Initial Impressions

This review is of a Vernazza Gaming Chair provided by Arozzi for review purposes.

Test rig for this chair: One human adult male. 6’3 (190cm), 16 Stone 5 (229 pounds, 103.8kg).

http://www.arozzi.se/product/vernazza-red/

Ahhh double z’s. I love them. They put me in mind of Italy. Whether being punted along the canals of Venice, enjoying Gelato on a hot summer’s day in Florence or relaxing on the gently lapping shores of Lake Como, it’s fair to say I like Italy. Not that I’d let something like this prejudice my opinion of the latest (and most expensive) chair to be put together by the good folks over at Arozzi, but they’re off to a good start. A good name is crucial, double z’s and in this case DOUBLE! Double z’s make things even better for me.

More important than a name though, is how it feels. I’ve had some joking comments since the last chair I reviewed (the excellent AKRacing Premium V2, reviewed here) after putting a picture of a Maldives water bungalow in the review with people asking me on subsequent reviews why I don’t rate things Maldives out of 10! So to keep those people happy and to keep things fresh, we’ll put a nice picture at this point for how I feel upon initial sitting in the Vernazza.

Yes! Comfort is important. Like your favourite pair of walking boots, getting home to your super-kingsize pocket sprung with memory foam top bed after a weekend camping or taking off a pair of VR goggles after being in them for too long, the audible gasp after an extended period of discomfort when slipping into the familiar and the comfortable has probably grabbed most of us at one point in time or another. The best new products are ones which I find can make you feel at home as quickly as possible. I’ve been known to go out specifically looking for the identical model of shoes that I had before simply because trying on lots of other new pairs, they didn’t feel right. Overall then, I rate my comfort fairly highly and when it comes to spending time at your desk (which I do a lot of!) the choice of throne is an important one.

In the Box

Arozzi have sent me the red and black version of the Vernazza, it’s a handsome looking beast and doesn’t take long to put together, I’m getting to be a pro at these. After 20 minutes or so, my new chair is ready. The parts feel like they’re very well made and solidly put together, bolts are easy to find the threaded grooves and it all attaches in a very nice way.

Additional to the base, wheels, gaslifts, seat and armrests and the main seat back there is also the lumbar cushion as well as a rather oddly shaped cushion for the head/neck area.

First point of note. The Vernazza, being the flagship chair in the range comes with something important which I think all chairs should come with: Multiple gaslift mechanisms in different sizes. One size fits all works for a lot of things, but it also doesn’t work for a lot of things and this is one of the key areas. I’m tall, my wife is short. If a chair is good, it should be good regardless and I’d like the option to get it without worrying if I’m too tall or short for it. Thankfully that situation is dealt with here.

Another point, on my AK Racing chair I reviewed previously, the plastic side covers get screwed into place. That doesn’t happen here, the side covers have some plastic sections jutting out which click into place when you push them in. Also another positive for me as on my old AK chair, after going on holiday over the winter and the heating in the house being low while away, the plastic cracked since the screw was holding the cover in tightly but the plastic no doubt contracted in the cold. Not the end of the world, but now I have a missing cover on the left side of the chair. These covers shouldn’t present that issue as you can’t screw them in too tightly which I guess I did on the AK.

The measurements from the Arozzi website (below) are reasonable accurate, however I found they were missing a few things I’d want to know if I was buying a chair without having tried it out in person.

The first measurement is the floor to seat height. The measurement on the website is for the taller gaslift mechanism and as mentioned previously, there is a second one for shorter people. With this in place, the height range from the floor to the base of the seat is between 31 cm and 41 cm.

I still don’t know why chair companies insist on putting measurements for the sections of the outside part which your body doesn’t touch on their sites. The next one is the top section of the seat which is how much actual space there is to sit on (front to back) so instead of the 58 cm in the picture, the top side of that comes in at 53 cm.

The final missing measurement I could think of is the inside of the seat measurement for the back height. Again, in the diagram, this is specified as 93 cm which is accurate, but of course it goes to the base of the seat so not all of that height is usable. The inside seat back height measurement comes out at 87 cm.

Other than this, the contents are well packed as you’d expect, screws are pre-installed so no worrying that you’ve lost a bag of screws and the chair comes with castor wheels. It would have been nice to see Arozzi give both castors or footpads for those on hard flooring but the wheels seem reasonably easy to settle into place without flying around my hardwood floor too much. Lockable wheels would have been better but there we go.

Ok, let’s get this out of the way early. This chair is comfortable and I like it a lot. Sitting in it feels like coming across an old friend you’ve not seen in ages and picking right up where you left off all that time ago. It’s different, but still feels familiar and good.

That much said, I’ve been using the AK daily for quite a few months now and there are some definite differences in feel. Not that the Arozzi feels wrong, just takes some getting used to in a couple of places. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m a pretty big guy, the Vernazza is a good sized chair for me, but probably built with the majority of the normal distribution in mind. It’s not too small, but definitely doesn’t feel as “big” as the AK.

The materials feel top quality and the oddly shaped neck cushion actually turns out to be very comfortable. Levers under the seat are for both height adjustment as well as another one which the AK lacks for locking the chair and stopping tilt functionality whereas on the AK you just have to hand tighten the resistance a lot to stop it leaning. It’s easy to find a good position and several friends and family of various shapes and sizes who have tried the chair all manage to find a comfortable setup very easily.

The Good

Ok, so let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. The build quality is superb and the chair feels like one which would cost more to me.

The lumbar support is very comfortable and feels less of an afterthought, more a part of the design than it does on the AK. Primarily because the main back panel actually separates slightly from the body of the chair. What this does is allow for the horizontal elasticated strap to clip around this back panel without having lots of elastic straps visibly running the vertical length of the back section like on the AK chair. So this elastic is invisible and holds the lumbar at the position you set it at nicely. At some point you’d guess that fabric elasticated strap will loosen of course but that’s true of any elastic and it feels solid.

Other callout positives are the armrests. Arozzi have done what was probably the one feature I genuinely felt was missing on the AK which was armrest functionality. The AK’s had a simple height adjustment. The Vernazza of course has height, but additional to that the section where you rest your arms on can slide forward and back as well as twist in and out. The tops are nicely padded and support your arms well.

The head/neck cushion is very nicely padded. Additionally it has a zip on the back so that you can open it and add more padding in or take some out depending on your preference.

There’s also an additional adjustment for the recline function which goes back to about 160 degrees (almost flat) and comes forward until the back and seat padding stops it from moving any further.

The Bad

There aren’t a huge amount of bad things about the Vernazza. I went back and read over the bad from the AK review and several of them are taken care of here, although not all of them, so here’s the things to be aware of. Some would be relatively easy to fix/improve.

1. As with the AK, it’s not a mesh based chair so (particularly in our sunny English summer months like now!) there is a slight tendency to warm up. It’s not too bad and the material does a good job of dissipating the heat, but even so. If you want a chair which keeps you as cool as possible, you should always be looking at a mesh material chair.
2. Although the armrests are a marked improvement on the AK, there is one thing from the AK I’d like to see here and that is curved tops on the armrests to cradle the arm slightly. These are definitely comfortable, but I like the feeling of my arms being cradled when in a rest, particularly as you can adjust the position and angle of the armrests to twist them inwards so they wouldn’t be on the bump of the curve.
3. Again, my personal pet peeve, lockable wheels would be great here. I don’t see them as an optional extra on the Arozzi site but considering they’re giving you 2 gas lifts with the chair and it’s their most expensive one (€349), it seems like a small thing to ask for.

I had my wife use it for a few days and she likes it a lot, with the exception of the head/neck cushion which she just doesn’t find comfortable, possibly because she’s shorter than most and you can’t move the cushion down too much (it attaches with an elasticated strap over the top of the chair) so as the back section widens, it can’t be lowered further.

 

Ultimately though, these are small things and overall it’s a great chair.

Wrapping Up

This is a great chair.

Arozzi have made a good effort and come up with a winner in my book. The armrests are also attached using solid bolts to the underneath of the seat base so if modding is your thing, these are likely good mounting points (I’m considering trying to attach my HOTAS to it somehow).

Padding gives the right amount of support and is comfortable for extended sessions. If you’ve read some of my articles in the past, you’ll know that I often bemoan small things, well thankfully that’s not the case here. The Vernazza is a great chair regardless of size, it’s the preferred chair in the house by everyone from my 6 year old kid to my wife as the AK is just a bit too big for them and doesn’t feel right. Personally, I’m happy in either chair. My dream chair would probably take a few bits from both, the curved armrests and size of the AK combined with the locking tilt, adjustable arms, lumbar and head cushion from the Vernazza, maybe with built in air conditioning but now I’m just getting silly!

The Vernazza is definitely a very striking chair, particularly in its black and red colour scheme and if comparing the two it’s probably a case of which you prefer larger but not as adjustable or a bit more adjustable and a touch smaller.

All in all, a very good chair indeed.

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