We’ve reviewed a lot of the best gaming chairs here at WePC, and we don’t just stick to the premium stuff, we’ve reviewed budget chairs too. So, we’ve run the gamut from terrible to terrific and back again, however, we’ve never got our hands on a gaming chair from Corsair, which is odd as they’ve been making gaming chairs for a while. Well, this all changed when the Corsair TC200 was unceremoniously dumped inside our front door.

From what we’ve heard over the last few years, Corsair chairs have had some pretty mixed reviews, so we approached the TC200 with both trepidation and an open mind, which is a pretty conflicted state to be in. Anyway, let’s see if Corsair has fixed up and managed to resolve the issues present in their previous chairs.

Corsair TC200 specs

Corsair TC200 gaming chair

Tilt angle range

90-180 degrees

Height adjustability

120mm

Max load

122kg / 268lbs

How We Review

Pros

Most comfortable seat base we’ve tried
Ergonomically solid
The largest tilt range of any chair we’ve tested

Cons

texture on armrests is unpleasant
Seat can’t be locked in a tilted back position
Lumbar support isn’t adjustable

Tech Specs

Tilt angle range

90-180 degrees

Height adjustability

120mm

Max load

122kg / 268lbs

Armrests

Casters

75mm anti-roll

Material

Fabric or faux leather

Assembly

This chair is packed very well, with enough plastic, foam, and other packing materials to keep it pristine all the way to your door. We’d still recommend taking some of the foam sheets out and laying them on the floor to build the chair on. This will avoid the chair damaging your flooring and vice versa.

Weirdly enough, there were no included instructions for building the TC200. However, this was because it was a pre-production review unit so we’ll let Corsair off for that one. As we’ve built loads of gaming chairs over the years here at WePC we were able to get through it with relative ease despite the lack of an instruction manual with only a few moments of confusion.

Overall the process took a little less than an hour, and with the instruction included with the production model, it would be easily managed in less than 45 minutes. there were a few mounting holes for bolts that didn’t quite line up with the corresponding perforations in the upholstery, but once you squeeze them in, there is no evidence of that struggle, and the chair looks well constructed by the end of it, even if you’re a DIY novice like us at WePC.

Comfort

Corsair has done well with the TC200 gaming chair here. Both the seat base and backrest are padded with squidgy, but not too squidgy high-density foam that feels great to sit on, and we’re convinced that it’ll last the long run, instead of flattening out in a matter of months like we often see with substandard chairs.

The seat base is a good width across, making it suitable for a wide range of sized people and it seems to be identical in size to the Secretlab Omega range of chairs, additionally, the edges of the seat base are angled upwards to create the buck-style shape are almost identical in size and angle too. This makes us think that our Californian friends might be taking design pointers from the folks over in Singapore.

The main sticking point we have when it comes to comfort is the armrests. They are the usual 4D armrests we’ve come to expect from gaming chairs that go inwards/outwards, up/down, and side-to-side, and are very slightly squidgy when pressure is applied. However, Corsair has decided to mold a triangular geometric pattern onto the armrests. Despite how it only protrudes from the surface by about a millimeter, it’s still a little irritating to bare forearms.

The neck pillow feels great, however, with the characteristic squishy dense feeling of memory foam, and it’s upholstered in a fabric that rides the line between suede and felt in terms of texture. It’s probably the best neck pillow we’ve experienced other than the ones included with Secretlab chairs.

Ergonomics

We are sticklers for good ergonomic design here at WePC, and given the number of hours people spend sitting in gaming chairs, ergonomics and the user’s health need to be at the forefront of the design and engineering process.

You’ll be happy to hear that the ergonomics of the Corsair TC200 are solid, with a nice neck pillow that can be repositioned depending on the user’s height, full-range 4D armrests, and an adjustable seat height with a full 120mm/4.7 inches. However, there is one rather large caveat that we can’t ignore, and that’s the lumbar support.

The lumbar support is built-in and not adjustable, which is a cardinal sin as this design philosophy assumes that everyone is the same height, therefore it only works for people that fall within a very limited height range. This means that you can’t count on the Corsair TC200 to support your lower back into assuming its natural S-shaped curve.

Despite this design flaw, the lumbar support takes a while to become irritating as it doesn’t protrude very much. This means that even though you’re unlikely to be the correct height for it to work, you probably won’t find it to dig into your back or cause other related discomforts.

Design

The Corsair TC200 wins a few points back here as we think it looks really cool. We were provided with the Grey & White fabric variant of the chair and it looks fantastic. In a world, or more specifically the WePC office, full of black gaming chairs, the TC200 stands out very well with a clean, light, and minimalist color scheme that doesn’t scream ‘gamer’, so much as it whispers it.

Additionally, Corsair has done well with branding here too, and by that, we mean keeping it to an absolute minimum. However, given Corsair’s logo is a ship’s sails, we tend to give them more leeway as it’s a good-looking logo. Anyway, said the logo is found on the head of the seat, front and back. moving downwards we see little ‘CORSAIR’ tags on the shoulder of the chair and the neck pillow. We then find a familiar ‘// TC 200‘ on the uprights supporting each arm, the double-slash being a signature of Corsair gaming stuff for over a year now. Additionally, we see the sails logo on the small rubber screw covers positioned around the place. Other companies should be taking notes as this is the amount of branding we like.

Taking a closer look at the chair, you notice that the grey fabric is interspersed with black speckles. This provides some additional visual texture and adds a sort of premium touch to the chair that reminds us of the cookies and cream colorway of the Secretlab Omega. Moving further down we reach the base and wheels. The base is powder-coated with a matte black finish that we like the look of, and, as a bonus, it makes dust build-up less visible than a shinier glossy sort of coating. The wheels also look great, with a 5-spoke automotive shape to them, they also have a white stripe around the inside, evoking the whitewall tires of 60s cars. Speaking of the wheels, let’s get to the build quality section as there are a few things to point out here.

Build quality

Generally speaking, the TC200 is super solid, with no rattles or wobbles that we’d consider bad enough to mention. The armrests feel slightly loose, but this is the case for all 4D armrests, presumably due to the broad range of movement. Even chairs costing upwards of $600 have similar levels of looseness so we giving Corsair a pass here.

There are a few areas where the fabric sits a little loose as certain bits don’t fold in and marry at various corners and edges. This is only present on the rear of the seat base so you won’t notice it at all, but it’s still there so Corsair has some manufacturing tolerance issues to sort out for the next revision of the TC200. Corsair has also taken some measures to increase the longevity of the seat base and backrest by adding an extra layer of fabric to the main contact surfaces. This is an example of form and function as it makes these areas less prone to wearing out while adding a very subtle piece of visual design.

The plastic seatbelt holes, tilt mechanism covers, and armrests are all cloaking in plastic cowls that don’t feel that great. Given that these surfaces are only really touched during assembly, they won’t be much of a bugbear to the actual user, but it’s still worth pointing out that they feel a touch cheaper than we’d like.

The biggest thing of note here is the casters. Before receiving the chair from Corsair, they advised us that ‘The TC200 features caster wheels that will not rill without someone sat in the chair, compressing them down. This is a new EU health & safety requirement’. In theory, this should totally immobilize the chair when not in use which should prevent an errant chair from escaping down a hill or something. In practice, even when someone is sitting in the chair, some of the wheels still don’t unlock.

This is a difficult part to criticize, as it appears that Corsair has been hamstrung by legislation outside of their control and we sympathize about this, but we feel like their solution to conforming to these new rules could have been implemented better. So we’ll still mark the TC200 down for this, but only marginally.

Final Verdict

Corsair has done very well here. They’ve produced a comfortable, well-built, and great-looking chair that survived our testing period with ease and remained a superb seat to sit on afterward. We love the fabric upholstery and the color scheme is both respectful and minimalist, but with enough little instances of flair that prevent it from crossing the line into boring or uninspired.

Built quality is great for the most part, with a solid construction, sturdy parts, and an assembly process that was easy enough for one person to complete in under an hour. The only irritants here are the cheap-feeling plastics and bureaucratically-mandated locking wheels. We’re sure that the consumer will get used to them, but we still think it’s a silly law and we hope Corsair finds a more user-friendly way of complying with it.

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