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Introduction
In a time where the majority of people have been working from home for the better part of a year, a good desk chair is more important than ever. If you’re sitting behind your desk all day long and you’re staying there to relax and frag out after a hard day’s work it’s definitely a good idea to invest in a good chair.
We’ve already reviewed some gaming chairs on this website, and this time we’re looking at one of the legends: the Embody. When Logitech announced that they’d be teaming up with Herman Miller for a gaming-focused version of their legendary chair we were naturally very interested. Towards the end of last year we sat our reviewer down in this chair and now he’s ready with the full review. Is it worth the price? Will it suit everyone? Is the build quality up to par? You’ll know all about it after reading our full review!
At A Glance
Logitech G x Herman Miller Embody
Used by 13 players ()The way it gently nudges you to sit correctly can be annoying and uncomfortable at first if you’re someone like me who has the ‘lounging around’ pose perfected, and you’ll need to be patient when dialing it in because there’s a lot of adjustments that you can make, but once you’re past that initial period this is a fantastic chair. From the Sync fabric that’s just the right amount of breathable and flexible to the backrest that moves around with you and hugs your spine: this chair will make sure that you’re sitting comfortably and correctly at all times.
Pros
- Comes with a 12 year warranty
- Extremely adjustable
- Breathable materials makes it comfy in winter and summer
- Flexible backrest allows for maneuverability
- No sharp or sudden edges anywhere
- Extremely comfortable and ergonomic once dialed in
Cons
- Not suited for ‘leg under butt’ types
- Arm rests can feel a bit flimsy
- Very expensive
Specs
Adjustable Seat Height | Yes |
---|---|
Adjustable Seat Depth | Yes |
Adjustable Armrests | Yes |
Adjustable Backrest | Yes |
Lumbar Support | Built-in and adjustable |
Material | Mesh |
Max Weight | 136kg |
Assembly and Features
The Herman Miller x Logitech G Embody Gaming Chair (I’m sure you won’t mind if I refer to it as ‘Embody’ from now on) is just about the easiest to assemble chair in the world. That’s because it comes fully assembled. Just open up the box, roll it out, and you’re good to go after removing some plastic that covers the chair.
This approach perhaps isn’t exactly feasible for larger chairs, but the Embody is a rather compact chair all things considered, so the box it comes in isn’t very large. Do be warned that it probably won’t just fit on the backseat of a regular sized car, so if you plan on driving to a dealership to pick one up for yourself you might want to make sure you’ve got enough room. The chair is also heavier than what it perhaps looks like, so it’s handy to take note of that as well.
The adjustability of the Embody is one of the main selling points of the chair. You can adjust the arm height and width, the BackFit (i.e. the spine support), the seat depth, and the seat height. You can also adjust the amount of force required to tilt the entire chair back, and you can choose between multiple points to stop the chair from tilting, going from no tilt at all to right around 45 degrees of tilt.
It’s pretty obvious from the pictures that there’s no head rest, but Herman Miller says you won’t need one with this chair due to its advanced ergonomic design. To my surprise I agree with that, but more on that later.
The Embody supports a maximum weight of 136 kilograms (which is 300 lbs).
First Impressions and Materials
The chair expectedly uses premium materials all over. For the upholstery we have a stretchy polyester material (called Sync fabric) that’s been tested for durability, strength, color resistance, and flame resistance. The base and frame are made out of aluminum and finished with a textured coating. Underneath the seat there are two spring layers, and then more layers of foam and the likes before the Sync fabric is added for that ‘sitting on a cloud’ feeling. The flexible back is made out of polymer with an ‘acetal H-flexor back structure’.
All of this to say that Herman Miller doesn’t just slap a cheap fabric on a cheap frame. Of course no manufacturer will come out and say that, but it’s worth noting that Herman Miller backs their claims with a 12 year warranty. I obviously haven’t been testing this chair for multiple years, but I can say that everything feels extremely high quality.
I’m glad these two brands resisted the temptation to use some sort of loud color for the upholstery and also kept the logos to a minimum. There is a subtle Logitech G on the backrest, and the flexible part of that backrest has that signature Logitech blue color but that’s about it. The backrest does also have a little tab with the Herman Miller and Logitech G logos on it that reminds me of those ‘remove before flight’ tabs but that’s honestly extremely subtle.
The blue is of course eye catching, but the whole chair is a head-turner thanks to its almost futuristic design so I don’t think it’s completely out of place or anything. There’s also the fact that regular Embody chairs come in a big variety of colors and color combinations anyway so as far as I’m concerned all of this is on brand.
What I love here is the upholstery material that they’ve used. I’m absolutely not a fan of leather (or faux leather) materials for anything that I need to sit in, so the Sync fabric that’s used here is absolutely lovely as far as I’m concerned. It feels pretty breathable, which is always a bonus for chairs you’re expected to spend hours in, and it feels soft to the touch as well.
What stood out to me is that this chair always feels ‘just right’ as far as the temperature goes. If you sit in a (faux) leather chair for a long period of time you can definitely start to feel a bit hot near your bottom after a while, but I never had that sensation with the Embody. It also never feels cold when you jump into it after leaving the window open in the winter.
What I also love is how ‘cloudy’ the whole thing feels. The seating area has two layers of springs underneath it but thanks to the generous application of multiple additional layers of foam and the Sync fabric having just the right amount of stretch you get this feeling that you’re always being gently suspended with just the right amount of strength, at least for me.
The best way to describe this feeling is that you just don’t really notice that you’re sitting. Even after working and gaming in the Embody for the better part of the day I never once had that feeling where I felt like I needed to stand up for a while because my bottom was starting to feel sore or hot. This will vary from person to person of course (some like a super firm chair, while others want an almost hammock-like experience) but for me the firmness of the seating area is perfect. It’s just flexible enough to form to your body to get an almost custom-fitted seating experience but not so flexible that you feel as if you’re sinking away.
The back rest, then, is also extremely flexible. It looks rather futuristic with its skeleton-like structure, but that’s not there for the looks. There’s a decent amount of flex in the entire backrest, leading it to follow the exact shape of your back, even if you’re moving to the side to quickly grab something or whatever. It also has a back support area that you can adjust through a knob on the right side of the chair so that the backrest follows the curvature of your spine.
Once you’ve got the chair dialed in (more on that in the next section) it really starts to feel as if it disappears. The breathable materials and the (for me) perfect tensioning of the seat, along with the flexible back rest that kind of ‘follows you around’ when you move makes for a seat that stays at the same comfort level no matter how many hours you’ve been sitting in it.
Is it all good? No, not really. The padding on the arm rests, for example, could be just a bit softer. That’s not the most annoying thing about the arm rests though. If you want to move them sideways you do so by pushing against them ‘with two hands’ instead of using a little button like the one that you use to raise and lower them. I’ll admit I never had an issue with them sliding out of position during normal use, but quite often when I was just moving the chair to the side when cleaning or whatever they moved. Is that a big deal? No, not at all, but why not use a button to lock the arm rests in place like they did with the height adjustments? They also feel a little loose when set to the higher positions, which can get a bit annoying.
One more thing that could be annoying (depending on your tolerances for this kind of thing) is that the back rest isn’t silent. It doesn’t exactly creak or anything like that but when you’re moving around in it you do hear the polymer flexing and the layers of material rubbing against each other. It’s no more ‘annoying’ than the sound a leather chair makes when you’re moving around in it and it absolutely didn’t bother me but I’m mentioning it to be complete.
In Depth
I’ve been testing this chair daily since the end of last year. That’s longer than my usual ‘review period’ but I did that for a number of reasons: one being that I tend to sit in chairs as if someone threw a large sack of flour into said chair and left it like it landed, so I would need some time to get used to it and dial it in, and the other being that I wanted to see how a chair like this impacts your actual daily life, if indeed it does.
It took me quite some time to get the chair dialed in, mainly due to the BackFit support portion giving me issues. I felt like I never really could find a position that was perfect for me at all times, so much so that I was ready to give up on the chair and call it ‘not for me’ altogether. Once I really took the time to do an ‘in depth’ adjustment session (whereby I would write down how many turns of the BackFit knob I did and then judged how I felt after a certain period of time and adjusted from there) I got it to the point where I’m at now: where it feels as if it was made for me.
Does that mean it’ll be the perfect chair for everyone? No. No chair in the world will fit everyone. If it’s too small for you or the spinal support portion feels as if it’s not in the right spot (there’s a very large ‘range of action’ for the BackFit portion though) then you’re out of luck of course. For that reason I would definitely recommend you to test out a chair at this price point in person before buying it.
To me this is one of the most important questions with this product, and probably something that a lot of readers will be wondering about: is it worth the price? That’s a difficult question to answer. If you’re someone who can drop the money for this chair with no issues at all I would say ‘yes’. It’s the best chair I’ve ever sat in for an extended period of time. If you don’t have that kind of money the question becomes a bit more difficult, and the answer is that ‘it depends’.
I’ve been using this chair for weeks and weeks now, and even though I was perfectly happy sitting in my racing-style chair for hours a day before I got this one I can’t say I would go back. That’s because I spend a ton of time behind my desk though. Even during non-COVID times I was working from home 95% of the time during the past couple of years, and I think that’s where chairs like this come in.
If you’re someone who sits down at their desk for an hour or two each day to game or browse the web I’d say ‘go for something else’ but if you spend the majority of your day behind a desk then I really do think that a high quality ergonomic chair is worth the investment. This won’t apply to everyone, but I felt uncomfortable in the Embody during the first couple of days because I wasn’t used to sitting in an ergonomically sound position. Now that my body is used to doing that (and the Embody has been dialed in perfectly) I can sit in this thing for hours and feel great. It almost feels like it’s been made for me specifically at this point.
It won’t work miracles of course (though I do have to say that I got rid of a nagging back ache I’d been having since the second lockdown in my country, but that could just as well be a coincidence) and it still has to suit your body and needs, but just like a nice and comfortable car can really help the lives of people who are on the road all day this will really help people who are behind their desk all day.
Do note that this isn’t a ‘lounging chair’ though. You can’t tilt the backrest (though it does flex somewhat, so it moves with you if you lean back) so you can’t get into that almost horizontal ‘Netflix mode’ like you can with some other desk chairs. If you’re after that kind of experience you probably want to look elsewhere, as this chair really does want you to sit correctly most of the time. It’s flexible enough to allow you to sit in a wide variety of positions, but lounging around or sitting like that sack of flour I mentioned won’t be possible here.
Conclusion
I already answered the ‘is it worth it’ question above, but I know some people love to skip to the conclusion so I’ll answer that briefly here: if you’re only going to use it for an hour or two every day it’s not going to be the chair for you, unless you’ve got enough disposable income to just buy it without thinking about it. If you do spend a lot of time behind your desk this is a fantastic chair though. It’s also supported by a 12 year warranty, so Herman Miller really do back their claim that this could be your desk companion for a really long time.
The way it gently nudges you to sit correctly can be annoying and uncomfortable at first if you’re someone like me who has the ‘lounging around’ pose perfected, and you’ll need to be patient when dialing it in because there’s a lot of adjustments that you can make, but once you’re past that initial period this is a fantastic chair. From the Sync fabric that’s just the right amount of breathable and flexible to the backrest that moves around with you and hugs your spine: this chair will make sure that you’re sitting comfortably and correctly at all times. That last portion does mean that this won’t be the ideal chair for the loungers out there or people who like to lay back in their chair while watching some Netflix.
It’s also not without its faults: I have a small problem with the arm rests feeling a bit like an afterthought, and due to the flexible design it does make some noise when you’re moving around in it but aside from that this is one fantastic chair. Due to the price and ‘form fitting’ functionality (there’s a great range of BackFit positions to choose from, but you can’t move it up or down) I would definitely recommend you to try one out in real life before dropping the cash though. No chair suits everyone, so it’s a good idea to find out if this one’s right for your body first.
This product was received for free from the manufacturer and given to our reviewer to test and review. Brands and manufacturers have no editorial control over our reviews. For more information, check out our review FAQ.