Maxnomic and DXRacer are two of the most prolific names in gaming chairs but in a head-to-head battle… who wins?
Short answer… well, you know. The one that you like because of those obvious, objective reasons.
Now, for the long answer. The answer that we wrote this article to present…
Who are Maxnomic?
The Maxnomic brand is actually an offshoot of Need For Seat (is that a Need For Speed reference?), and has competed with the DXRacer line for a good few years now. There were some early controversies as Maxnomic entered the scene, but in the time since they’ve established themselves as reputable gaming chair manufacturers.
Who are DXRacer?
The DXRacer brand started in 2006 and helped popularize “racer” chairs in the gaming space. This is fitting since their prior experience was creating car seats for sports and racing cars. If you’ve ever noticed that gaming chairs look an awful lot like someone removed a chair from a luxury car and slapped on some wheels, you have DXRacer to thank for that.
This is the incumbent brand and by far the more popular one. Does that equal outright superiority, or is there more to the story?
How do their products compare?
Now, let’s compare their product lineups. For this comparison, we aren’t going to do an individual Maxnomic chair review or DXRacer review. Instead, we’ll be looking at the wider trends reflected by these companies.
Price and Value
In terms of price and value… this is pretty much the same. The cheapest DXRacer is cheaper than the cheapest Maxnomic, but not by a whole lot. (According to a Reddit comment from DXRacer USA, this is because they run their own factories, and so get to lower their prices.)
Interestingly, DXRacer also has much more of its lineup on Amazon than Maxnomic seems to, and these options seem to be consistently cheaper. We’re going to hand this one to DXRacer, but it’s not a wide margin victory.
Diversity and Variety
Now, let’s talk about diversity and variety.
On a surface level, DXRacer wins this one. They have more products overall, and also a ton more color variations than Maxnomic does. These are ultimately minor changes, though. What’s more important to us is the range of people who can comfortably use their chairs.
In this regard, we actually say that Maxnomic wins. While both companies start with chairs supporting around the same height/weight level (5 feet and ~110 pounds), only Maxnomic goes as high as 7 feet and 375 pounds. DXRacer’s biggest chairs (in the Tank and King series) can only support up to 6’6 and 6’3, respectively. (The Tank’s max weight of 450 lbs is actually a bit better, though.)
Overall, this one is pretty tough. If you are one of the more “average” body types, you might only care about colors. But to someone that’s taller or heftier, well, size matters.
Build Quality
Not much to say here. These chairs all have a reputation for high quality and longevity. Even the worst horror stories of early-days Maxnomic indicate that they’ll replace a chair if it breaks, and DXRacer’s reputation speaks for itself.
This one is a Tie.
Comfort
This one is mostly a Tie, but…
But…
We gotta address the elephant in the room. Specifically, the lumbar support. DXRacer chairs are infamous for a lack of adjustable lumbar support, while Maxnomic has this feature built into their chairs. At least, built into their Office Comfort chairs; this isn’t universal. Not every Maxnomic gaming chair will support the feature. Even so, this is a feature that DXRacer doesn’t seem to have at all, which is really odd considering how common they are across the industry.
What Users Think
We decided to do something that no one else is doing with their articles on this topic. Competitors are mostly covering the same beats that we’ve covered so far; not that we can blame them. What else do you talk about when comparing chairs? Atomic composition?
But we wanted to go the extra mile to set our article apart from everyone else’s. So instead of relying entirely on our opinion… why don’t we see what the rest of the Internet thinks?
We gathered the opinions below from different reviews around the web, mainly from Amazon and established review sites. We also dug deeper into different subreddits and forums (like the LTT forums) to see what enthusiasts were saying outside of the Great Eye of Amazon. From our research, we’ve gathered the below amalgamation of opinions:
What They Like About DXRacer
- Stellar build quality and longevity
- A lot more colors to choose from
- Better support for the heaviest users
- Slightly lower prices vs Maxnomic
- High quality cushioning
What They Don’t Like About DXRacer
- High price
- No adjustable lumbar support
- Lumbar cushions can be too firm
- Poorer support for the tallest users (vs Maxnomic)
- Armrests and seat width can be uncomfortable for wider users
What They Like About Maxnomic
- Stellar build quality and longevity
- Adjustable lumbar support, in models where it exists
- High quality lumbar cushions
- Better support for the tallest users (vs DXRacer)
- Highly customizable (“4D”) armrests
What They Don’t Like About Maxnomic
- High price- slightly higher than DXRacer
- Fewer colors to choose from
- Lower weight limits across the board
Our Top Picks
Best DXRacer Chair
The best for most people, and the cheapest in their lineup. Supports up to 200 pounds and a 5’10 height.
Best Maxnomic Chair
The best for most people, and also the cheapest in their lineup. Supports up to 175 pounds and a 5’9 height.
If neither of these chairs tickles your fancy, we recommend taking a look at either DXRacer’s Amazon Store or Maxnomic’s site (they don’t have much on Amazon), depending on what you’re looking for. And if your fancy still hasn’t been adequately tickled, you can check out one of our numerous (five and counting!) chair related buyer’s guides.
Chris writes about hardware, gaming and consumer technology in general - and otherwise enjoys fiction and YouTube vids.