and wide arm rests are significantly more comfortable. If you tend to keep your arms on your chair rather than on the desk in front of you, this could be one factor that makes the CPH a wise choice. The arms are also held in place with a solidly-made metal bar that attaches directly to the frame, which should provide good long-term durability. When pushing the arms in any number of directions, I didn’t feel any kind of flex or give.

While writing this review, I solicited questions from friends. I tried to answer as many of these as I can, but regretfully I haven’t yet been able to test the chair’s loaded angular velocity, ability to do Crossfit, capacity to be strapped to a motorcycle or whether it blends. Thanks to my friends for their insightful questions.

Score & Conclusion