Secretlab Titan Evo NanoGen Edition review

I’ll be truthful, when Secretlab contacted us and said they were sending me a brand modern gaming chair with the title “the new Secretlab chair you’ve been waiting for…” I was expecting more than just another Tytan Evo. This isn’t to denigrate the classic Secretlab chair – there’s a reason it still tops our list of the best gaming chairs – but it was itself a reworked version, a combination of two of its predecessors.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This is a maxim that more PC gaming brands could achieve by having a tattoo on the inside of their eyelids when so many people will change for the sake of change to achieve an artificial, iterative frequency of game releases. Yet, yet, change is vital to avoid stagnation, especially if you have established yourself at the top of your industry.

I can quickly point to Intel with processors and Corsair with mechanical gaming keyboards, and if Secretlab wants to avoid falling behind the competition, it needs to keep innovating.

And for me, I thought that meant producing something that might not look exactly the same as every Secretlab chair produced in the last five years. Maybe something so ergonomically ahead of the curve that all those copycat chairs hoping to attract people on Amazon by looking almost identical to the Titan Evo would have to go back to the copier and introduce modern designs to their mass production facilities.

I didn’t experience a “paradoxical breakthrough” with “next-generation materials” combining “benefits previously thought impossible in the same material” on my Secretlab 2024 bingo card. Let me tell you, it sounds like peak marketing hyperbole, but if you’re going to improve upon a classic chair design for gaming, you could do a lot worse than making sure it’s more comfortable and tough than the previous edition. Even if it looks like Secretlab found some vibranium/unobtanium weave, he can lie down in a modern chair.

But damn it, I would ask you not to raise the price by like $200 while you’re at it.

Before I get to that specific pain point, let me talk about the positives. Titan Evo is a newfangled classic, a great gaming chair that is both reliably comfortable and extremely resistant to the rigors of life as a piece of newfangled gaming furniture. But while our office unit looks as good today as it did when Jacob pulled it out of the box, I must admit I’m not thrilled with the ride of this chair.

I admit I have a lot of padding myself, but I always found the Titan Evo to be a little too firm. This Is they provide more support than most softer chairs and are probably better for you in the long run, but I found that I moved much more in the older chair than in the modern NanoGen edition.

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Why is this so?

The twin support pillars on which Secretlab builds its modern chair are two modern material solutions, namely the modern NanoGen hybrid eco-leather and the NanoFoam composite it uses for butt cushioning.

The first is a modern coating on the entire upholstered part of the chair and it is really handsome. Even as the days get colder, the finely woven eco-leather created by Secretlab is supple and gentle, and much nicer to the touch than the still quite nice finish that the Titan Evo enjoys.

Of course, we have come to expect the finish to be flawless, and it is here too. The stitching is good and consistent, and while I’m almost taking it as read for the Secretlab chair, it’s always worth noting the level of quality you can get with this brand.

Secretlab calls this modern faux leather the most resistant yet, which I find tough to confirm after just a few weeks of parking my butt on the NanoGen edition. But, as I said earlier, the Titan Evo – which became an office bike – still looks like modern today, and if the modern material was just as good as it, I’d still be sold. And I am an ergonomist’s nightmare; I can’t lend a hand but sit with one leg tucked under the other, which is my safe and sound sitting space, which means the shoes regularly rub against the faux leather. I killed the Noblechairs in a relatively tiny time, exposing the bare metal frame after repeated abrasions.

However, more crucial – especially for those who, like me, thought that the previous Secretlab chairs were too tough – is the NanoFoam Composite. I’m not going to go full Aniston, but the science is in combining the company’s cold-cure foam (a tough substance) with a softer, lightweight topper that provides a softer cushion. There’s also something to do with the material connecting these layers, but suffice it to say that the end result is a really comfortable seat that’s both gentle and supportive as you move, all at the same time.

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This is the paradox that Secretlab’s marketing department thinks about. Soft and supple with eco-leather, and gentle and supportive with cushioning. And it works. It’s the most comfortable gaming chair I’ve ever sat in, and definitely the most comfortable Secretlab has ever felt.

With these two modern features, you also get the rest of the Titan Evo experience, including a lovely magnetic memory foam neck pillow, but now with PlushCell memory foam armrests (mmm, gentle) as standard. This means 4D armrests, although with a 50% greater adjustment range. Honestly, it wasn’t a huge deal for me, I’m a set-it-and-forget kind of guy, so the scope isn’t too huge as long as I manage to prepare well first.

And yes, this setup is simple. I’ve seen people almost break bones setting up their gaming chairs (you know who you are), but the Secretlab Titan Evo may not be as simple as getting it out of the box in one piece, but it takes less than 30 minutes to put it all together.

But I still have problems. My first one is back to my departing chair. Honestly, I won’t miss the Mavix M9 that’s been on my desk for the past few years. It was a good chair, but I like the thinner frame and mesh, but it was arduous to set up (I ended up having to create one working chair from three separate pieces that arrived with me in various states of disrepair). But that tense tilt was something I didn’t know I would miss until it was gone.

Secretlab talks about adjustable tilt tension, but honestly, from one end of the tension knob to the other can be the difference between the chair leaning back when you look at it and when you breathe on it. So it’s a locking thing, not a pitch rocking thing.

However, my biggest problem with the Titan Evo NanoGen Edition is the price. At $549 for the regular-sized Titan Evo ($100 more than at launch) or $628 with plush armrests, that’s a lot of money, but actually not a bad price for a really well-made piece of furniture. On the other hand, the Mavix M9 mentioned above is a $999 chair and is not as comfortable or supportive a seat for the money. It also hasn’t maintained its appearance or comfort over time.

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But this NanoGen Edition adds almost $200 ($250 if we ignore the standard armrests) to the original sticker price. This is a huge bonus for the extra layer of comfort that “next generation” materials provide. If you want the absolute best Secretlab chair experience, then yes, this is it. But I don’t know if this extra cost is justified by the overall comparable experience.

Perhaps it’s justified by the cost of materials research and development, but when you put a price on $200 worth of added comfort, it’s going to be a tough sell.

It’s simple to kiss the “best just got better” part of a review, but I feel it’s a little more tainted than I’d like because of the extra cost Secretlab charges for the NanoGen version. If it were a completely different chair than the Titan Evo, maybe it would be easier to swallow, but the knowledge that there is a much cheaper – and still excellent – alternative, readily available, well, it just continues to live in my head rent-free because I’ll finish it .