Herman Miller Sayl Review

The Sayl is a head-turner, no doubt about it. It was inspired by suspension bridges — specifically the Golden Gate Bridge — which are known for looking delicate while providing impressive support. The ventilated elastomer back of the Sayl is designed to flex with your body where it's most needed and keep air easily flowing. Impressively, no tools are required for assembly, and the materials are 90% recyclable.

Performance Comparison

Comfort

Comprising half of the overall score for each chair, comfort is king when it comes to an office chair. We had each tester try out the Sayl for a full workday, then decide how long they could comfortably sit in it — the full day or just a few hours.

We also aggregated each tester's opinion of the backrest, armrests, and seat cushion and took that into account when determining final scores. The Sayl delivered an okay performance. All of our judges agreed that they were content sitting on this chair for at least five hours, with four of them having no problem sitting for a full 8-10 hour day. It doesn't boast the tallest backrest, which may have contributed to the taller testers only wanting to sit in it for half of the day.

The backrest is made of a rubberized mesh, which some of our judges loved, and others weren't so enamored with. The armrests have a much more universal appeal, and most of our judges also regarded the seat as comfortable. As with all things of such a personal nature, if you're able to try this chair before committing, take the opportunity. Otherwise, look into the return policy of whoever you order from in case it's not a good fit.

Adjustability

Following our suite of comfort assessments, we moved on to rating and scoring adjustability. We primarily focused on how customizable the backrest, armrests, and seat pan are and how the chair can recline. Finally, we combined all of this to see if we could easily get the chair into an ergonomic seating position at an average desk or standing desk (in the lowered position). The Sayl delivered a stellar performance in this metric.

The backrest offers very good lumbar support, and we like that you can move it up or down. The armrests on the version we tested are fully customizable; you can move them up and down, closer or further to you, and forward and back. You can also pivot them, although we aren't the biggest fans of the raise and lower mechanism. We have seen versions of this chair without the completely adjustable armrests, so make sure you double-check you are buying the one you prefer.

You can adjust the depth of the seat pan and move the chair height up and down. When it comes to reclining, the knob that adjusts the tension is fine, and there are tilt limiters to set different angles, which allow you to recline. Overall, these various adjustments make it super easy to move the Sayl into a position that conforms to ergonomic guidelines.

Durability

Next, we evaluated how well-constructed and durable the Sayl is. We based the score on our own assessments of each chair, reading through tons of other user experiences.

The Sayl performed quite well here as well. We didn't notice any major signs of damage after our testing process, though we could see the front padding of the armrests showing a bit more signs of wear than some of the other models in our lineup. The height adjustment lever also felt a little flimsy for our preferences. We saw a handful of user reviews that echoed this sentiment, noting that the front seat cushion padding and the armrest padding began to wear or break.

Ease of Assembly

For this metric, we evaluated how long it took to build each chair and the quality and clarity of the instructions. The Sayl did very well, earning an impressive score.

This chair arrives almost completely built, and we had it ready to go in less than five minutes. No tools are required, and you only have to set the top on the base — that's it. The directions are also very clear — though that's not a surprise when there's only a single step involved in assembly.

Value

The Sayl isn't the best value when compared to our entire lineup, but when looked at next to other Herman Miller products, it's a pretty decent bargain — especially if you are shopping for a high-end, premium chair that also sits pretty. For that reason, this is the model from Herman Miller that we recommend to folks that have an interest in the brand but want a bit of a break on price.

Conclusion