A little over a year ago, I had the chance to look at the SecretLab Omega chair. If you follow our reviews, the SecretLab brand should be one you’ve seen quite a number of times in the past--going all the way back to 2018. Given that our editorial team handles review products, we’ve gotten dozens of chairs from all sorts of companies for our staff to test out, and out of all those brands, be it cheap or high-end, SecretLab’s stuff has always ranked highly across our whole team. So, that means their latest chair, the Titan Evo 2022 has to live up to its ancestors’ legacy, while also being a meaningful upgrade. Let us return to chairtemp once more, to see what the SecretLab Titan Evo 2022 Edition can offer. 

Putting together a gaming chair isn’t the most difficult process in the world, but I’ve found that it can be annoying, time-intensive in some cases, and might even result in a cut finger or two, when trying to wrestle a specific piece into place. Arriving in a shockingly heavy 33kg/60lb box, the hardest part of the assembly process was getting the package through my front door. That’s because the chair is mostly put together already in the box; there’s no finagling or frustration here--all you need to do is align some pieces and tighten them with an included allen wrench. I unpacked everything just to see how much of my afternoon was going to be spent putting it all together, and after about 15 minutes, I’d surprised myself by having the whole thing ready to rock after following a handful of steps. 

As I mentioned in my review for the OPseat, or the Noblechair, or pretty much any gaming chair out there, their build is almost always skewed towards larger men. SecretLab seems to be aware of that aspect, because in 2021, they released two styles of chair: the Titan and the Omega, with the latter designed for shorter individuals with smaller frames. This year, they’ve done away with that, instead opting to just have three sizes of the same chair, rather than wholly different designs. There’s the small, regular, and XL options, which note the ideal height and weight range for its user. SecretLab has also condensed their material build options--leatherette, fabric, and NAPA leather--into various options you can pick for a single type of chair, making it a lot easier to shop for, compared to three different chairs with three different upholstery types scattered across their website.

Side by side with last year’s SecretLab chair, there are some pretty apparent differences right off the bat. Finally, after 3,000 years, the annoying elastic removable head pillow that never seemed to fit anyone, and the back lumbar pillow that also served to only get in the way, have been done away with. Now, the headrest pillow is magnetic and seamlessly attaches to the back of the chair, looking and feeling so much better than how it used to be. Even more exciting is that the Titan Evo 2022 has built-in, adjustable lumbar support. By twisting two knobs on either side of the chair, you can toggle how high or low you need it to be, and then find the sweet spot of how much support you want for your personal comfort. I can’t stress how much better this is, compared to the awkward attachable pillows of the past--not only is it more ergonomic, but it also makes the chair look more akin to the $519 premium purchase that it is, rather than sporting the same pillows that $30 Amazon gaming chairs from China have. 

Okay, maybe I’m being a little dramatic about how bad the cushions looked, because there was really no way you’d mistake this for a cheap racing chair clone. Whether it’s the appearance or the build quality, it’s pretty readily apparent that the SecretLab chair is better than most. This year’s model is using what SecretLab refers to as their “Neo Hybrid Leatherette”, an improved material that claims to be remarkably stronger and more durable than their past chairs. That being said, they still have a super ultimate weakness of cat claws, so while the chair might withstand scuffs and stains better than it has before, your beloved pet is going to still rip the everloving heck out of the chair, no matter what material you choose. Trust me, I know from experience. 

Having a fair amount of cats in the home means keeping them away from a brand new chair (read: scratching post) was nearly impossible. I kept the chair locked up in my office, and away from their claws, for the majority of my time using it. But curiosity did get the better of me, so I rolled the chair over to my bedroom, just to see how it held up against a few hours of supervised cat-attacks. My fabric chair definitely had a rough time of things when it came to my cats, especially due to the nature of the fabric fraying once pulled out by their claws. Leatherette doesn’t have that same issue, but you will notice the imperfections a whole lot easier on this kind of material. Obviously, I wouldn’t recommend any sort of nice furniture near a cat, but if you absolutely have to, I think the fabric version holds up better against pet wear and tear, barring stains, at least. My Noblechair can't say the same, after having endured existing in the same house as pets. 

After seeing chair after chair, year after year, SecretLab still manages to impress. "Gamer" chairs have a bad reputation for being cheap and laughably unergonomic, but SecretLab manages to offer something more than just another racer back seat. If you've purchased a SecretLab chair within the past year or two, it might be a waste to upgrade already, but there are some definite improvements that prove that the Titan Evo 2022 isn't just a rehash or recolor of their previous releases, and had some genuine R&D put in. Through all the chairs we've put to the test, this brand remains far ahead of the pack.