Before the advent of contactless payment, and before I started taking my cell phone with me to the store, my wallet was always in the back pocket of my jeans. I couldn't help but notice that the receipts were stuck in the folds of the leather, and they were always in the way when I sat down. Sitting in the [DXRacer AIR Mesh (opens in new tab)] gaming chair is like having two wallets in each cheek pocket of my jeans, and it's uncomfortable to sit for more than five minutes at a time.

I don't like the oversized, overly padded gaming chairs these days. They are bulky and take up too much valuable space in my home setup. That said, I really liked the Mavix M9 (opens in new tab), but it was also a nightmare during shipping. There was a small problem with the original chair for review, and I had to re-select a functional chair from a list of four broken chairs. But that is why I considered the AIR mesh chairs to be something I could get behind.

It is a fully mesh chair, with elastic mesh fabric providing cushioning for the abdomen and spine, with the addition of a slightly firmer plastic lumbar support.

And I really, really hate it.

I don't say this lightly; the chairs in the PC Gamer office are nothing to write home about, but the moment I finish writing this review, I'm shipping them off downstairs to the IT department and putting them back on one of those obnoxiously stained seats that still hang around my desk.

The chair has a solid plastic frame on the outside, which holds the mesh fabric in place. It is thick and, to say the least, does not look like it was designed for a well-built gentleman. It squeezes around my love handles like a thick, forbidding hand, and is downright unwelcome. But the most uncomfortable part is where the frame narrows under my hips.

In fact, it is so uncomfortable to sit on that I now sit on the front edge of the seat to make my back and butt a little more comfortable. That's not a good place to be when you're hoping the chair might support you during a long gaming session.

Besides, having to spend so much time talking about your hips and buttocks is not a good thing.

Also, I find the headrests a bit odd. It's squishy and comfortable, but where you might be able to attach it to various parts of the backrest to extend the range of adjustment, you can't really do that.

Now, I am at the height limit that DXRacer advertises as the maximum load for a gaming chair. However, a quick look at the recommended dimensions is making it clear that this is not a chair made for me; DXRacer recommends the AIR Mesh for a person 170 cm tall, but judging from the images on their site, it is for a cartoonish pink-haired woman wearing knee-high boots.

Did I mention that the AIR Mesh was $499? However, if you visit the DXRacer website, you will find an enthusiastic endorsement by PC Gamer. That said, this is from a DXRacer ad (opens in new tab), which was posted before we checked out the chair. Interesting.

However, there are two things we like about the DXRacer AIR Mesh. It's comfortable, and the 4D adjustment is precise and effective. The armrests are comfortable and the 4D adjustments are accurate and effective. However, this alone will not stop me from pushing the DXRacer AIR Mesh down the stairs or telling the IT department where to pick up the DXRacer AIR Mesh.

A 170cm catgirl in DXRacer's influencer department might be able to help me get the AIR Mesh in the right place. But as a grown man, with a definitely overgrown butt, this is definitely not a chair for me.