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After months of testing and countless hours seated, our endurance sitter picked the best office chairs for every budget
Prefer the Guardian on Google W hat’s the most important thing when you’re spending hours in front of a computer? Is it having the fastest internet? The sharpest screen? The perfect keyboard? No. When you’re spending most of your day on your bottom, the most crucial element is what’s directly underneath.
With a good office chair, you can handle a long working day without any feelings of discomfort. With a bad one, you can expect backache, neck ache, tender glutes and assorted nagging pains. Who wants to return to work when the last day left you feeling achy and decrepit?
Many decent chairs are available, and while you don’t want to go cheap, you also don’t have to spend a fortune. I’ve spent months testing nine to find the best office chairs – including some lower-cost alternatives – to help you make a better choice.
I’m a hard-working writer who spends long days (and often nights) sitting at a desk. I’m prone to spending even more time at my desk after working hours, playing video games and working on personal projects. Basically, I’m a world-class endurance sitter, and I demand a lot from my office chair.
I’m also an experienced reviewer, covering consumer technology, PC hardware, ergonomic office accessories and a wide range of home and garden products. I’ve got a strong idea of what works, what is going to drive you crazy, and what you need to think about before you buy.
View image in fullscreen Each chair was used for at least five hours daily for up to a fortnight. Photograph: Stuart Andrews/The Guardian I’d like to say I spent hours running automated pressure and wear simulations, but in truth, I simply spent a lot of time sitting on each chair. I assembled each model where assembly was required, noting any issues with the process, the supplied instructions and the fixtures and fittings provided. I then spent up to a fortnight using each as my everyday office chair across two testing periods, sitting in blocks of up to five hours, two or three times a day.
I also roped in my wife for further testing. She’s a freelance illustrator and similarly inclined to spending long days at her desk. We rotated the chairs between us, occasionally bickering over who got to sit in the most comfortable option and who would be hit with the chair with the immovable backrest and less cushioning.
I also put each office chair’s adjustments through their paces to see what could and couldn’t be moved, checked for safety issues and noted any mechanisms that didn’t feel built to last. When we’d finished with a chair, it was dispatched back to the manufacturer, or a branch of Devon charity Hospiscare , so that it could go on living a useful life at someone else’s desk.
View image in fullscreen ‘Compact and attractive’: the Habitat Beck. Photograph: Stuart Andrews/The Guardian Best office chair overall: Slouch Task One Slouch Task One, with arms £294 £294 at Slouch What we love Very comfortable; good range of adjustments What we don’t love Forward tilt an optional extra; hard armrests View image in fullscreen From £294 (with arms) at Slouch The Slouch Task One may not have the wow factor of the Herman Miller Aeron featured below, but it still gives you everything you’d want from an office…