Elgato Embrace Studio Chair
design
Assembling the Elgato Embrace is, without question, the simplest process I’ve been through for a chair. The seat unit arrives partially pre-assembled, so you’re really just clicking in the castors, placing the seat on the base, and slotting the lightweight backrest into position. The whole thing was done in around two and a half minutes with the single included Allen key, and I didn’t need a second pair of hands at any point. For context, most gaming chairs take me somewhere between fifteen minutes and half an hour, so the Embrace does back up its marketing claims here, even if the assembly experience Elgato mocked in its launch video was a little exaggerated like a terrible shopping channel ad.
Once it’s together, the Elgato Embrace looks exactly like a sensible office chair and absolutely nothing like a gaming one. There are no racing stripes, no oversized logos, no RGB. The only branding is a small Elgato mark on the back of the headrest, and the overall aesthetic is clean enough to sit comfortably on camera for a stream or a work call without drawing attention. Whether that restraint reads as professional or a touch boring is going to come down to personal taste, it’s a long way from the AndaSeat X-Air, that’s for sure, but it’s a deliberate choice and it works for what it’s trying to be.
Where the Elgato Embrace starts to get complicated is in the hands-on build quality. There’s no creaking, no wobble, and it feels solid enough when you first sit down, but with the exception of the seat unit this is an entirely plastic chair. That’s not inherently a problem, plenty of office chairs use plastic extensively, but it doesn’t feel premium at all. It occupies an odd space where the minimalist design gives it the vibe of something built with sustainability in mind, without Elgato actually making any sustainability claims. When other brands lean on plastic it’s usually a cost-saving measure on their budget lines, and that rationale makes sense. At £499, it’s harder to justify.
The feature set, on paper, is comprehensive. You get seat height and depth adjustment, adjustable lumbar support with height and depth control, a five-step recline system with adjustable tilt tension, 4D armrests, and a detachable headrest. The material on the mesh backrest is softer and less scratchy than some mesh chairs I’ve tested, and it’s breathable enough for long sessions or working under studio lighting. Lumbar depth adjustment works well, but at around 180cm I found the vertical range ran out slightly before I wanted it to, and taller users may struggle to position it where they actually need it.
As is so often the case with chairs I review, the armrests are, frankly, a let-down. The padding is thin and hard, which isn’t ideal for your elbows over extended use, but the real problem is the lack of any locking mechanism on the rotation, forward-backward, or in-out adjustments. Height locks solidly, but everything else shifts at the lightest touch. It’s a frustration I’ve encountered on plenty of chairs at this price point and above, but when your entire marketing pitch is about solving what other chairs get wrong, falling into the same trap is not a great look.
The headrest has a similar issue. It’s nice to see one included at all and it’s fine when you recline, but day to day it shifts around and can’t be reliably locked in position even with the hex bolts tightened as far as they’ll go. The five-step tilt uses a limiter rather than a lock, which is a deliberate ergonomic choice, but one that removes your ability to dial in a fixed recline angle. Only the backrest moves independently of the seat, too, so your lower half stays put regardless of your recline position, which can feel odd if you’re used to a more traditional synchronised tilt.
performance
After using it as my daily driver for a couple of weeks I can confidently say the comfort on the Elgato Embrace is perfectly adequate without ever being remarkable. The mesh backrest does its job and sits alongside other mesh options I’ve tried without standing out in either direction. If you like the mesh approach, this is fine. If you’ve been hoping for something welcoming that draws you in, that’s not what the Embrace delivers.
The seat cushion is soft, with a fast-springing open-cell foam that lacks density and feels closer to what you’d find on a generic office chair than anything aspiring to be premium. The sculpted shape and waterfall edge are nice touches that avoid the high-sided bucket seats common on gaming chairs, but out of the box I noticed some indented lines in the cushion, likely from how it was packaged, and they show no signs of going anywhere. The castors are entirely unremarkable and again, perfectly adequate when used on a standard plastic chair mat, performing identically to every other chair I’ve used on the same surface.
Where the Elgato Embrace earns its keep is on camera. It looks professional, understated, and grown-up in a way that most gaming chairs simply don’t. If your priority is a chair that fades into the background of a stream or a video call, it does that about as well as anything I’ve sat in. The minimal branding is a strength, and it’s something I wish more brands would consider.
But then we get to the core problem and it’s one that almost sits outside of the Embrace itself. At £499, the Elgato Embrace has a value proposition it can’t fully support. Elgato positioned this chair as delivering premium ergonomic comfort at a more accessible price than the likes of Herman Miller, but what I’m actually sitting on feels closer to a £200-250 office chair with better branding and a cleaner look. The build materials, the seat cushion quality, the armrest execution, none of it matches the price tag or the confidence of the marketing.
summed up
For a first attempt at furniture from a tech peripherals brand, there’s enough here to suggest Elgato could make a good chair eventually. If it does have another crack, I’d like to see it be a little more humble before it earns its stripes.
The design sensibility is sound, the assembly process is comfortably best-in-class, and the stripped-back aesthetic is exactly what a lot of people have been after. But the gap between how the Embrace was marketed and how it actually feels to sit on is too wide at this price. Elgato came out swinging, and the Embrace simply isn’t ready to land those punches. There are better options that either cost less, do more, or feel more considered in their execution.
