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Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 review: The ultimate in gaming chair versatility
With a swappable headrest and armrests, a multitude of color options, great comfort and solid build quality, Secretlab's flagship gaming chair is hard to beat.
The Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 has a solid foundation of great build quality and comfort, with game-changing tweaks to boost its comfort and versatility. Its magnetic headrest cushion is a comfort revelation, while its swappable armrests provide choice too. The huge range of color and fabric options, along with three size choices, means there's almost certainly a Titan Evo 2022 that's perfect for you.
Pros
Excellent overall comfort
Very versatile
Comes in three sizes
Decent value
Cons
Slightly firm seat cushioning
Leatherette can get a touch warm
Very bulky
Quite expensive
The Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 is the company's current top-of-the-range gaming chair, which on the surface appears to offer a very similar set of features as a host of other gaming chairs, but elevates its offering in a number of key ways. For a start, it comes in three sizes to suit just about any size of sitter, plus it's available in a dizzying array of fabrics and finishes. Crucially, though, as well as nailing its core comfort, it's the addition of removable magnetic parts that put this chair above all others.
We say "all" and we mean it, as this is our current top choice for the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 that really makes it such a go-to option.
<90kg (200lbs) — 180kg (395lbs) depending on chair size
Warranty
Three years
Upholstery options
Leatherette, fabric, micro suede
Frame Construction
Steel
Adjustments
Tilt, recline, lumbar height/depth, headrest (magnetic), armrest height/rotation/slide forward and back/slide side to side
Design
The Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 is what you might call a traditional-looking gaming chair. Since the market for these chairs exploded, a certain style has emerged as being fairly dominant, consisting of a look that nods to car racing chairs with bolsters on the sides of the seat and back, and a chunky, thickly padded build.
Indeed, many of these chairs, or at least their underpinnings, are seemingly made by the same few manufacturers and, at a glance, this chair looks near-identical to the Fractal Refine, Logitech Embody, or Razer Fujin.
Despite this apparent lack of innovation, the Secretlab still looks reasonably smart, though I'd personally opt for the completely plain black finish rather than the gold and red trimmed version that was sent for us to test – it's known as the Stealth finish.
You can also get the chair in a reasonably wide range of basic colors, and a huge range of branded patterns. There are options for all sorts of esports teams, games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Valorant, League of Legends, and of course Star Wars. Most of these come in a leatherette (faux leather) finish, but you can also get a SoftWeave fabric finish and a MicroSuede finish, though the latter has very few options.
On balance, it's not the most elegant option out there in of appearance, so it wouldn't necessarily be our first choice if you want to maintain a sleek office vibe, but it looks smart enough with a muted finish.
Features
Where the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 really shines is with its feature set. This chair has several little features that hugely elevate it over other options, plus the addition of the company's new Secretlab Recliner Add-On absolutely transforms this chair.
The core features are like most gaming chairs, though. You get a seat that can tilt back, using an adjustable stiffness balance on its underside. Flip the tilt lock handle on the left and you can lean back to tilt the whole seat and back assembly to around a 20-degree angle. You can lock it in this position or at one of three other angles.
The back can also be reclined to a 165-degree angle when released via a handle on the right side of the chair. With the tilt and recline engaged, you can really sit back and nearly lie flat on this chair, which is great for moments when you just need to take a break.
The height of the chair can be adjusted too, via a handle on the right. With the chair available in three different sizes to suit various sitters, the height range of the chair varies. We tested the XL version, which can range between 18.5 and 22.5 inches, measured at the highest point of the front of the seat cushion. The smaller versions drop lower, though.
The overall size of the chair varies too, depending on whether you pick small, regular, or XL. This means that if you're particularly tall and slim, you may find the XL version a bit too wide, or if you're short and wide, you may find the small version too narrow but I found the XL version an ideal match for my 6-foot, 2-inch height and 220lb weight.
Notably, the Titan Evo doesn't offer an adjustable seat length, as on the Fractal Refine, or any other adjustment in the core dimensions of the seat. Few other gaming chairs do this either, but you will need to think carefully about which size to choose. One factor to note, also, is that the XL version comes with a larger wheel base that has a width of 30.5 inches, which I found wide enough to not fit through my standard door frames, requiring me to remove this section to get the chair upstairs (a hammer was required to knock it free).
Back to those features, and the Titan Evo 2022 of course comes with super adjustable armrests, as is apparently required with any gaming chair. These ones move up and down, side to side, front to back, and twist. All these movements lock into place yet are easy to adjust.
What's more, the armrest tops can be removed and swapped out. This is great as a way of both providing a means of tweaking the look and feel of your chair, as well as giving an option for replacement if your pointy elbows wear through the initial pads. The default pads have medium-soft padding with a smooth finish, but you can also get softer pads with a plush finish or cooling gel pads.
The penultimate main piece of the comfort puzzle is the headrest cushion. This uses the magic of magnets to stick, unaided, to the back of the chair. It can sit at a point where the top of the cushion is just level with the top of the seat back, then slide fully 6.5 inches down to accommodate a wide range of head heights and sitting positions. Most gaming chairs offer head cushions that are just fixed to the chair with elastic, making them difficult to adjust and too easy to dislodge.
Meanwhile, lumbar is provided by a mechanism inside the back of the chair that pushes out a gentle curve in the fabric. It can be moved up and down and in and out via rotating knobs on the sides. The maximum level of /curve isn't all that extreme but you can definitely feel the difference.
One final flourish is that the side attachment bolt covers – a standard feature of so many similar-style gaming chairs – are magnetically attached. They can often be fiddly to attach, so this is yet another handy little extra.
Comfort
The Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 is a surprisingly comfortable gaming chair. I say surprising, as the main cushioning on the seat isn't all that soft, so your initial impression of it is that it might start to get uncomfortable. However, with prolonged use, I didn't find this to be the case.
A key part of the reason why is that the seat base is very long, so it s your legs. On this XL version, it's over 20 inches long, leaving only an inch or so of gap between the backs of my legs and the front of the seat. Meanwhile, on the Fractal Refine, the seat is only around 18 inches long, even when fully extended. That's a similar length to the Herman Miller Aeron too. All this leg means your weight feels well distributed, and there's little in the way of pressure points on the underside of your legs.
It's a similar story with the back of the chair, which again isn't the most obviously curved and ive back I've tested, but it manages to do just enough. It certainly helps that you have the adjustable lumbar , even if its effect feels subtle and it's a touch difficult to dial in the changes. Once it's set up, though, it gives just a little extra nudge into your lower back to take some of the strain. The below picture shows the lumbar drawn in on the left and pushing out on the right – you can see the shadow from the extra curve where the central meets the side bolster.
The armrests are decently comfortable too, with a slightly softer feel than some of the rock-hard armrests I've encountered before. That said, the extra cushioning of the plush pads is a welcome upgrade, though I've not tried the cooling gel versions.
I wasn't keen on the armrests not being able to drop below my desktop, though – they simply don't lower that far. The smaller versions might drop this far, but on this version, I could only set them in line with or above the desk. They also sit just a touch wide for me, even when pulled in as close as possible – I had to angle the rests inward to actually be able to rest on them while typing.
The three crowning glories of the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022's comfort, though, are its headrest cushion, its recline functions, and its newly released recliner add-on.
Starting with the cushion, it's incredibly soft, squidgy, and well-contoured, to the point where it nestles perfectly just behind your neck. This provides ideal and secure when you're sat upright, then crucially makes for an incredibly comfortable feel when you're sat tilted back and reclined. You'll need to adjust its position a bit as you recline, but that's where its easy magnetic adjustment really comes into play. It's even easier to use than the Fractal Refine's sliding headrest.
As for the tilt and recline, the ease with which this chair just tilts back at the flick of a switch, and then reclines into a nearly flat position, is amazing for a quick recuperation moment. Most gaming chairs offer some sort of tilt feature, but cheaper options don't balance well, requiring you to essentially push yourself backward by resting your feet on something, whereas here the chair just tips back.
Completing this comfort equation is the ittedly not cheap option of adding the Recliner Add-On, which for $249 gets you a leg-ing recliner. With this attached, this chair is a true napping king.
Price
The Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 price starts at $549 for the small or regular sizes, rising to $599 for the XL version. More intricate designs then add between $75 and $95 to the price, while the "exotic" microsuede versions cost $799. All are clearly fairly prices but the extras here really do elevate this chair above most others.
Alternatives
Fractal Refine
With style for days and excellent overall comfort, the Fractal Refine is a fantastic gaming chair. It's a lighter, more compact design than the Titan Evo, with better main seat and back padding and a fantastic sliding headrest. It's not quite as versatile, though, despite its adjustable seat length.
Verdict
While the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022's name makes it sound like it's getting on in years, it's still leading the pack in of extra features and versatility, with its magnetically attached headrest cushion and armrest pads bringing a welcome touch of customization. With the recent addition of being able to add a recliner attachment too, it really is the do-it-all gaming chair.
With three sizes available, the Titan Evo is also able to accommodate a huge range of sitters and offers decent overall seat comfort with fantastic tilt and recline options.
This is an expensive chair, though. Somewhat similar rivals in of overall build, such as the Noblechairs Hero, have dropped in price in recent years, so while you miss out on some of the extra features of the Titan Evo, you can also save $150. Overall, though, if you're after a truly and feature-rich gaming chair, the Titan Evo is hard to beat.
To complete your gaming room setup, check out our best gaming desk you can buy.
