Herman Miller x Logitech Vantum review: An ergonomic chair with the flair of a sports car
Two-minute review
Clear as day, the Herman Miller x Logitech Vantum is all about ergonomics. As soon as you pull it out of the box you can feel your spine straightening out. And while it has heaps of features backing it up (pun intended), I can’t help but feel like there’s something off for the $895 / £895 price tag.
The Vantum is more akin to an office chair than a racer-style gaming chair, many of which have passed beneath my buttocks. Instead of rolling with the trend, Logitech and Herman Miller have geared the Vantum toward the grown-up, corporate gamer with its rounded corners and sleek exoskeleton that comes in a variety of hilariously named colors, such as ‘Abyss Aqua’ and plain old ‘Obsidian Black.’ Just as the Embody before it – the pair’s previous brainchild – it’s made for gamers who want to taste superior comfort, while rocking a suave design that won’t have people making jokes about your K:D ratio in the office. But just like the Embody, it’s gonna cost ya.
It’ll set you back $895 / £895. That’s still $1,000 less than the Embody in the US, but nearly double the price of our favorite gaming chair, the Secretlab Titan EVO 2022. You expect to pay a premium for a quality-built gaming chair with little setup, though, and the Vantum is certainly that.
It took five minutes to put together, against the usual 20-50 minutes, thanks to the no-screw parts slotting together like humongous legos. There’s zero rattle on the 3D armrests, easy and wide adjustability on the lumbar support and backrest, a mesh back for breathability, and a headrest that moves along with you. The Vantum screams quality and is damn comfortable. And while the seat is wide enough to sit cross-legged and ignore ergonomic advice like a gremlin, I’ve come to hate the armrests thanks to my tendency to do so.
The armrests forward/back, and in/out adjustability has no lock. While that means no messing with mechanisms to set them in place, leaning on them to stand up when they’re pulled back can be dangerous. A couple of times I’ve forgotten as they whip forward suddenly, smashing my fingers into the desk. Omitting the armrest locks has to be an attempt to keep the price down, but at what cost?
Against its main mesh-back competitor, the $1,049 Razer Fujin Pro, they’re on-par in terms of comfort and ease of assembly. While the Vantum is around $150/£100 cheaper and comes with a 12-year warranty against the Fujin’s five years, you’re also missing out on the all-important lockable armrests. That said, the Fujin doesn’t have all those fancy color options.
In a straight toss-up between spending a little more on safety, airflow and a little more adjustability, or going brightly coloured with a better warranty, I’d rather put my fingers first and hope the Fujin Pro doesn’t break after five years. That said, the Vantum is a bloody gorgeous design for less, and just as comfortable.
Price and availability
- List price: $895 / £895
- Available at the Herman Miller online store
- Available in the US and UK
Available in the US and the UK from the Herman Miller online store, the Vantum is a little more difficult to get hold of in, say, Australia. Meaning those living down under will likely pay a premium for it. It makes it harder to recommend for Aussies, since it’s already a pricey bit of kit.
The thing to note is that you can get most of the chairs on our best gaming chairs roundup for less, which makes it hard to recommend if you’re on a budget. The Vantum is a sure contender for best premium chair against its sister, the Herman Miller x Logitech Embody, especially at $1,000 cheaper, but it still feels like it’s missing something for the price.
Specs
| Price | $895 / £895 |
| Dimensions | 1,124mm x 775mm x 737mm (44.25in x 30.5in x 29in) |
| Max user weight | 159kg (350lbs) |
| Min seat height | 18 inches |
| Seat width | 20 inches |
| Warranty | 12 years |
Design and aesthetics
- Gorgeous exoskeleton
- Great color options
- Recycled fabric
The Vantum sports lovely flowing lines and curvature on the exoskeleton, that’s more akin to the shell of a modern sports car than the kind of racer bucket seat you expect to see from gaming chairs today. It’s giving real Lotus Elise vibes, and the mesh back and textured seat mean that, while it does look like an office chair, it all adds to that almost carbon-fiber bonnet race car look.
I love that the materials are made from 100% post-consumer recycled fabric, but as someone who sits with their legs tucked under them, I must say the choice of texture is a little rough. It means I don’t ever feel like I’m sliding forward off the chair, though. So there’s that.
I appreciate that there are both subtle pastel and gorgeous color-pop options depending on your preference for standing out. And the fact that the mechanisms are marked with color accents for easy recognition is also great.
Comfort and adjustability
- Fantastic adjustability
- Incredible comfort
- Armrests lack lock and rotation
From a sliding seat depth, to lumbar support, and even adjustable height and rotation on the headrest, the Vantum comes with some fantastic ergonomic mechanisms. Most are easy to use, though there’s something to be desired when it comes to the armrests.
While they don’t rattle, and are chamfered to give you a better angle when playing with a controller, there are cheaper chairs out there with 4D armrests that actually lock. For a premium chair, I would expect Herman Miller and Logitech to have added rotation and simple safety elements to the armrest. That doesn’t necessarily overshadow the sheer comfort the rest of the chair brings, especially if you’re broad enough already that you leave the arms at their widest position, but smaller people and those who move around a lot leaning on the arms will have a problem.
It’s a little sad that the seat doesn’t quite go down as low as I would like with a minimum height of 18 inches. Using it with the short office desks, it almost voids the great spinal ergonomics altogether as I’m constantly leaning forward to type.
That said, the addition of numeric tilt and tension limiters is fantastic. It means I can set it to my preferred tension and tilt angle without the usual trial and error. You do have to lean quite far forward to see the numbers and use the mechanisms, but they’re otherwise a joy to use.
Assembly
- Very minimal assembly
- Easy instructions
Quite possibly one of the easiest to assemble chairs aside from the Embody’s zero setup, there are only three images illustrating the process and they fit on a single box flap. I spent all of five minutes putting the Vantum together, which against the usual 30-45 minutes of reading instructions and screwing bits together, is an absolute breath of fresh air.
It’s pretty intuitive too, but if you’re not someone who puts gaming chairs together on a daily basis, there’s a handy QR code that lets you download an instruction PDF that is 90% images. It’s coherent and there’s very little reading involved.
Should I buy the Herman Miller x Logitech Vantum?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Also consider…
There are a couple of chairs to consider in the same class as the Herman Miller x Logitech Vantum. Refer to the quick specs sheet below for more details on our top recommendations.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 | Herman Miller x Logitech Vantum | Razer Fujin Pro | X-Chair X2 K-Sport Management |
| Price | $895 / £895 | $1,049 / £1,315 | $850 / $1,392 |
| Armrests | 3D | 4D | 4D |
| Lumbar support | 1D | 2D | 2D |
| Maximum weight | 350lbs | 300lbs | 275lbs |
| Warranty | 12 years | 5 years | 15 years |
How I tested the Herman Miller x Logitech Vantum
- Spent a week sitting in the chair on a daily basis
- Yanking the mechanisms back and forth
It takes a little while to get a feel for a gaming chair, so I made sure to give the Vantum a good run, sitting in it for the best part of a full work week. I made sure to switch around between standard, cheap office chairs and the other premium chairs I’ve referenced that are sitting around the office, to get a good feel for how it measures up against the competition.
To the annoyance of other office-goers also I made sure to rigorously test the mechanisms, pushing them back and forth and up and down to check their ease of access, use and noisiness.
First reviewed July 2024.
Source: www.techradar.com
