- High-quality construction
- Great for those with lower-back pain
- Seemingly infinitely adjustable
- Footrest is too short for most tall people
Date of our Original Review: March 2024
You may find it bizarre to find an office chair review here on The Weather Station Experts, however long before this site ever existed, I started my career as a tech journalist (if you’ve read TechHive or Digital Trends in the past, we are the same person :)).
Still, I was a little surprised to hear from FlexiSpot, a home furnishing company that sells everything from chairs to standing desks and even an adjustable bed. They offered me a chance to review their top-of-the-line C7 Premium Ergonomic Office Chair.
I couldn’t say no: I suffer from persistent lower back pain from an injury about 30 years ago that I didn’t address. While I should be watching out for my spine health, I often still go for a cheap chair. The latest was an IKEA, but it’s more meant for a laptop desk than hours of work in front of a computer (IKEA, you make great furniture, but awful chairs).
My back has paid for it: I often got out of the chair in pain, and it took a while to straighten myself back out. This carried throughout the day, and just normal day-to-day stress on the back meant the only time I wasn’t hurting was when I first woke up in the morning.
I needed a better chair: and not only that, I needed something to take better care of my back before I ended up needing back surgery before the age of 50. I hoped the C7 would be the answer to my pr… er, pains.
The C7 looks and feels like a premium office chair
Indeed, the C7 is designed with comfort in mind, with so many features that I will run through them from top to bottom. You can customize the chair to your liking: it comes in either one of two colors, grey or black, with the choice of either a foam or mesh seat (in both models, your head and backrest are mesh).
As a word of warning, the box the C7 ships in is massive. If you don’t have a secure and decently sized area for the delivery driver to place your package, it will be quite obvious to package thieves. It’s also very heavy. Make sure you have someone nearby to help you get it in the door.
The setup wasn’t any more or less difficult than any other chair I had put together. However, as I was putting it together I noted the material choices FlexiSpot made. This is a $350 chair, after all. Here I am happy to say there is little if any plastic to be found. Everything felt sturdy, well-made, and well-machined. The mesh looks durable, and the 6″ of foam padding in the seat is no joke.
I wonder how the mesh seat in the “higher-end” model would feel, though. I am sure I’d like that seat option in the summer, but after sitting on chairs with next to no padding for years, I am digging the padding in the C7. Beggars can’t be choosers as they say, and I am grateful for a good chair!
So as I said, it’s best to cover this chair from top to bottom, given the number of features. Let’s get started.
Rest your head (and neck, and arms, and back…)
Regardless of the option you choose, the headrest and backrest are mesh. The headrest is adjustable, but at nearly 6′ tall, I had the headrest down and it still felt comfortable and supportive. The backrest includes lumbar support but with a bit of a twist. Most chairs with lumbar support allow you to adjust the support, but once you choose, it’s locked in. FlexiSpot does it a bit differently: the lumbar support bar can move slightly, which gives it the advantage of being able to support you no matter what position you contort yourself into in front of the computer.
There are also the standard adjustments just like any other office chair to lock things into place if you prefer a more standard seating posture. The armrests are nice, although I think they are a bit high even on the lowest setting for anyone under 5’10” or so. Not only does the armrest itself move, but the arm itself, which you can adjust inward or outward depending on your own specific needs.
Everything about the top end of this chair is just top-tier. No matter which way I sit in this chair, I feel supported. I don’t know of any other chair — even the more expensive ones I’ve bought — that feels this supportive.
The FlexiSpot C7 Ergonomic Office Chair is probably the most comfortable chair we've ever sat in. We've worked for hours in this chair without missing a beat. And there are many ways to adjust the seat height, headrest, backrest, and arms to customize the C7 to your liking.
My, that’s one big seat you have!
Moving to the seat, the thing is massive. I’m not a big guy (5’11” 170 pounds), but I’m not small either. Sitting back, I felt small in this chair! Now, if you’re 6’6″ 250 that’s a different story, and with the crazy amount of customizations, it will probably be the first office chair you’ll feel normal in.
FlexiSpot has put six inches of foam into the cushion, and sitting on it for about three weeks now for hours at a time I can tell you it’s not your standard cheap office chair foam. The cushion feels as good as the day I pulled it out of the box. One thing I have noticed is that the foam cushioning feels best when you’re sitting directly forward and back in the chair, so if you find yourself on the edge of your office chair when you’re involved in something like I do, it didn’t feel as comfortable on my back.
Here I wonder if the mesh seating might have been a better option for the way I move around in a chair while working. If you have the mesh seat, I’d certainly like to hear your thoughts.
Now here’s where it gets crazy…
Okay, now I have to admit when I pulled out the footrest (yes, you read that right), I laughed. Maybe I am a bit too country, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a footrest on an office chair. A recliner? Yes. But on an office chair, this is a first. The footrest attaches to the bottom of the seat, and you can pull it out, and flip the cushion over, and you have not only support for every other part of your body but those tired legs too.
I am kind of torn as to whether to consider this a gimmick or truly useful. Remember how I said I was engulfed by this chair? Well, the footrest only goes out to my hamstrings, so my feet hang off like a foot over the footrest itself. If you’re taller than me, I’d skip this. It is nice though, but with the way the chair is designed, reclining back it’s hard not to get dentist chair vibes, but I do digress.
Wrapping Up
So I know I’ve gone through this entire review without really talking about my back pain. Well, that’s because it isn’t the problem it once was anymore. The fine folks at FlexiSpot have been more than patient in waiting for the review, but I really wanted to make sure it was the C7 clearing up my back issues and not some other lifestyle change.
It’s the chair. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had to spend long hours coding the site, something I couldn’t do before without pain. While this chair won’t cure the mental exhaustion of that, at least I don’t need painkillers after a long night.
So while TWSE can’t give its recommendation (unless FlexiSpot makes a sudden turn into the weather station market), I am more than happy to provide my own recommendation for the FlexiSpot C7. It is light years better than any chair in its price range I’ve sat in at your local office supply store, and as good as high-end ergonomic chairs which can be far more expensive (and without a footrest).
