LiberNovo Omni The LiberNovo Omni is one of the most ambitious ergonomic chairs in its price bracket, combining real comfort with dynamic support that adapts to your body. Its reclining system and motorized lumbar/stretch features make it especially compelling for anyone who spends long hours at a desk. It isn’t perfect — the armrests and (optional) footrest are weak links, and the limited warranty won’t reassure everyone — but if you want something genuinely different from the usual ergonomic chair formula, the Omni is an impressively executed first attempt.
How good does a chair have to be to raise over $10 million in crowdfunding on Kickstarter? The LiberNovo Omni is the answer to that question. This is a dynamic ergonomic chair that claims to address what all other chairs get wrong, and it has managed to entice a huge swathe of backing in the process.
After all the hype around the concept of a desk chair that bends with you as it reclines, how does the final product stack up? I’ve been sitting on the LiberNovo Omni for three months now, and while it’s not perfect, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ergonomic chair try to do as many things as this one, and do so many of them really well.
Setup and design
Oliver Cragg / Android Authority
Let’s start with the obvious, boring place: the setup. For a chair with as much going on as this, I was surprised by how quick and easy it was to construct without any assistance on my own. It took about 20 minutes in total, though I was stopping to take photos for this review, so you’d likely shave a few minutes off that total. LiberNovo added everything you need into one kit, so you don’t need any extra tools, and aside from four screws, everything else snaps into place.
If the easy-to-follow diagrams aren’t working for you, there’s also a quick link to setup videos. The company also has a bunch of tips for how to ensure you have the correct posture at your desk by correctly adjusting the arms and lumbar support (more on the latter later).
Gary Sims / Android Authority
One tip: install the chair where you intend to use it. I had to lug it up my staircase after I’d put it together, and it was then that I realised it’s quite a heavy chair, weighing in at ~48lbs. That’s not dissimilar to its competitors, but it is for a chair made from this much plastic rather than metal. The weightdoes mean it’s sturdy enough to remain stable even when fully reclined, though.
The foam cushioning on the seat, back, and headrest is incredibly comfortable. There’s a soft give to the layered material cushions that took some getting used to for me at first (coming from a mesh chair), but it’s really grown on me over time. It definitely sacrifices cooling for the cushioning, but if that’s a problem for you, then LiberNovo sells a cooling seat accessory for $79.99 MSRP.
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