The Humanscale Freedom is a luxury office chair that doesn’t make any pretenses about doubling as a gaming chair, but that’s not to say it couldn’t be a great fit for both roles. After all, any chair that lets you sit comfortably at a desk for extended periods ought to fit the bill, and the Humanscale Freedom has a lot going for it in this department.
With a retail price of $1545 ($2046 for the headrest and armrests as tested here), it doesn’t come cheap next to most of the seating we’ve tested. At such a high price, it had better deliver some serious comfort, and it does in a lot of ways. But there are a few peculiarities that make it more particularly suited to office use than gaming.
Humanscale Freedom – Design and Features
Jumping onto the Humanscale Freedom doesn’t take long. The chair ships almost completely assembled in the box, with the base simply needing to slot into the bottom of the seat. Unpackaging and getting everything out of the box consumes more time than actually putting the parts of the chair together.
The Humanscale Freedom Headrest looks a little like your typical office fare, but it has an elegant style, combining a wide sweeping backrest, headrest, and seat that look ready to scoop you up. The seat, backrest, and headrest are all cushioned and include colorful upholstery in an incredible variety of colors (pictured here in the Balsam colorway) and fabrics. The armrests can also include matching fabric, but Humanscale offers a rubberized finish as well.
To adapt to different sized users, the seat can slide forward or back with a simple pinch of a lever tucked underneath its front edge. The seat height is similarly adjustable with a little lever on the right side of the seat. The seatback adjusts up and down on rails, and it has a slight pivot to automatically conform to the back. Likewise, the headrest sits on rails for height adjustment. With the chair upright, the headrest sits back out of the way, but as you recline, the headrest sweeps in to cradle the nape of your neck. The armrests also angle up as you recline.
While many chairs have a tensioner to adjust how much resistance the backrest will give while reclining, the Humanscale Freedom uses a weight-based system. The more weight a user puts into the seat, the more resistance the backrest will give to reclining. This helps ensure lightweight users can recline and heavier users won’t immediately flop back. (To dial in this resistance, if needed, there is a small bolt underneath the seat that can be adjusted.)
The armrests are rather simple next to gaming chairs or competitors like the Steelcase Gesture. The standard armrests only have height adjustment, and the “advanced” armrests just get a little track that lets them slide inward and forward or outward and backward – those directions are linked, so if you want a wide but forward position for the armrests or narrow but back, you’re out of luck. The height adjustment also applies to both armrests, so you can’t set them up at different heights. Like other adjustments on the chair, armrest adjustments are simple, requiring you to just lift up on the front edge of the rest and pull the armrests up or hold that edge up and slide the armrests down. With support coming from the back of the chair, there’s a chance to put a lot of leverage on the armrests, and of all the areas of the Humanscale Freedom, it’s only the armrests that gave me concerns about durability – concerns that a 15-year warranty (5-year for cushions/fabrics) allays.
Humanscale Freedom – Performance
With a price like the Humanscale Freedom is asking, it has to do some things really well. It’s safe to say that the seat itself is excellent, offering a wide sitting area and great cushioning, despite looking thin. Even though I’m a heavier user at over 240 pounds, it adequately supports my weight even after hours of sitting. It’s not quite enough space for me to comfortably swing a leg up and tuck it under myself, but it’s spacious enough to allow me to shift my legs around a bit. Among office and gaming chairs, the Humanscale Freedom has hands down the most comfortable seat base I can recall sitting on.
In an upright position, the backrest feels like a great little cradle, wrapping up my back and providing a great deal of support across a wide area. That support transitions naturally as I recline in the chair, maintaining the comfort. The headrest may prove contentious, though.
When I go into a deeper recline, the headrest pushes forward. This effectively supports my head in a forward-looking position. That’s ideal when I want to continue looking at my computer screen. But if you like to recline to take a breather and refresh, the chair doesn’t really allow such a posture. Basically, the chair provides a semi-relaxed position but never a fully relaxed one. This isn’t one of those gaming chairs you can kick back almost flat and take a nap in. At my height, the headrest also feels a little low, and thrusts my head a bit farther forward than feels comfortable in a full recline. This lifts my back away from the seat, taking away that support.
For this specific chair configuration, I find the fabric a little coarse on bare skin, posing some discomfort over longer stretches where it touches my arms most of all, but otherwise it feels like a good quality. This coarseness is also likely playing into its long-term durability.
Now to the armrests – as a large user at 6’3”, I found the armrests always a bit farther back than I’d have liked. They only support a small portion of my forearms, and I have to really hug up to my desk to get the most out of them. This makes them less than ideal when I’m settling in for a long session of work or gaming, as I won’t get consistent arm support in either case. On the other hand, the height adjustment range is exceptional. The armrests can come up plenty high, and they bottom out just a couple inches above the seat itself, effectively getting them entirely out of the way. This is convenient if you want to tuck the chair under a low desk or want to grab a guitar and play it in your chair.
