BestOffice Mesh Office Desk Chair Review

The BestOffice Mesh Office Chair is a simplistic design with its main focus on getting you a chair at the bare minimum pricing. Due to this, features like 4D armrests and an adjustable seat pan don't make the cut. Continue below to view the tradeoffs with reduced costs.

Performance Comparison

Comfort

Office chairs are all about keeping you comfortable and productive at the same time, and we pay close attention to as many dimensions of comfort as possible. In addition to having a panel of testers independently sit in and critique the BestOffice Mesh Office Chair, they each answered more than 15 questions that got to the bottom of how comfortable this chair really is in a typical work environment.

After spending days at our desks in this chair, our testers agreed that the comfort of this chair is just enough to get by for short or medium-length sitting sessions. None of our testers felt that they could spend more than 4 hours in the chair in one sitting, and most of them thought they would cap out at just three hours. While this sounds like a long time, it's not even half of a standard workday.

We never felt any love or appreciation for the armrests, which are narrow and non-adjustable. One of our reviewers, Rachael, commented that they were “rock hard” and that the shape prevented her from sitting in unconventional positions. This wasn't a dealbreaker for any of our testers, but it contributed to the feeling of a barebones chair.

The high-density sponge seat garnered slightly positive responses from our testers, but its comfort performance seemed hindered by the rigid armrests that serve to make an already slightly narrow seat pan feel narrower than those that have wider armrest designs. In fact, Sentry, our 6'1" tester, called out the sizing, noting, “This chair is made for tiny humans.” With a manufacturer's maximum reported weight limit of 250 pounds, it's certainly not made for those of us who are larger.

There is a modicum of lumbar support, but not enough to really make a difference for someone who needs it. Some of our taller testers felt that the backrest did provide solid support for the upper back and shoulders, but the lack of support at the base still created some discomfort. Furthermore, one of the testers, Joshua, noticed that whenever he leaned back into the backrest, it became slightly crooked and tilted off to one side, which is about as far from an ergonomic position as you can get.

Another gripe we had with the backrest was the plastic frame and plastic lumbar support, which sometimes dug into our backs while reclining, which doesn't make for a comfortable experience. To be clear, the lumbar support is plastic without extra cushion. If it happens to fit your body size and shape perfectly, we can see how it might be helpful, but for most of us, it became less and less comfortable as each day wore on. Still, for less than $100, it's hard to find a chair that's comfortable at all, so the relatively cushy seat and the supportive upper back combine to make this chair a strong value (especially if you're able to find it on sale).

The BestOffice chair is wildly popular on Amazon, but so is the almost duplicate version, the Neo Ergonomic Mid Back. So, we had to order the Neo to get down to the bottom of this curious match-up. What the heck are the differences?

We believe the BestOffice seat is a bit more comfortable, providing more support than the Neo. Also, after assembling the Neo, we found it felt cheaper with less sturdiness than we desire in an office chair.

Adjustability

Similar to how we collected data from a panel of professional testers for the comfort evaluation, we asked ourselves to investigate how easily adjustable the BestOffice was from the base all the way up to the backrest. This inspection didn't take long because there isn't much to adjust on this chair — which shouldn't come as a surprise given its affordable price tag.

Although this chair does have lumbar support, it's completely fixed in place and made from hard plastic. On the off chance that it's too much support for you, you can't do anything to mitigate it other than slide a pillow between your back and the backrest, but that also may end up increasing your overall lumbar support and thus make the problem worse.

The lack of adjustment theme continues to the seat pan, which is also fixed in place. Although the cushion has a narrow seat pan width of 18.0 inches, it has a respectable depth of 20.0 inches, which mitigates the need for most adjustments.

Surprisingly, there is a back tilt limiter, but it has only two positions: locked upright or completely free to recline. Thankfully, the tension knob is easy to access and turn while seated, thanks to the smaller seat pan.

Ease of Assembly

Office chairs should be easy to use from start to finish, and the assembly process is when first impressions are made. Because of this, we timed how long it took us to assemble the chair, assessed how clearly all the hardware was labeled, and reviewed the clarity of the directions.

It took 22 minutes for us to assemble, which is longer than we were expecting for a chair with so few points of adjustment.

It comes completely disassembled, and the box is filled with lots of small pieces of hardware like screws, washers, and nuts. Included amongst the many hardware baggies are a few extra pieces and an Allen wrench to get the work done, which we appreciated. Although all the parts were clearly labeled and the directions were easy to follow, getting the screws to the thread was more challenging than we expected. We had to get into an awkward position on the floor just to get the right angle to thread the screw that attached the seat to the base, perhaps the most important one.

Should You Buy the BestOffice Mesh Office Chair?

The BestOffice Mesh Office Chair is best for short to medium-length sitting sessions and for people who don't require ergonomic adjustability. The chair is reasonably priced and designed for casual sitting, and instead of maximizing comfort and adjustability to the greatest extent, this chair prioritizes affordability as a bottom line. If you're in the market for a homework chair for a young student or a spot-use desk chair, this is a great option to consider.

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