Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely grateful that the folks at Boulies provided me with an all-new EP600 for review, but I think I’m getting fatigued by all the ergonomic mesh chairs that are making their way into the hybrid gaming-working space these days. They do what they do well, but between the various brands and variants out there, there’s not a hell of a lot of difference.
For instance, we’ve had the Boulies EP500 and (now) EP600, the Sihoo C300, and the LiberNovo Omni in recent months, and they all seem to do the same thing, but often for wildly different price points.
AndaSeat does one, GT Omega does one, most furniture and homeware manufacturers (like IKEA) do one (or more), and Amazon-style brands like HOMCOM and FlexiSpot do plenty of them.
The EP600 is the newest entry to the market that carries a price tag of £429.99 when not on sale, but I can’t say that it does anything more or better than the previous iteration, and in some places, it feels worse.
Here’s my full Boulies EP5600 chair review, just in case you’re in the market.
Boulies EP600 Might Not Be Worth The Investment
At face value, the Boulies EP600 is a hybrid mesh chair that’s designed for both desk workers and gamers who want something a little more ergonomic in their lives, and, fair enough, it does that. I just feel that, for up to $489.99, it doesn’t do enough well to warrant that investment.
Let me start from the beginning of my experience with the Boulies EP600.
It arrived at my door in a beaten box with minimal protection inside, and it was noticeably jumbled, with cheap packaging materials having been used to protect what might have been a near-$500 investment. Basic bubble wrap and corrugated cardboard were the order of the day in this box, and the entire thing felt like it had been thoughtlessly thrown into the box seconds before shipping.
If you compare that to something much more premium, like a Secretlab chair, you immediately notice the stark difference in the care and attention taken by those packing these boxes. It speaks volumes.
I can’t exactly blame Boulies for how the delivery firm treats the box, of course, but it’s all part of the wider thing.
The instruction pamphlet and the tools and fixings included felt just as low-effort. These might be things that some deem ‘picky’, but if I’d spent almost $500 on a chair (which you won’t have, thanks to eternal sales), I’d have been disheartened by the initial presentation of it all.
Pulling it out, all the trappings of the mesh-office-chair-scene were there. The 6D armrests that flip every which way, the ultra-adjustable lumbar support, headrest, seat base, and back were all waiting to be assembled. I was surprised to see Boulies trying to innovate in a way that nobody really asked for, such as making the chair base spokes these heavy, plastic things that clip almost irrevocably into the central hub, rather than keeping them as just metal components that are physically bolted to the base.
It took me a second to understand what I was looking at, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why they’d try to change such an understood and appreciated industry standard for no real reason. The EP500 didn’t work this way, and that only came out a few months ago.
And while I’m talking about the EP500, I’d like to pull in another comparison. That chair had a retractable, foldable leg rest, like the EP600, but for some reason, the predecessor did things better. The former chair offered the same mesh material on the leg rest that the chair has, but the EP600 has a scratchy, hard plastic surface for the leg rest, which, again, feels like a downgrade.
Also, like the EP500, the leg rest is just loosely slung under the chair along a couple of aluminium runners, which don’t inspire confidence in terms of longevity.
My original complaint about the EP500 was that the entire thing felt a bit flimsy. It creaked, rocked, and wobbled uncertainly, which I do not like. I’ve had plenty of chairs in the last couple of years, from Noble to Secretlab, and from AutoFull to Sihoo, and none of them have felt as inherently unreliable as the Boulies EP600.
Adjusting it felt over-complicated, with some of the levers being located behind the very base of the lumbar area, which means you need to get off the chair to realistically tweak certain components.
In terms of human accommodations, the mesh material just is not as comfortable as people think it is, regardless of how it might be marketed. I get it, it’s breathable, it’s flexible, and it’s lighter, but maybe I’m just old-fashioned. I prefer memory foam, thick seat bases, and accommodating cushions that look more expensive than a strip of chenille mesh.
Additionally, the Boulies EP600 just doesn’t do much in the aesthetics department. It looks identical to other chairs on the market, like the Sihoo range, and that’s a problem that I’ve found the manufacturer has with other chairs. For instance, I just reviewed the Master Rex, which feels as though it’s trying to ape Secretlab at every turn.
But the EP600 deepens that concept. I couldn’t look at this Boulies chair in a lineup and pick it out with any real confidence. Maybe that’s because it’s more of a mid-tier chair that can’t afford to be too unique; I don’t know. I’m a huge fan of the crossover chairs you see from the top-tier brands that partner with gaming labels, but I know that’s not a door that’s open to everyone.
Historically, I’ve parted with big bucks to secure The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Assassin’s Creed-themed chairs, and they’re furniture items that are conversation starters. They’re instantly recognizable: “Oh, that’s the x brand Fallout chair!”
I mean, if you look at a Herman Miller or a Secretlab, you know what you’re looking at, but they’re way more premium chairs that can run you up a bill that exceeds the $1000 mark easily. Perhaps Boulies is a victim of trying to stay at a lower, competitive price point.
Ultimately, I couldn’t recommend the Boulies EP600. It’s not innovative enough or ‘special’ enough to call it an upgrade over anything, least of all the previous Boulies iterations, and it’s not attractive enough to stand out from the crowd. It’s a basic chair that serves the purpose of being a basic chair, but it’s not overly comfortable, it’s over-complicated, and it suffers from a weird attempt to be different in some ways that nobody really asked for.
If you have an EP500 and you’re looking at the EP600 as an ‘upgrade’, don’t bother. The core differences are another ‘D’ on the armrests (6D vs. 5D), a slightly better lumbar system, and a higher price point.
Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord server if you’ve bought a Boulies EP600 and have had a different experience.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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