I would recommend the secondhand option. https://www.2ndhnd.com have a decent range. I bought a Humanscale chair from them a couple of years ago, at a third of the new price, and it’s been brilliant. To me it looked as good as new when it arrived, it even had the tags on.
At lot of companies lease chairs for a year and return them. Some buy them, then go bust. Resulting in a great market for used chairs.
Profim should be available in the UK. I bought a Xenon Net for the home office because I was using one at the company office for a couple of years. They’re pretty comfortable and sturdy.
I was looking at 2ndhnd but I couldn’t find anything that was in stock and in my price range and had decent back support and some reviews.
Lack of reviews is a big problem. Like this chair looks nice but no one has reviewed it: https://www.officefurnitureonline.co.uk/contract-plus-24-7-posture-mesh-office-chair.html
On the other hand the ErgoChair 2 has lots of reviews but they all seem to be shills, chair sent over by the manufacturer to gaming type websites who did a five minute test instead of weeks sat in the thing.
Edit: I just noticed that these two are the same chair. As I suspected Autonomous didn’t design it, it’s an OEM chair rebadged.
I was just about to say the exact same thing. Its the same chair, so there’s an OEM out there producing it?
I saw this as well, the chair looks decent, but the shills have essentially made any review un-reliable for trusting. And im not buying a £250 odd chair when I cant trust the reviews.
I did find one review which seems honest and said it was basically not that great.
Most of the reviews are full of complete bollocks like “morphs to your shape” which suggests they know nothing about chairs.
The other big problem is that it doesn’t have a lock for the tilt, just adjustable tension. Unless it’s really, really, really good and lasts the lifetime of the chair that just means you hare going to have a bad back sooner or later.
So there’s the Steelcase Lets B. Looks good, right price, but no mesh or adjustable lumbar support. Aast’s high back posture chair looks similar but does have adjustable lumbar.
Senator Ousby looks great but no reviews.
2ndhnd is awful to navigate and doesn’t let you filter out the out of stock items that make up 90% of the site.
Humanscale Diffrient World looks incredibly uncomfortable. The woman in their demo video looks too laid back for computer use. The recline feature doesn’t seem to be lockable or adjustable either.
Steelcase Please V2 at £220 seems like it might be a winner. Gets decent reviews, seems adjustable enough. I wish it was mesh but my back is more important.
RH Logic 400 is the final candidate at the moment. £200, not much in the way of reviews, found some study that claimed it was good after a test in some office, and some Amazon people who said it was a good buy.
I’ll probably procrastinate a bit more and get the Please V2 unless something else comes up.
This is the chair I have and I love it.
Horses for courses though I suppose
Autonomous is absolutely just reselling a standard Chinese design. Their kickstarter or whatever they had a few years ago got cancelled because of it. I can find some old threads detailing it if you like.
Well that settles it really, it might be a good chair but I’d rather buy the other brand than give scammers money.
The woman in the video looks really far reclined for using a computer. Maybe some people like that.
I am going to do some more research into this chair though because it has mesh so if it’s got good back support as well it would be great. No adjustable lumbar support though.
Edit: Found a great review from someone who seems to understand chairs and owned one for 1.5 years.
There seem to be two issues. First is quality problems, he had 4 all of which broke but says the white ones seem better. Second is that the reclining mechanism seems to be always a bit reclined, like the woman in the picture. It’s not a very upright chair from the sounds of it. Can you confirm?
I ordered the Steelcase Please V2 from 2ndhnd (chair is new). Will report back.
Oh what kind of price was it?
This one?
Seems like a good price at £219, with 1 year warranty as well, tempting 
That’s the one but in grey. 1 year warranty is the bare minimum, Consumer Rights Act means I’d expect it to last at least 5 years of normal use 8-10 hours a day.
I don’t think the CRA would cover for so long on a second hand item, burden of original purchase being on you before a claim could be made? But how easy would it be to prove manufacturing defect vs excessive wear and tear on furniture?
Only asking because I have cheap ass flimsy stuff that lasted years, and an expensive bit that did not hold up with an excessive load that it should not have been subject to…
The description says this chair is new… Unless they mean “new grey fabric” rather than new chair. It better be perfect anyway.
You may have a point about the CRA and refurbs but still 1 year is below what I’d expect for a £220 chair.
It’s a steelcase, I’d be surprised if you have any issues with it. My Let’s B chairs seem to be bombproof, the kids have yet to break one unlike all other office and dining chairs we’ve had 
I don’t know if it’s just work keeps buying cheap ones but I seem to go through them every couple of years. After about one year they get very noisy.
I’m not that heavy really but I do shuffle around a fair bit.
Hmm, hasn’t even shipped yet.
Arrived. First impressions mixed. Some scratches on the back but it is new fabric. Seems comfortable and solid but will take a little getting used to. Lumbar support needs careful adjustment.
The back doesn’t have fixed positions, it is just stiff. The tilt tension is actually great, you can have it feel solid and supportive but still move when you want without adjusting the whole chair.
Arm rests are good too. I thought they didn’t go far enough forward at first but they are fine. Very easy to adjust and small steps. Not sure about the rubbery finish but I can always cover them if needs be.
I’ll report back as it settles in and after a few months.
Okay, I’m not sure about this. Initially finding I want to push back a bit too much to stop the back coming forwards. I think I can learn to not do that.
Main issue is the lumbar support doesn’t seem very good. Even on the highest setting it’s not doing what it needs to do. Seems too recessed and I can’t move my arse back any further because when I try the back comes forward and blocks me. I want to sit a bit more upright than I am able to.
