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The Cheaper Razer Iskur V2 X Is A Solid Gaming Chair With A Few Compromises
Quality gaming chairs don’t usually come cheap, especially if you prefer shopping with big, well-known brands – the Razer Iskur V2 X aims to change that. Coming in at a base price of $300, it blends comfort and style at around half the price of the higher-end flagship Iskur V2, with a few compromises to take note of. It’s not necessarily the cheapest option, but it’s a quality and comfortable offering that’s definitely worth considering if you’re looking for a brand name budget-level gaming chair.
Razer Iskur V2 X – Design and Features
The Razer Iskur V2 X doesn’t break the mold in gaming chair designs and doesn’t aim to. If you’re seen the previous iteration of the Iskur we reviewed a while back, or most other racing style gaming chairs, then you’ll have a good idea of what to expect here. It sports a typical bucket seat-inspired design when it comes to its overall shape and design. It has a tall back and wide seat with ample padding for your bottom and back. The backrest is tall, extending all the way behind your head, and both it and the seat have stylized bolsters to guide you toward their center. Unlike most gaming chairs of this type and price range, these bolsters aren’t overly pronounced and there’s no sense of being cramped or hugged into place.
There’s a recline lever on the right that allows you to lean back up to 152 degrees if you want to take a quick nap or kick back with your feet up. The armrests are adjustable, but only in two dimensions (height and rotation). You can rock in place or lock the chair at a certain angle using a lever below the chair or adjust its resistance with a large knob on the bottom, and the height is also adjustable by around four inches. It’s all standard stuff when it comes to typical racing-style chairs.
What you don’t get is any kind of adjustable lumbar support, and there are no pillows in the box to fill in any gap you might have in the lower back area. Instead, it comes with an integrated lumbar curve and a contoured backrest that helps position you properly without needing to think about it, at least for me. I’m 5-foot 8-inches and found that it was well positioned for me, so I didn’t miss having a lumbar pillow. Razer recommends the chair for people up to 6-foot 2-inches, but without any kind of adjustability, it won’t be a match for everyone.
Its lack of pillows is disappointing; at $300, it’s “budget” compared to Razer’s higher-end chairs, but it’s not necessarily cheap and you’ll be stuck paying extra for pillows if you need them. This is especially noteworthy since the original Iskur was so well known for its lumbar support.
Thankfully, in most other respects the Iskur V2 X impresses, especially with its build quality. It’s available in black and green or grey and black fabric, which is what I had in for testing. The quality of the weave and embroidery was excellent and includes stylized touches such as the snake-like diamond scales on the back and seat. Aesthetically, it’s a good match against the full Iskur V2, so if you like its looks, this is a much cheaper way to add it to your setup.
Razer also did a nice job making sure it nails the basics for durability and comfort. The wheel base is made of aluminum instead of plastic, which is a nice upgrade at this price and eliminates a common point of failure. I also appreciate that the tilt base, while definitely simpler than the full-fledged Iskur V2, operates smoothly and quietly and still includes key adjustments like tilt tension and angle lock. It also uses a steel frame to support long-term daily use, which isn’t always the case with more affordable chairs.
The cushioning is thick enough and soft enough to be comfortable straight out of the box and the fabric hits the midpoint between softness and robustness. It’s not quite as thick as the Iskur V2, but it’s as thick as it needs to be for a decent seating experience long-term. The armrests are also topped with a dense foam padding that’s soft enough to stave off elbow pain.
There are definitely some trade-offs here, as mentioned above – the biggest ones being the non-adjustable lumbar, lack of pillows, and 2D armrests. Apart from the backrest, the others really aren’t as impactful, and if you mesh with the backrest, it’s not that big of a deal. The overwhelming impression is that, for the most part, this is a chair that makes reasonable compromises on accommodating a range of needs in order to keep its price down.
Razer Iskur V2 X – Assembly
Assembling the Iskur V2 X is straightforward, so if you’ve assembled a gaming chair before, you’ll already know what to do. If not, Razer includes detailed instructions and everything you’ll need to get started. Everything comes separate in the box, which means lots of packaging material, but you don’t need to be especially handy to get it put together within about 20 minutes.
If it is your first time, I recommend getting everything set out ahead of time. With the parts in front of you, it’s pretty easy to intuit the assembly process. You’ll start by getting the casters inserted into the wheelbase, which is a toolless friction-fit. Then, you insert the gas piston into the center hole, cover it with the plastic shroud and wheel it to the side.
From there, I recommend attaching the backrest if you’re by yourself. This is a simple two screws on their side, but lining the threaded holes up with the side brackets can be awkward due to the size of the backrest. With that done, you cover each with their own shroud and then tip the whole setup forward for easy access to the bottom of the chair.
The tilt base attaches with four screws and Razer uses channels for each, so you can easily line them up and move the whole unit as needed before tightening it down. After that, you simply take the wheel assembly you put together before and slide the top of the gas piston into the hole in the base– tip the chair upright and you’re done.
Razer Iskur V2 X – Performance
I was able to spend about a month with the Iskur V2 X and over that time I truly put it through its paces. It lived at my home gaming PC setup for the first half of the review period and then I moved it into my office to see how it would hold up to long hours throughout normal workdays. Like I alluded to in the beginning of this review, the V2 X’s lumbar support was a good match for my back, so across my entire test period, I never got up sore or felt like I was paying a price for using it for too long – well, with one exception near the upper body.
The lack of a neck pillow turned out to be a big omission. Such a small accessory may not seem like it means a lot but it truly does, at least on the Iskur V2 X. The back contours in such a way that it leaves a larger gap behind your head. Leaning back feels immediately awkward unless you’re also reclining and shifting away from a normal seating posture. I eventually harvested a pillow from another gaming chair, but you should probably plan on getting one alongside this chair if you don’t also have a spare, because it really needs it.
With that problem addressed, the chair comes into its own and begins to demonstrate its value through looks and overall comfort. The fabric stands up to more expensive fabric chairs I’ve tested, including those from Secretlab that cost around double the price of the Iskur V2 X. And, if you care about looks, you can rest assured that it doesn’t look budget at all.
I was worried that the 2D armrests would be an issue when swapping between a controller and mouse and keyboard, but they offered just enough to accommodate either, at least by adjusting the width using the fasteners under the seat. Technically, 2D armrests aren’t width adjustable, but since each armrest runs on a track, you have an inch or two of give/movement to better accommodate the natural lay of your arms. It’s a middle ground that may not be elegant, but it gets you there.
And that’s really the story of this chair. There are sacrifices in adjustability, but the core is very good and is made to be more durable and rougher-wearing for the kind of rigorous use whether it be for a gaming setup or office setting. Although it is the “budget” option in the Iskur lineup, It’s not the cheapest, but those extra dollars get you that build quality and fabric finish you should expect. Whether that’s a worthy exchange is up to you.
