If you’re a PC gamer looking for the ultimate office chair, there is no shortage of brands and options at every price point. Of course, once you exceed the $1000 threshold, expectations rise for best-in-class performance. Mavix goes all-in on these expectations with the M9 Gaming Chair, with what they promise is a true S-tier experience, delivering overclocked performance and engineering. While the company can wield all the PC gaming buzzwords they want, the proof is in the end product. In that regard, once properly configured, Mavix does indeed deliver something approaching a beast of a chair with the M9, although it doesn’t necessarily reach a quality level on par with its price point.
Mavix M9 Gaming Chair – Options and Assembly
Mavix offers the base model of the M9 in four different color schemes: all-black, all-white cushions, two-tone black and white, and black and glacier blue, each starting at $999 (although some colors may occasionally go on sale for less). The M9 is also available on Amazon in black, white, and black and white, but only in the base configuration. The black and white model features a white back rest and white seat, while the black and glacier features a blue lumbar support.
The rear of the lumbar provides a cavity to insert the optional Elemax cooling, heating, and massage unit, which adds $129 to the price. The base model of the chair comes with highly adjustable 4D arms, but you can upgrade to the FS 360-degree rotational arms, which add a full range of swivel, slide, and rotation options for an additional $164. Lastly, there are the wheel options, which are available in nine different colors: red, smoke (grey), black, white, glacier (greyish blue), azure (bright blue), flamingo (pink), royalty (purple), and venom (green).
For my configuration, I chose the black base model, and added the Elemax unit, FS 360-degree rotational arms, and smoke-colored wheels. At $1292, it’s a pricey option, but I was particularly intrigued by the Elemax feature to help with my sometimes balky lower back, as well as sometimes getting overheated during long gaming sessions.
Regardless of how you configure the chair, it comes in one large, awkward box that weighs well over 70 pounds. It’s bottom-heavy, and unbalanced, so it really needs two people to carry. Per usual, the shipping company really did a number on the exterior of the box and knocked the contents around, but fortunately, nothing was damaged inside.
Two Allen wrenches, and a small handful of bolts and washers, including some extras, are included. Instructions to assemble the chair aren’t included, however, with Mavix instead directing you to a video. Since the FS 360-degree rotational arms and wheels are customizable options, they come in their own boxes within the main box. The armrests come with their own instructions, Allen wrench, and bolts, while the wheels just pop onto the base.
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The Elemax unit was preinstalled in the lumbar support, although it has separate instructions of its own for installation and removal. It comes with a USB-A power brick and a barrel connector to USB-A cable for insertion into the power brick, although any decent USB-A port can charge it.
Assembly was a breeze, with only a small number of steps, and can easily be completed by only one person. Of course, for me, having a second person available to line up the arms proved helpful. If, for whatever reason, you don’t want to attach the headrest, a cover is included for the slot.
Mavix M9 Gaming Chair – Design and Features
Aesthetically, the M9 does kind of look like a badass gaming chair, but definitely errs on the more subdued, less obnoxious side, particularly in all-black. My home office has a casual, but clean, look, and this chair does a good job of blending in rather than trying to draw attention to itself.
The M9’s smooth seat cushion features what Mavix calls cool gel M-Foam, which is supposed to help with airflow and help balance weight distribution. The seat is really wide at roughly 22 inches, which is up to an inch wider than many other chairs. While this is not promoted as a chair for the big and tall, the wider seat and weight capacity of 275 lbs., means it can handle a wider range of body types. It’s not as deeply cushioned as I would like at just under 20 inches, but it proved far more bottom-friendly than something like the FlexiSpot C7.
The independent lumbar support features a woven, multilayered nylon material that is supposed to be spill- and stain-resistant. There’s no way to manually adjust the lumbar support, but both the material and the attachment respond to your movements, providing a decent amount of push on your lower back.
Seat height is adjustable with the front paddle on the front right-side lever. You can adjust the recline tension by unlocking the seat with the left-side knob and then adjusting the right-side knob. You can recline as low as 127-degrees, which can be best described as a deep lean back rather than a full recline. Any of the recline positions can also be locked into place.
Both the backrest and headrest heights can be adjusted, with the latter recommended being aligned with the nape of your neck. The headrest also pivots in response to your head movements, although, as the chair contoured to the particulars of my body, I really could only reach the headrest when at least slightly reclined.
Although in the end they’re just wheels, the FS Wheels do have a particularly smooth glide. In fact, there are times where it can be too easy to roll. Fortunately, each wheel has its own locking mechanism, so you can secure the chair in place, which is particularly useful for its full recline position.
Finally, there’s arguably the star of the show, the Elemax element. It looks a bit like a heating pad, but once it’s charged, it can provide a constant or variable vibrating massage cycle, heat, or cooling (through its dual fans). While it’s nice that the Elemax can charge over USB, it’s a shame that it doesn’t use a standard USB-C connection. The included USB-A cable terminates in a barrel connector, so make sure you keep it handy. In any case, when fully charged, you can expect up to seven 15-minute cycles of combined massage and heating or cooling, which works out to about 1 hour and 45 minutes of total usage. If you only use the massage function, you can get up to 20 15-minute cycles, or about five hours of total usage between charges.
Mavix M9 Gaming Chair – Comfort and Performance
Once I made the necessary adjustments for my body, including seat depth, backrest height, and headrest height, I found the M9 to be suitably comfortable. While there was nothing particularly outstanding about the materials, cushioning, or how anything gets adjusted, it all felt like intentional design rather than a mish-mash of parts that can sometimes happen with customizable products like this. I would have liked to be able to manually adjust the lumbar support to push more into my lower back, but I never had any discomfort from how this part automatically adjusted to how I sat. In terms of heat management, even without activating Elemax, between the mesh lumbar, its material, and the gel within the seat, I never once felt overly warm.
Unfortunately, I was a bit less enamored with the FS 360-degree rotational arms. They feature what I consider a cardinal sin with office or gaming chairs, and that’s arm rests that don’t stay in place when I want them to. Sure, these can be moved around in all kinds of useful ways, and in fact are more positionable – this includes full extensions on the six axes of inward, outward, forward, backward, upward, and downward. This makes them more adjustable than any other chair I’ve ever used. The issue is you can’t lock the actual arm rests in place. Even when you lock the arm position, the arm rests freely rotate. If those were also locked in place, I’d consider it near perfect, save for one other big downside.
The biggest downside to the FS 360-degree rotational arms is that, despite me securing them correctly and as tightly as possible, there remained a disturbing wobble at the bottom of the chrome base. Every time I pushed myself up to get out of the chair, I was afraid these were going to snap. There’s probably no danger that they will, but at this price point, I expect every element of the chair to be rock solid.
With that said, again, I did at least appreciate how truly adjustable the FS 360-degree rotational arms are. I don’t really need the extra wide seat, but being able to position the arms close to my body and angled made me feel just that bit more secure when I wanted to make that spacing seem tighter. Similarly, when I wanted the arms out of the way, it was no issue pushing them far enough out.
Of course, my favorite feature is Elemax. With age, my lower back has gotten increasingly prone to aches and soreness. As such, I need to keep a close eye on it at the gym and regularly make use of massage and heat treatments whenever they’re available. While I have a standing desk that helps me stay more active when I’m on my computer all day, sometimes I just need to sit. Having the vibration and heat options built into the chair allow me to work or play much longer, while still caring for my lower back. Of course, when I run hot, I love the cooling fan function as well. And while the heat is never truly hot or the cooling ever icy-cool, I had no trouble feeling either side of the temperature spectrum through my shirt. The experience is similar with the massager – the vibration isn’t super intense even at its max setting, but it’s enough to feel it and for it to get its intended job done. It’s really special for something so relatively small and unobtrusive that gets incorporated right into the chair, making it the far more valuable add-on in my opinion than the FS 360-degree rotational arms.
