Vertagear PL6800, A Coffee Infused Gaming Chair Built For The Substantial Gamer
Designed For Those Over 6' And 200lbs
Because We Aren't All Built Like Those Cute Streamers
The gaming chair market has exploded over the past few years, transforming from something only racing sim enthusiasts would invest in to being almost ubiquitous for anyone that streams content. While there are an abundance of brands to chose from, it was Vertagear who offered to send over a review model and so that is what we will be looking at. The Vertagear PL6800 is designed for larger humans, up to 6’8″ and 400lbs in fact. That would be appropriate for a linebacker, let alone a big and tall gamer, so if your proportions tend towards the smaller then one of their other chairs might be a better choice. On the other hand if you are north of 200lbs then you have what it takes to ensure the eight hexagonal air pillars in the seat are comfortable.
It should also have a fairly long lifetime, according to the PR, as the seat is designed to prevent the chair from adding a certain ambience to your room after you’ve been using it for a while. The seat cushion features Vertagear’s HygennX technology; the material has nanoscale coffee granules embedded in the weave and all the stitching and embroidery is coated in silver. While I can’t say how effective that might be over the course of years, after two weeks of usage and a couple of wonton noodle with assorted beef, all is well. As you will soon see, the inclusion of a pet hair remover in the tool kit is also a great feature.
Product Specifications
- Model Number: PL6800
- Compatibility:
- Weight – Up to 181kg / 400lb
- Height: 175cm-203cm / 5’9″-6’8″
- Dimensions:
- Backrest Width (shoulder) – 550 mm / 21.6″
- Backrest Width (lumbar) – 560 mm / 22″
- Seat Width – 545 mm / 21.5″
- Seat Depth – 450 mm / 17.7″
- Overall Weight:
- Net Weight – 26.7 kg / 58.9 lb
- Gross Weight – 32.2 kg / 71 lb
- Materials:
- Steel Frame
- Coffee ground fibre, Memory foam, UPHR foam, PUC Leather,
- Aluminum Alloy 5 star base, 65mm / 2.5″ rubber and plastic castors
- Colours
- Black/White, Carbon Black, Midnight Blue, Midnight Green, Midnight Purple, Burgunday Red
- Gas Lift – Class 4
- Adjustments – 4D
- Lean back with lock, separate recline back, raise/lower
- Arms can be twisted, raised/lowered and slide closer/further
- Warrany – 2 – 10 years depending, click for details
Pricing
$549.99 USD list, currently $449.99
Manufacturer Description
“Chairs easily adjust to fit a gamer’s preferences, movements and accommodate to fit various shapes and sizes, truly making the chairs accessible and perfect for everyone.
Designed with Vertagear’s patented “slide-in” hardware, assembly time takes mere seconds by simply sliding the backrest onto the seat, truly making this a single-person process.
Made with ultra-premium high-quality foam, which prolongs the lifespan of the chair by preventing deformities from wear and tear from extended use, these chairs adapt to your unique body shape and never lose elasticity.”
Workstation Chairs Are For Working
A good workstation chair will serve you well, as long as you are willing to invest the money in something at least half ways decent. The HON Ignition 2.0 task chair I have been using until now is comfortable, but it isn’t really fun, nor does it match with the rest of the gang’s furniture. Switching to a gaming chair makes aesthetic sense as well as being far more interesting. However, most of the gaming chairs I have tried out at shows and other people’s places have had a small problem. They are built for someone smaller than I, from the headrest that is far too low for comfort to seats that lack the depth I like … not to mention cushions which don’t have a hope of surviving my weight for any length of time.
When Vertagear reached out, they offered a look at any one of their chairs and while they have several interesting ones, including their less expensive and flashier S-Line it was the PL6800 which seemed appropriate for me to take a look at. The impressive width of the seat and arm rests leave me more than enough room, lending credence to that 400lb max weight. However for someone of smaller stature they are likely going to be uncomfortable as they will barely make a dent in it. The seat cushion, with it’s eight hexagonal air pillars require a fair amount of weight to compress, again great for this guy but not for everyone. The seat back maintains the same dimensions, the top of my head is not quite level with the top of the seat, not that this is an issue with their included pillow. This also means the lumbar support is higher up, so if you are towards the smaller end of the recommended sizing you might want to try this thing out before purchasing it.
Yes, The Cats Got The Box
The packaging of the Vertagear PL6800 is impressive, everything plastic wrapped, with an abundance of foam and even cardboard tubes to keep your chair safe during shipping. As the box weighs in around 70lbs, that is relatively important. It is easily unpacked but the sheer size of some of the components makes things a little cumbersome to move around, or to photograph for that matter. The accessory box holds all the tools you will need to properly assemble the chair, barring a flashlight which is something you are going to want to have hand later on.
The build quality of the parts is impressive, everything is hefty and there aren’t any plastic bits to slowly wear out and break, barring the adjustment paddles and castors. Everything about the chair suggests it is indeed built for large mammals.
Everything You Could Need To Park Your Fanny
Vertagear included a kit with an Allen key, the four bolts required to securely attach the seat back to the bottom of the seat, and the plastic paddles and castors. There was also a well appreciated bonus, a washable pet hair sticky brush so you can clean the seat as needed. The arms have some nice silver highlights on this Carbon Black model, essentially the only colour other than the Vertagear branding on the seat back and pillow. The paddle you can see on the seat reclines the back, separately from the full recline and lock feature provided by the paddle on the left. The paddle on the right handles height adjustment, just make sure to remove the bright orange cap from the seat post before installing it.
The arms are also fully adjustable, a tab on the outside raises and lowers them, a tab on the inside allows you to slide to top of the arm rest in or out and a button just to the front of it allows you to rotate the arm rests towards or away from you. That button is in a minorly inconvenient place, if you grab the arm rest when getting in or out of the chair there is a fair chance you may inadvertently push it and rotate the arm. Easy to readjust of course, but a surprise the first time it happens.
Some Assembly Required
Now that the box has been emptied out and your helpers (optional) are busy exploring it’s depths it is time to start constructing the chair. Vertagear seem to have taken a page from Ikea, as the instructions let the pictures do most of the work. The manual does offer a wide variety of languages, but as you can see the actual text is quite short. The first step, which they do mention, is to make sure to remove the orange cap from the gas piston as not doing so will ensure a vertically challenged chair.
Installing the under the seat hardware is somewhat reminiscent of installing a Threadripper, sans torque feature. The screws you need are already on the bottom, just unscrew them, pop the hardware on and bolt them tightly back in. Once that is securely bolted on, pop in the castors to the 5-star base, insert the gas piston and then slide the two pieces together. Remember, lift with your legs when you grab the seat and pull it to a vertical position. Very easy so far and certainly can be done by a single person as long as they are strong enough to pull up the assembled parts.
One Simple Trick To Finish It Off
Now that you have a beast of a chair without a back, it is time for the final step. Now is the time for the one tool not included with the Vertagear PL6800, a flashlight. Lifting the back up, with your legs, and maneuvering it onto the two metal uprights is a bit tricky as only the one on the right side is fixed in position; it is the one that controls reclining of the seat back. That is why it is recommended to stand to the left of the seat when fixing the back in place, you know where the right one will be so being able to see the position of the bar on the left helps out a lot.
Once connected, there are two holes on each side of the seat you are going to need to insert the four bolts included in the tool kit. The holes are not aligned perfectly by the weight of the seat back and it is very dark in there. As much fun as it is to blindly shove it in, I’d strongly suggest heaving down on the top of the seat, while shining the flashlight into the bottom hole. Once you have a good idea how much effort it takes to line everything up, insert the bolt into the bottom hole and swap the flashlight for the hex key. Repeat the whole process for the bolt on the other side and then the top two, which are already aligned thanks to your foresight!
Now Witness The Flair-power Of This Fully Armed And Operational Battle Chair
Now that the Vertagear PL6800 is assembled, it has the privilege of performing what might be one of the worst jobs on the planet. Thanks to my new Terra Invictus addiction, it has had quite the workout. After a couple of hours to get to know each other, the cushions only made some minor adjustments and since then have proved quite robust. Unlike the aforementioned HON task chair, the cushion on the PL6800 compresses just enough for comfort and no more. The design of the foam pillars inside the seat offer decent airflow as well, very important if you sit for several hours at a time. It seems like this chair should have quite a bit of life in it; definitely living up to the specifications Vertagear is advertising.
The sheer size of the chair offers another benefit, it only rolls when you want it to. The chair weighs just under 60lbs so it doesn’t wander like lesser gaming chairs do when I stand up. The castors roll just fine on the plastic matt on top of the carpet in the room when you want them to. It does take a bit of effort to start them moving, but that is not a bad thing at all. It stops when you want it to as well, so you aren’t going to impact your desk when scooting up a bit closer to the desk.
The lumbar support is every bit as impressive as the seat, the stiff but form fitting foam inserts covered in memory foam work with my back very well, and my back doesn’t get along with much. With the assistance of the pillow, which stays put fairly well thanks to the material Vertagear used on the back of it, the chair is very comfortable. The ability to adjust the angle of the back separately from the angle of the entire chair lets you chose from a variety of positions. Sitting up straight is comfortable and good for you, but some times you just want to lean back and relax.
When you do recline the locking mechanism feels very sturdy, you even need to lean back slightly after using the paddle to unlock it in order to readjust position. If you need to take a nap, you can indeed recline the chair almost completely horizontally. The overall construction suggests that the locking mechanisms will last as long as the cushions will. As for the height adjustment, that piston does not seem to care how much weight is on it … at least until you hit around 400lbs.
In the end, for that is what this is all about, the Vertagear PL6800 is impressively comfortable for the full sized gamer. For some the shiny PL4500 Swarovski or colourful SL4000, with optional RGB kit, might be a better choice but for me this is a far better choice. If you too are large enough to get on this ride, it is worth the price of admission.
Review Disclosures
This is what we consider the responsible disclosure of our review policies and procedures.
How Product Was Obtained
The product is on loan from Vertagear for the purpose of this review.
What Happens To Product After Review
The product remains the property of Vertagear but is on extended loan for future testing and product comparisons.
Company Involvement
Vertagear had no control over the content of the review and was not consulted prior to publication.
PC Perspective Compensation
Neither PC Perspective nor any of its staff were paid or compensated in any way by Vertagear for this review.
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Vertagear has not purchased advertising at PC Perspective during the past twelve months.
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Gaming chairs….. what an odd phenomenon.
I’ve owned a PL6800 for several months. I cannot recommend. For a chair designed for heavy people the seat cushion is sorely lacking. Worse, For some reason Vertagear decided to make the entire chair recline, not just the seat back. Though you can adjust the seat back angle it locks at that angle. If you use the reclining function the entire seat reclines, including arm rests. Meaning your mouse wrist is subject to even more stress since the angle of your forearm follows the seat as you recline.
I’ve been liking the cushion myself, but they are definitely a personal preference. It would be nice if there was a way to unlock the seat back recline but I can generally fiddle with it and recline to get a comfortable angle for my back and arms.