As long as you're slightly smaller than me, the AndaSeat Jungle Series gaming chair is a perfect option. It's relatively affordable, comfortable, well-built, and tasteful in the looks department.
- Brand: Andaseat
- Material: PVC leather with memory foam cushion
- Height Adjustable: Yes, up to 6'5"
- Adjustable Arms: 2D adjustable
- Recline: 160 degrees
- Maximum Load Weight: 265
- Reasonably-priced
- Extremely comfortable as long as you're under 265 pounds
- Low-key look won't take over your room
- Lumbar pillow is a little thick
- Doesn't work well for tall people
- Hard armrests
Gaming chairs are quickly becoming one of the most popular accessories for gamers. You can't turn on a Twitch stream or watch a YouTube video without seeing the host sitting comfortably on one form of gaming chair or another.
A company that's making waves in the gaming chair space is AndaSeat. The firm got attention with its Fnatic Edition chair (check out our full review of that chair) and with its newly-announced high-end AndaSeat T-Pro 2 luxury gaming chair.
Now, the company has a seat targeted explicitly at gamers on a budget (and those who aren't of the larger variety) with its AndaSeat Jungle Edition chair. Rather than breaking the bank at $500 or more like many other chairs, this one comes in with a $299 price tag, which is quite reasonable for what it brings to the table.
With that said, does the AndaSeat Jungle Edition do enough to make it worth buying?
Design
This chair seems to be designed for the gamer who doesn't want huge graphics and busy color schemes. Instead, it comes in only two colorways: solid black and black and red. Both are tasteful, but we ended up going with the lowkey all-black model for our review.
There are a couple of small logos on the chair, but nothing that stands out too much. On the chair's back, right around where your shoulder blades rest, is an "AD" logo. On the lumbar support and headrest are the AndaSeat name, and the back has AndaSeat as well. The rest of the chair is a solid color with stitching accents that make it look good without being too aggressive.
Obviously, if you're looking for a gaming chair to serve as a conversation piece or a busy background for your stream, this might not be the best choice for you. But if you want a chair that'll look good in your office while still offering the racing seat design for which gaming chairs are known, this is an excellent option.
Features
As this is a more affordable chair, some of the higher-end AndaSeat features aren't included. Instead of the 4D armrests, the Jungle series gets 2D armrests. Basically, that means the armrests can only move up and down. The extra movement would be nice, but something had to give to get the chair down to a lower price, and that was it.
The chair is made with PVC leather, commonly referred to as Vinyl or not actual leather. However, the tradeoff for getting fake leather is increased stain-resistance, durability, and scratch-resistance.
So far, the chair has been able to handle everything I've thrown at it, so the PVC leather does seem to be doing its job in that regard. The other nice thing about PVC leather is that it's easy to clean, so you can simply wipe the chair down with a damp cloth to keep it looking good as new.
AndaSeat built this chair to both recline 160 degrees and rock back and forth, so you get the best of both worlds in terms of flexibility and usability.
Moving onto the chair's other features, you'll also get a neck pillow and lumbar pillow for extra support. Both are removable and can be placed in different spots depending on your height. This is yet another way the chair is able to be versatile to meet the needs of all different gamers (well, all different smaller gamers, since the chair doesn't work well for anyone larger than 265 pounds).
The chair also comes with wide wheels that are covered with PU rubber, which promises quieter rolling. For me, it wasn't quiet, but I live in an apartment with uneven and old wood floors (it was built over 100 years ago), so any chair is going to make some noise rolling over it. As long as you have a smooth floor, you should find that the wheels don't make too much noise.
This is not much of a feature, but it's worth mentioning that the chair rotates 360 degrees and does so entirely silently and with minimal effort.
Setup Process
The setup process wasn't too bad, and I was able to get the chair completely assembled by myself in about 30 minutes. The instructions are easy enough to follow, and none of the parts are so heavy that you won't be able to lift them.
The only part that took a little longer than I'd like was attaching the back of the chair to the seat (a problem my colleague Kris Wouk also faced when building the Fnatic Edtion chair in his review). Still, even that only added a couple of extra minutes to the process. It also took a bit of force to get the wheels to attach to the chair's base, but leaning on them and pushing with all of my weight made them click in nice and tight.
All of the tools you need to put the chair together come in the box (and it's a huge box), so even if you're not the type to spend time tinkering, you won't have to worry about running out to buy any extra tools to assemble the Jungle Series gaming chair.
As always, your mileage may vary when it comes to assembly should you choose to buy a chair (we all have different levels of patience when it comes to these sorts of things). I can say that the process was more or less painless in my experience, which started the chair-owning experience on a rather positive note.
Build Quality
It's hard to rate the build quality of something like a chair within the timeframe of a review. After all, most of the build quality shows itself after months and years of use. Still, I can say that chair feels quite solid and well-built.
The armrests feel strong and sturdy. The seat cushions are firm, so they don't feel like they'll give out after a while. The wheels don't seem like they're going to seize up anytime in the near future.
For AndaSeat's part, the chair sounds well-built too. The company says it uses a 22mm diameter enhanced steel frame to support the trials and tribulations gamers put it through. It also features a 55KG/M3 density foam padding that is designed to handle extended periods of use without giving way. In fact, the company promises years of use without losing its shape.
The company also offers a lifetime warranty on the steel framework and a two-year warranty for the other parts of the chair. Obviously, there are limitations (for example, the company won't cover rips in the PVC leather), but it's still nice to see AndaSeat is confident in its product.
Comfort
At the end of the day, the main thing that matters when buying a chair is comfort. The chair can look like a race car seat or the cockpit of a fighter jet, but if it isn't comfortable, none of that matters.
Fortunately, I found the AndaSeat Jungle Series chair to be quite comfortable, although I am a little big for it. I weigh 250 pounds, so I'm pretty close to the limit in terms of how much this chair is designed to hold. I also have large thighs from 20+ years of playing hockey, so the chair definitely felt like it was hugging me a little bit too much at first. As long as you are in the low 200 pounds or less range, the chair (which AndaSeat says is Medium), should fit you quite well.
I had some trepidations regarding the armrest, as I typically like my chairs to come with padded ones, and these are on the harder side. However, that wasn't an issue at all, and I found the slightly contoured shape of the armrests to be rather comfortable once I dialed in the height just right.
As far as the padding goes, it feels great. Of course, firmness is entirely subjective, and what everyone likes will vary greatly, but for me, the Jungle Series chair perfectly walks the line between being firm enough to be supportive and soft enough to be comfortable.
Personally, I don't like the lumbar support pillow that comes with the chair, so I took it off. I found that no matter where I positioned it, it stuck out a bit too far for my liking. It is soft and made of the same foam as the chair, so you might like it, but it wasn't for me.
The neck pillow works much better, though. I had to put it higher than the instructions called for since I'm fairly tall, but once I got it in the right position, leaning back during slow periods of gameplay felt great.
All in all, the chair is quite comfortable. For $300, I really have no complaints about the feel. I spend a good four to six hours sitting in it every single day of the week, and it feels good every time.
Should You Buy The AndaSeat Jungle Series Gaming Chair?
As long as you're slightly smaller than me, the AndaSeat Jungle Series gaming chair is a perfect option. It's relatively affordable, comfortable, well-built, and tasteful in the looks department.
If you're large (bigger than 260 or have larger-than-average thighs) you might want to look elsewhere. Also, if you're looking for something with flashy colors and logos, there are better options out there. But if you want a comfortable chair that won't completely dominate the look of your office, you should definitely grab one of these.
