Razer just released the successor to one of the best gaming chairs available today with the Razer Enki Pro. The original Razer Enki surprised me, looking much like every other racing seat but turning out to be one of the most comfortable chairs I’ve ever used. The Enki Pro upgrades that design with new Alcantara trim, dual density foam cushions, a new recline knob, magnetic headrest and more. All of that comes with a major price jump to $999, a full six hundred dollars more than the original. Are the upgrades worth the major increase in price?
Razer Enki Pro – Design and Features
If you’ve seen the original Razer Enki, the basic design of the Enki Pro is much the same. It follows a traditional racing bucket seat design, but with some important changes that make it much more comfortable to actually use. The back has the traditional bolsters and cut-outs around the shoulder area, and the seat is wide and has its own set of wings. It’s trimmed in Razer’s iconic black and green, and while there’s no “For Gamers, By Gamers” stamped on the seat like the Razer Iskur, it’s still unmistakably a gaming chair.
You’ll have to look close to spot the first major upgrade. At a glance, you might think the Enki and Enki Pro were twins, but Razer has traded the suede-like fabric of the original for high-quality Alcantara on the back and seat, the same as you might find in a sports car or Formula One racer. It’s soft, supple, and surprisingly durable, perfect for a chair that will be seeing hard use.
Like the Enki, the Pro mixes its materials to deliver its eye-catching look and surprising comfort. A leather strap runs down the center of the back and seat, which Razer originally said was meant to feel better against the spine, but isn’t very noticeable. The bolsters are trimmed in leatherette for easy maintenance and are stitched with bright green accent thread. The upholstery is impeccable without a single loose thread to be found anywhere I looked.
Beneath that fabric, Razer has upgraded the cushions for enhanced comfort. The seat is now softer than the original while the back remains firm. One of the common criticisms levied at the Enki (and to be fair, many other gaming chairs, too) was that the seat was too stiff. I didn’t find this to be the case, personally, but the seat is noticeably softer out of the box, without feeling like it’s going to be too soft after a couple years of use.
The firmness of the backrest is important, because it’s a key element of the built-in lumbar support. Rather than use an adjustable lumbar like the Secretlab Titan Evo, the Enki Pro’s built-in arch works in conjunction with the backrest and cushion densities to evenly distribute your weight and alleviate stress on your body. The backrest is specially curved to align your shoulders and back, and promote good posture. It comes together so naturally that you may not even realize you’re sitting differently until you move to another chair – or look back at the end of the day and realize you don’t have any soreness in your back. The seat base is also wide enough to support crossing your legs when you need a break from that upright posture.
It sounds like a lot of marketing speak, I know. But it works. When I reviewed the original Razer Enki, I tested it at home and liked it so much that I moved it to work for a long-term test. That chair, designed almost exactly like the Enki Pro, proved to be more comfortable than any other gaming chair I’ve used. That includes expensive mesh chairs designed entirely around ergonomics, like the Cougar Argo and Cooler Master Ergo L. With the new dual density cushions, that’s even more true with the Enki Pro.
Turning the chair around, the Enki Pro has also had some work done around back. While the original Enki had leather upholstery all the way around, the Pro’s back is clad in a hard, carbon-fiber styled plastic shell. It looks nice and will definitely get the attention of your friends. The shell wraps around the sides and has removable panels that hide the brackets that attach it to the seat.
If you’ve used virtually any other gaming chair this decade, you might be surprised to find that there’s no lever to tilt the seat back. Instead, Razer has replaced this with an adjustment knob that you twist to adjust recline. It’s more precise and helps to prevent those jagged movements where the back snaps back or forward, but its higher position makes it more awkward to reach.
The other upgrade this time around takes a page out of Secretlab’s book. The headrest no longer uses straps to attach to the chair. Instead, a powerful magnet holds it in place so you can slide it up or down to find a comfortable position. If you’re worried about it falling off or moving out of position, don’t be. The magnet is powerful enough that I left the cushion on throughout the entire assembly process and it didn’t fall off once. The cushion is fantastic, so being able to move it to match a wider range of body types is a great thing.
Everything else on the chair is exactly the same as the Razer Enki. The chair is still rated for users between 5’5” and 6’8” and up to 299 pounds. The armrests are still 4D and adjustable height, depth, width, and angle. The wheelbase is still painted aluminum with standard 60mm casters. You can still adjust the chair’s rocking tension or lock it at a certain angle, and adjust the height up and down.
The two chairs have more in common than different, and in this case, that’s not entirely a good thing. This is still the same comfy chair I called “Great” back in 2021. But for a six hundred dollar price increase you get Alcantara, a few changes to the cushions, a plastic back, and a knob instead of a lever. It’s just not worth the thousand dollar price when the original Enki is still being sold and is still so good even without those upgrades.
Razer Enki Pro – Assembly
Assembling the Enki Pro isn’t difficult but is definitely easier with two people. The chair comes in a gigantic box that weighs more than 80 pounds. Inside, you’ll find a glossy thank you letter from Razer’s founder, Min-Liang Tan, that flips to reveal a large assembly guide. Bonus points to this guide for being large enough to actually use as a mat to protect your floor during parts of the build process.
The chair comes with everything you’ll need to put it together and is nicely separated out to make finding each part easy. Razer even inserts all of the screws you’ll need, so you know exactly where to attach each piece. The most difficult part of the process was attaching the back to the seat, but Razer added a piece to the left side that made lining up the brackets much easier than on other chairs. I also appreciated that Razer hid these pieces behind removable panels, allowing the plastic back to wrap around each side of the chair.
I used a drill to speed up assembly and was able to complete the process in about 20 minutes by myself, stopping to take pictures in between. With an extra set of hands, using the included tool, you can expect assembly to take the same or less. It’s straightforward enough that you won’t need the instructions if you’ve built a gaming chair before, but I would recommend using it if you’re a new builder so you don’t miss a step.
Razer Enki Pro – Performance
Having used the Enki as my main chair for the last seven months, I had a good idea about what to expect going in. And good news: the Enki Pro is even more comfortable than the original and just as adjustable. Whether you’re playing games at your PC, kicking back with your feet up, or settling in to work a full workday, the Enki Pro is ready to deliver.
The new cushions are the kind of subtle upgrade you won’t fully appreciate until you’ve tried another, firmer gaming chair right out of the box. Many gaming chairs feel stiff until they’ve had a chance to break in. The Pro is essentially pre-broken in, so it’s soft and pliable right away. It hits a perfect middle ground where it’s soft enough to be immediately comfortable without feeling like it will be too soft after a few months of regular use.
The lumbar support is just as good as ever, as long as it matches your back. There’s no adjustment option to move the lumbar support up or down, so you’re stuck with where it’s at. At 5’8”, it was perfect for me, and a colleague that’s 6’2” also found it to be very supportive, but since we all have different body types, your mileage may vary. The lumbar support is contoured to match the arc of your back and firm enough to offer the support you need to sit comfortably in that position for extended periods of time. The shoulder arches offer gentle encouragement to keep you centered and sitting upright. Even the pillow, which is usually something I remove from other gaming chairs, is designed to slide under your neck so sitting back with it is actually comfortable.
The armrests are the Enki Pro’s secret weapon. They offer the same adjustments as any other set of 4D armrests, but raise several inches taller than most other gaming chairs. This let me set them to match the height of my desk (or even slightly higher) so my arms never had to press on the sharp edge of the desktop. Whether I was playing with mouse and keyboard or with a controller in my hand, I was always able to find a comfortable position that supported me the way I wanted to sit. The elbow cushions are also softer than the harder plastic found on most racing seats and kept me from getting sore throughout the day.
The wide seat base is an asset if you’re a leg-crosser like me. I usually sit straight up when gaming but sometimes tuck a foot under the opposite leg. The seat is designed to accommodate all manner of sitting positions, including completely crossing both legs.
The new recline knob is nice, but not revolutionary. It’s slightly awkward to use, but allows you to make small adjustments without having the backrest slam forward or back. This is also possible by taking a little more care with a lever, however, so it’s a small upgrade overall. Still, the Enki Pro is one of the few chairs that’s comfortable enough that I actually find myself reclining in when I need a quick break from the day, and is a dream seat for kicking back with a controller.
The Alcantara fabric is another nice-to-have feature, but wasn’t something I noticed often. It feels good against the skin, but it’s not a game-changer compared to the fabric of the original Enki. It will touch a bit of your legs if you’re wearing shorts, but that’s about it for such a headlining upgrade. It’s a feature more about flex than function.
You’ll also need to be ready to clean the Enki Pro more often than a full leather gaming chair. In the time I had it for testing, the Alcantara managed to gather little fuzzies and stray pet hairs that stood out against the dark fabric. The original Enki also had this issue. About once a month, it needed to be vacuumed because the fabric accumulated dust you would usually be able to wipe away but couldn’t because of the fabric. If my test window was any indication, the same will be true here.
My biggest takeaway after testing the Enki Pro is that while it offers a handful of upgrades, none of them really change the fact that it’s still incredibly similar to the much cheaper original. For a “pro” version, I would have hoped to have seen bigger changes, like an adjustable lumbar system to match a wider range of backs. The Enki Pro is definitely fancy but it’s not a great value.