DXRacer Racing Series OH/RV001 Gaming Chair Review

DXRacer is a big name in gaming chairs, and its Racing Series is among its most accessible and affordable offerings, with prices between $299 and $399.

We tested the OH/RV001, available for $369.

It's comfortable, sturdy, and even lets you lean back if you want to read a book or take a nap between games.

However, it isn't the most rugged or luxurious gaming chair we've seen, and you can find alternatives with denser padding or thicker faux leather for a similar price, like the Editors' Choice SecretLab Titan.

Colors and Capacity

The Racing Series chair we tested is available in seven different colors: black, blue, green, orange, purple, red, and white.

Every version has a primarily black body, with your chosen color running along the sides of the back and seat of the chair.

DXRacer states a maximum weight of 250 pounds and a recommended weight of 220 pounds for users of the OH/RV001 Racing Series chair.

I'm at the high end of that range, but I found the 17-inch-wide (at the center, near the armrests), 18-inch-deep seat comfortable and sturdy, though the raised edges of the seat were slightly snug against my thighs.

For bigger users, DXRacer's King, Sentinel, and Tank series respectively have maximum weights of 300, 350, and 450 pounds, with appropriately larger seat dimensions.

Putting It Together

Assembling the Racing Series chair is a simple process that's functionally identical to every other gaming chair we've tested so far.

It comes unassembled in a big cardboard box, separated into the seat with pre-attached armrests, the back, the upper base, the wheel base, five castors, a pneumatic cylinder, and some plastic handles and accents.

It helps to have an extra set of hands, but after a few tries I was able to put these chairs together on my own with some wrestling.

RapidX Carbon Line Gaming and Lifestyle Chair

AKRacing Masters Series Max Gaming Chair

SecretLab Titan (2020 Series)

First, you have to unscrew the four bolts on the sides of the back of the chair.

Place the chair back against the metal brackets on the chair seat and screw them together, using the included Allen wrench to tighten them.

Flip the chair over and screw the upper base into the bottom of the seat.

Press the five castors into their mounts on the wheeled base, then put the pneumatic cylinder in the middle of the base with the included plastic covers stacked over it.

Fit the top of the cylinder into the upper base and set the chair upright.

After that, all you have to do is press two plastic paddles onto the metal rods on the upper base to give you levers for adjustment, and screw plastic covers on the sides of the back to protect and obscure the brackets connecting the back to the seat.

The chair also comes with two rectangular cushions with elastic bands for attaching to the back.

The smaller cushion serves as a headrest and easily slips over the top.

The larger cushion provides optional lumbar support, and attaches with two long straps you can loop around the back.

Materials

The Racing Series chair is covered in a combination of polyurethane (PU) faux leather and vinyl.

The black and blue model we tested features blue PU leather on the sides and black PU leather on the back, with vinyl textured to look like carbon fiber weave on the seat and as accents on the back.

The faux leather and vinyl feel fairly sturdy and cool to the touch, but it isn't as supple as the PU leather used in AKRacing's Max or RapidX's Carbon Line chairs, or seem as dense and solid as the PU leather SecretLab uses in its Titan chair.

The upper base and arms of the chair are steel, while the lower base is solid aluminum with colored plastic inlays on the tops of the legs matching the blue of the chair.

The three-inch casters are covered in PU rubber to protect the surface on which you use the chair.

The faux leather and vinyl covers occasionally sparse foam padding.

The chair's seat is nice and firm and the part where your back hits it has some decent support, but the rest of the chair clearly has many open cavities under the material, with padding wrapped around its metal frame rather than completely filling the back.

This is especially noticeable on the headrest, which has too much give if you don't want to use the removable cushion.

It's still comfortable, but the lack of dense padding throughout the back raises questions about the chair's longevity, especially when compared with the SecretLab Titan, which is almost completely stuffed with cold-cure foam padding with few discernible cavities.

Adjustments

You can tweak the chair's height and angle at various points with plenty of adjustment options.

Like most office chairs, you can use the right paddle on the underside to adjust the seat's height, from 19.25 to 22 inches above the ground.

The entire chair also tilts back up to 14 degrees, and can be locked in position (along with the height) by flipping the left paddle on the base down.

If that isn't enough of a lean back for you, the lever behind the right armrest lets you tilt further back relative to the seat, setting the chair to a recline up to 135 degrees.

It isn't quite flat, but it's deep enough that you'll have an easier time napping than staring at your TV or monitor.

The PU rubber-covered armrests are also adjustable, and can be set between 25.5 and 31.5 inches off the ground by pulling the lever on the outside of each arm.

They can also slide forward and backward across a 2.5-inch span, and can be twisted inward and outward up to 15 degrees each way (though the armrests will remain flat regardless of the yaw adjustment).

Conclusions

The DXRacer Racing Series OH/RV001 is a comfortable, functional chair that lets you recline in comfort between long gameplay sessions.

However, its PU leather and vinyl cover doesn't feel quite as supple or thick as we'd like, and its frame is only reasonably padded rather than stuffed with an abundance of foam.

It's a good chair on its own, but compared with the very dense, thick build of the SecretLab Titan, our Editors' Choice, it isn't quite as impressive.