With remarkable comfort, a lovely soft-touch fabric finish, and a surprisingly wide base, the Razer Soma Chroma is great to sit on, but that doesn't exactly make it cutting edge. The RGB flair it's meant to bring to the table is, well, underwhelming. Razer wants you to buy a cable, power bank, and headrest separately to get the most out of it, and after a day of using the shiny lighting, you'll likely forget about it and ditch it entirely.
Wide seat base with generous, non-aggressive lumbar support
Broadly compatible with most people's frames
It doesn't come with a (long enough) cable, adapter, or battery
The wheels don't roll freely (at least in the EU)
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I've reviewed a lot of gaming chairs, sat my butt on plenty of seats promising the best of the best comfort, or ergonomic longevity (I'm convinced noblechairs wants my posture to last me until I'm 126 years old), and I've got to say, aside from possibly the AndaSeat Novis, this might be the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in.
At least, part of it is. The seat base. The fabric, the material, lovely; the base width, great. The backrest? Right up my street. But the Soma is a bit of an odd one when it comes to everything else it's trying to do. And an even bigger issue is its launch day price tag.
It's $500/£500 (about $954 AUD), which is a lot, and yes, there's RGB lighting in this, but Razer doesn't include an integrated battery (or even an optional one at checkout), doesn't pack a long enough cable, and doesn't include an adapter. The brand doesn't even include a cushioned headrest (you have to buy that separately). For 500 bones, frankly, that's utter madness.
The RGB itself (two diffused strips that run alongside the upper part of the backrest) is forward-facing only, and you can't really see it when you're sat down. It's not like a keyboard or a mouse, which is at least in your periphery, and needing your machine on with the cable hooked up separately if you opt to go without a battery bank means you'll probably spend about 5-10 seconds every session watching it just light up.
It's great for a streamer, sure, but even then it does feel more like an advert rather than something classy.
I had the lighting on for a day when I first got it for testing, then promptly unhooked the USB cable Razer graciously provided me with and never touched it again. Best gaming chair? Well, it won't be because of its RGB; that's for sure.
Right, now you can grab the Razer Soma Chroma for $500 USD and £500 GBP (about $954 AUD). It sits roughly between the Razer Iskur V2 X (at about $350) and the standard V2 (that's $600 or so).
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You can pick one of these up today, although there's little in the way of choice. No different color options, no different materials, you get what you get.
