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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A company releases a new gaming chair. It makes big promises about ergonomics and adjustability, targeted support and adjustments so that you can play your best — no matter how long the gaming session. And of course, the chair is dressed to impress, with eye-catching designs and premium materials.
But when you look a little closer, there’s deja vu? You’ve seen this chair before. The backrest is tall and has bolsters. It has 4D armrests — proudly proclaimed like this hasn’t been a standard feature on premium chairs for years now — and even the levers, knobs, and adjustments are curiously close to other brands selling gaming chairs.
That’s what we have with the Blacklyte Athena Pro. To its credit, it executes on these features surprisingly well. And to be fair, you could also say that, familiar or not, it checks all of the boxes of what you expect from a gaming chair priced around $600. While we tend to look for a bit more excitement from the best gaming chairs , the Athena Pro still manages to be a high quality chair that’s worth considering if you’re partial to its style and you want a soft seat straight out of the box.
Assembly
The Athena Pro comes in a large box weighing close to 70 lbs. Inside, the chair is completely unassembled but each part is well-positioned and securely packaged to make sure it arrives safely to your door. There’s a lot of styrofoam and cardboard to break down, so make sure you have a box cutter handy.
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Like the design itself, the assembly process is identical to most other gaming chairs but is simple enough that most steps can be intuited. If it’s your first time assembling a chair, Blacklyte has included a step-by-step assembly guide printed on a sheet of over-sized cardboard. Simply prop it up somewhere you can easily reference and you’re good to go.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
I was able to build the chair myself in about 15 minutes once everything was laid out. Unboxing included, you should plan on around a half-hour, even if you’ve built chairs in the past. Blacklyte includes a screwdriver and fasteners in the box (including one spare), so everything you need is in the box.
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