Corsair's First Gaming Chair Debuts At CES

We noticed a new product at Corsair's CES suite: a gaming chair. It's still an ongoing project, but it's a new venture from the company. This seems to be an increasingly popular category for many companies, in fact, and it makes sense given that a comfortable chair is an essential accessory for all serious gamers, or really for anyone doing hours of work on a PC.

Corsair's new gaming series will be called T1 Race, and the company said it was designed by the same people who design and make seats for racing cars. Of course cars have functional and safe seats, but comfort isn't always a first priority. For these chairs, however, the designers most likely followed a different approach regarding comfort.

The chair's chassis is made of steel for durability, and the 4D side arms are made of high quality plastic, featuring a carbon fiber look and finish. Moreover, the chair uses PU material for the areas that come in contact with your body, instead of leather, which is much more expensive. Because of this design choice (PU instead of leather), the MSRP will be kept at normal levels for a good gaming chair: around $350. Often, good leather chairs easily exceed $500, and apparently Corsair wanted to keep the cost within reach of more people in the gamer community.

The T1 Race gaming chair is almost ready. The only part that still holding back Corsair is the choice of the caster wheels, which is crucial for any chair, not only the gaming ones.

We tried the chair and it felt comfortable, but our time with it was brief--too brief to form a complete opinion, for sure. We don't have any information on when this product will be available just yet.

Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a Contributing Editor at Tom's Hardware US, covering PSUs.

  • Th3pwn3r
    I hope they have different sizes. Anyone with any love handles is going to hate these racing buckets...hope they have different colors/no colors as well.
    Reply
  • sylvez
    Looks like a guy relaxing with his arms around the back of his head with VR headset on
    Reply
  • soccerdude84
    I don't know why every gaming chair has to have dumb flaps on either side of the seat and backrest, all they do is limit your freedom of movement. Unless you're actually playing a racing sim you're better off with an ergonomic chair.
    Reply
  • darkguy2
    19121679 said:
    Looks like a guy relaxing with his arms around the back of his head with VR headset on

    Cannot unsee.
    Reply
  • sillynilly
    It looks cheaply made to me. Might be due to the poor quality of the pics, but dunno not a fan from those shots.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    19121692 said:
    I don't know why every gaming chair has to have dumb flaps on either side of the seat and backrest, all they do is limit your freedom of movement. Unless you're actually playing a racing sim you're better off with an ergonomic chair.
    These are called side bolsters, and they're what Th3pwn3r was talking about. I totally agree about the ergo chair. Aside from affecting fit, the bolsters also limit air circulation and make the chair hotter.

    To me, they're utterly pointless, unless your racing seat has actuators that physically toss you around. The reason sports cars have them is that when you're pulling up to 1 G of lateral acceleration, they help keep you from sliding around. A proper racing harness does a better job, however. Either one makes the car more controllable, because you can't steer as well when you're also having to use the steering wheel to hold yourself in place.

    BTW, I lol at anyone using a racing harness in a street car. They're damn inconvenient, in day-to-day use. And without an anti-submarining loop, 4-point harnesses are more dangerous than the factory 3-point belts.
    Reply
  • Th3pwn3r
    19124865 said:
    19121692 said:
    BTW, I lol at anyone using a racing harness in a street car. They're damn inconvenient, in day-to-day use. And without an anti-submarining loop, 4-point harnesses are more dangerous than the factory 3-point belts.

    I have a 1989 Honda CRX that was 1hp short of making 550hp at the wheels. I wish I had racing harnesses because the super old door mounted seatbelts tend to get stuck and sometimes try to trap me in the car lol. Once I get a cage I will love having the harnesses and new seats because I'll actually be able to get out of my car more easily as crazy as that sounds, the stock seat belt holder/retractor(reel?) thing is really heavy too and my car is totally gutted(not even a radio or speakers :( )

    However, back on topic, unless you're a very lean guy racing style seats are super uncomfortable for your butt and sides/hips.
    Reply
  • Jay_128
    This looks like a rebadged E Blue Cobra chair. I personally wouldn't spend 350 on a low quality product. For 150 more you can get a Herman Miller.
    Reply
  • serendipiti
    This chair has wheels ? it is a car racing tuned office chair ? it has some sort of brake (hardcore gaming resistant), any kind of extras (some kind of stand to place pedals) ? I prefer the "one body" armchair style with inclination suspension...
    Reply
  • kyle382
    Not hideous enough. Needs to be lined with RGB lights.
    Reply