TechRadar Verdict
The Mavix M4 is an outstanding gaming chair for those of us who are growing tired of the outdated, uncomfortable gaming chairs that still inundate the market. There are quibbles we have with the M4, for sure, but its ergonomics, design, and more approachable price put it squarely at the head of the midrange pack.
Pros
- +
Comfortable seat
- +
Ergonomics are amazing
- +
Per-caster brakes
Cons
- -
Fabric might feel rough on sensitive skin
- -
Limited adjustability
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Mavix M4: One-minute review
The Mavix M4 may lack some of the more luxurious features of the more premium Mavix M9. However, this latest midrange gaming chair from the brand still delivers where it counts. And, it beats out major competitors like Razer and AndaSeat at the same price points while introducing a lot of ergonomic features that gamers probably don’t even realize they desperately need.
The competition to supply the best gaming chair in the middle segment of the market is crazy. That’s where PC gamers are most likely to splurge on gaming equipment and accessories, especially as supply shortages around the world continue to drive inflation.
Not that the Mavix M4 is a cheap gaming chair by any means. However, it's also more affordable that the other popular offerings out there.
That mid-range price can be a double-edged sword. Because of it, there are a few design choices on this chair that may irk some people. Some of the complaints we had about the fancier M9 still apply to the M4, though given the price, they are much more palatable here. These include a reliance on durable, hard plastic for most of the construction, and the M4's common plastic caster wheels (which are seen on just about every other gaming chair) rather than the amazing, rubberized, rollerbladesque ones used on the M9.
Still, even with the cheaper wheels, Mavix’s gonna Mavix, so the M4 features per-wheel brakes that can securely anchor your chair in place with a quick kick of the heel. Those of us with restless, fidgety legs will regularly kick those brakes on by accident, which can be annoying when you go to move in a securely anchored chair. It’s a minor inconvenience that most people are never going to experience, though (or at least not as regularly), and the extra step to include brakes on a gaming chair at this price is the kind of thing that's quickly making Mavix our new favorite gaming chair brand.
The Mavix M4, then, is an excellent introduction for those who haven’t yet heard about the company, and there are few gaming chairs at this price that we would put in the same league in terms of style and overall comfort. There are some compromises at this price that any customer will have to accept, but once again, Mavix made sure that those compromises did not include comfort. And for that alone, the Mavix M4 gaming chair should be your first stop in your sub-$500/£400 gaming chair search.
Mavix M4: Price and availability
The Mavix M4 gaming chair is available now for $488, though this has been reduced to $444.44 for as long as we can remember (about £355/AU$640).
This makes it quite competitive against chairs like the AndaSeat Jungle Pro Gaming Chair and the Secretlab Titan gaming chair. The AndaSeat chair carries an MSRP of $349 (around £250, AU$450), for example, which is about 22% cheaper than the M4, while the Titan sells for $490 in the US.
That said, we would put the M4 against the Jungle Pro and Titan any day of the week when it comes to comfort and ergonomics. These two features alone would justify paying more if it means you can get them, and having sat in plenty of awful gaming chairs in my life, trust me, they are worth paying for.
You can buy the M4 from Mavix’s site and have it shipped to you anywhere in the lower 48 states, with extra charges to ship to Hawaii, Alaska, and international locations – which will be expensive as hell, obviously. If you really want this chair outside the continental US, you can have it, almost certainly paying more in freight charges than the chair itself.
- Value: 4.5 / 5
Mavix M4: Design
The Mavix M4 gaming chair is the company’s lowest-tier chair in the M line (the other three being the M5, M7, and aforementioned M9). The M4 utilizes a fixed, breathable mesh back with dynamic variable lumbar, and a Mavix mesh fabric in the seat to help keep things there cool and comfortable. While it works on that front, this isn’t the best material for bare, sensitive skin, so if you spend a lot of time gaming in shorts or shirtless, this might not be the best chair for you.
That said, the color options for the M4 are attractive across the board, and it’s nice to have choices here. There are also additional accessories for purchase, like a Mavix gaming chair mat to help protect your floors, a footrest, and an Elemax cooling, heating, and massaging lumbar insert.
Being the starter chair in the lineup, there are a number of other limitations compared to its more expensive siblings. First, the recline on the M4 is not as deep as the M7 or M9, achieving only about 135°, compared to the M7’s 148° or the M9’s 150° recline. The back height also isn’t adjustable, and the M4 comes only in a standard width seat; those with larger frames might not be a comfortable as they could or should be.
The armrests are strictly height adjustable, and that's it. They are comfortable enough, but nothing you haven’t seen before in a gaming chair. The wheel casters meanwhile are different from most chairs at this price, featuring per-wheel sliding brakes that lock the wheels in place and are as easy to apply as using your foot. This has led to our accidentally slamming on the brakes to the M4 when we didn’t mean to, but it’s a fairly minor inconvenience all things considered.
- Design: 4 / 5
Mavix M4: Comfort
The Mavix M4 is one of the most comfortable gaming chairs you’re going to find at this price, if not the most comfortable, at least in terms of the seat cushion. While it lacks the M9’s Cool Gel M-Foam seat with breathable ATR fabric, the Mavix mesh and HD foam provides plenty of support and is very breathable overall so you’re not stuck sitting in a sweaty mess if it gets hot.
The lumbar support is the kind of ergonomics that every chair maker should adopt (if only they’d get out of this stale, racecar bucket seat paradigm they’re stuck in). It automatically adjusts with your body weight to support the lumbar region of your lower back, and it requires no more intervention from you than leaning your back into it.
This kind of smart, thoughtful design makes this chair feel much more premium than it is, and it's one of the reasons we’ve really taken a shine to Mavix as a brand.
But it's not all wine and roses: The fabric Mavix uses to cover the seat and the back are a potential pitfall of the M4. Mavix mesh, as the company calls it, can feel a bit rough at times compared to some soft fabric or synthetic leather. This would be especially true if you were, say, wearing shorts on a hot summer day for hours at a time. That bit of your bare leg rubbing against the Mavix mesh isn't painful or irritating, mind you, but we can see a case for someone with more sensitive skin not taking to it as well as we did.
With that important caveat, if your priority is comfort first and foremost and you're fine not luxuriating in leather, then you really don’t need to look much further than the Mavix M4 – unless you’ve got more room in your budget to move up to an M5 or M7. And if you’ve got the money for the M9 ... well, you know what to do.
- Comfort: 4 / 5
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Mavix M4: Report Card
| Value | As an "entry level" gaming chair for a brand, the Mavix M4 cost more than some flagship products, but it is ultimately worth the price | 4 / 5 |
| Design | From the ergonomics to the brakes on each caster wheel, a lot of thought went into the details on this chair, which makes its ommisions, like more adjustability, more glaring | 4 / 5 |
| Comfort | The price of this chair buys two things: the ergonomics and the cushion, and this helps deliver quality comfort above what you'd normally get at this price. | 4 / 5 |
- First reviewed in July 2022
